OCD

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I have something called obsessive compulsive disorder and I believe I have some autistic traits, does anyone else around here have ocd?

If your 'C' is eating Big Macs - your OK


but to the piont... I think it develops out other underlying symptoms/disorders/syndromes ... so yeah you could be on the right track.

Me - um sort of , but it's more an Autistic trait then fully blown OCD

Counting - I never thought of it as OCD, but yeah alright I over do it.... I will just count, anything and everthing I see or touch or organise... sometimes I don't count as incremental integers. I have my own system....

I see three flowers , numbers .. 3, 66 2 - notice 1 flower is smaller , 13 4 <66 6-4 2 54 9 -3 yeah I found it its 54/66/13 for 3 1. is this OCD? - you should read my mind at the roulet table! -sometimes I'll do it twice and three times and over and over, forgetting all of my solutions - I sometimes get carried away and stress my head out. -PS did you know Chines pertain to this system of coutning for gambling.

and my Physical Compulsion.... organising .. though it's not clasic obsseive ie, I don't normally do it twice... alright I may re-arange to get the right final layout,, but I don't do it over and over usually putting into the same order over and over again - which is probably what would deem it to be somethiing that needs treating.

-I used to do light switching as a kid, but I think wet hands and an electrocution cured me. - occasionally I will still try to 'place' the switch in the neither off or nethier on position - the middle, making me look stupid or decrepit whil I am working a light switch.

Yes, I've been diagnosed with OCD. My problem is a dirt/germs thing. Having to constantly wash my hands after touching things that feel dirty to me; coats, shoes (basically anything that's been outside), door handles, etc. Making sure 'dirty' things don't touch 'clean' things in the house, or I'd have to wash the clean thing.

I haven't been diagnosed, but I have the SAME thing. And I used to be almost like felix in the odd couple. When I got my first books, I organized them by height and subject, etc...

Steve

Yes, I have quite bad OCD, to a degree it interferes with my quality of life quite badly. Right now, the focus seems to be on my bedsheets. They have to be totally flat and uncreased, so I spend ages pulling at them and trying to get them right.

I do that too - but is it OBSESIVE? - i want to wash my hands, but if there isn't a tap close by I will soon forget. I'll admit I'll probably spend more time than average joe organising my cleaned things according to germ content and cleaning regime - but NT's mums do that instincivly, eg. Cat's bowl don't go in the dishwasher and only get's washed with hose outside.

I know a guy which is like you (I don't know to what extreme), I keep telling him , that the path you took from the tap to here has already collected more germs than what you just washed off..

Logic can help: -germs are actually needed in order to be healthy - ie there is some consensus now that asthma, exthma and other prevalent diseases that are not only occuring at childhood but adulthood are a cuased by being too clean.

(Yeah I'm sure it's like talking to brick trying to tell it its a rock,,, but ya never know, could help)

my bubbles!

I wouldn't be able to forget, you see. I wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything else until I'd washed my hands. I'd be hyper-conscious of what else I was touching before I washed; wouldn't be able to touch anything else 'clean' or I'd feel sick/upset and have to wash that as well.

What seems slightly different about my washing OCD than other cases of it I've read about is the thought patterns behind it. I've reached the conclusion that it's definitely people-related; that my dislike/distrust of other people is somehow rendering them 'dirty' in my mind.

For example, most OCD sufferers with a fear of dirt and germs from other people have even more of a problem around animals, because the usual 'logic' is that animals have more germs than people. I have a cat, and I have no problem touching her, or with her touching clean things. Even though she goes outside and my logical brain knows she could be carrying any kind of dirt in theory, she is still clean to me - to the extent I'll wash my hands if necessary before touching her, not after. If she went and sat on a pile of clean laundry, or on the bed (the ultimate clean place) I wouldn't even flinch. If another person so much as touched that laundry, I'd have to wash it again. Even when animals are visibly dirty, it still seems a different kind of dirt, a 'clean dirt' that I find less distressing than the awful 'contaminating dirt' of people.

I've had a series of therapy and counselling sessions, and I thought I was improving a little for a while, but I seem to be slipping backwards again. What makes it so difficult, I think, is the fact that the issues behind it seem to be more complex than a 'logical' fear of germs. I can see it clearly; I just can't seem to do anything about it. I can even see that the more I distrust someone, the greater the germ phobia around them becomes.

Yeah the counselling - it's funny how sometimes a talk with a stranger on the street can change the course of your life yet some-one you pay to help you change your path couldn't put more a dent in your life then a bird poop on your bonnet.

yeah I have no advice - other than remmeber that it's an addiction - it's just like alcohol, you can't stop no matter what. - and you sometimes are stroong and can stop, but get back on it for reasons alot of the time unknown.

-pretending to be an alcholoic and getting free advice on addiction may help.

somebody told me ocd, and adhd is really just brain damage, is this true?

I have OCD, and it's pretty bad, but I'm now taking new meds so I hope it gets better.

I had it when I was a young teenager.

It changes form. I've kicked a lot of it out of mere frustration, though.

i was diagnosed with OCD in high school. Then some idiot OCD specialist said I just had "habits" and there was nothing wrong with me. That pissed me off. My only symptom now is counting. I used to do light switches, door locks, unwrinkle rugs, etc. Even at its worse it wasn't terrible, but it was kind of bad for awhile.

The odd thing about all my 'ocd' compulsions is that there is no obsession driving them. They're compulsive; I can't help them, but I don't have a fear that something bad will happen if I don't. I read that autistics sometimes count and do all those other things too, so I don't know. Maybe the ocd doctor was right. Wish someone would have recognised my aspergers back then though.

They're NUTS! OCD in its purest form wold be a Obsession yo are compelled to do. A psychiatrist might look at my desire to have HOT showers, wash my hands like I will be operating on someone, etc... and call that OCD. I've been doing it for about as long as I can remember. What's wrong with that? SOME do really wierd things like cont and HAVE to toch stuff, etc... Do you REALLY think that is jst brain damage? Heck, I almost feel compelled to do some things SIMILAR to classic OCD bt I usually don't count and am not compelled to go back and hit a missed area.

As for ADHD? Maybe they should define that better first. They don't seem to know een the SYMPTOMS! But STILL, it is usually becase the kids interest is elsewhere. NOT brain damage.

Steve

no, a compulsion is what you are compelled to do; the action.
an obsession is what drives it; the worrysome thought or fear.

You're right..... It IS compulsive. As for the fear, who here has a fear that something will happen if they don't do this? Frankly, the CLOSEST thing I have to a fear is fear of getting sick, but the timing seems to dispute that as a cause for me.

BTW I really AM curious, everyone else here is also. We all have our quirks, and let out some of our failings, and most are pretty anonymous, so don't feel you have to hold back.

Steve