Perfectionism and correcting others - OCD, OCPD, or just AS?
I started thinking about this one behavior I have and it led to thinking about other traits I'm wondering others would consider to be part of AS, or possibly something like OCPD.
When I hear someone speak a fact that I know is incorrect, I need to correct them. Out loud. It could be in casual one on one conversation, small group work in a classroom setting (even the teacher), or even on the radio - but if someone is wrong, I have to correct them out loud. I can't stand the feeling that the wrong information is just out there and not correct. It definitely does feel like an OCD compulsion to me (I've had what my pdoc described as "waxing OCD" for years), where I get anxiety if I try to withhold the compulsion to correct them, but recently I've been wondering more about possible OCPD traits too, as it seems to fit into my general distrust in everyone to do things "the right way".
Aka my way, obviously.
I'm fairly obsessed with doing things the right way - and I do hold myself to the same stupidly perfectionistic standards that I hold everyone else to. If I unknowingingly say something incorrect and someone corrects me, and I doublecheck and if they were in fact right to correct me, I'm glad they did and I cement it in my head because I will absolutely not ever get that wrong again. If I do it's a failure. Failure is not acceptable to to me.
However, other people don't seem to take it as seriously, and if they don't have a 100% commitment to being ~right~ at all times, I heavily judge them for that. I put a huge moral value on a person's commitment to perfection/excellence and really look down on anyone who I perceive as not caring enough about pushing themselves to excellence in all areas of their life.
...now that I've written it all out, yikes. I sound terrible.
(I still know I'm right though.)
Anyway, my question is this: do others with AS experience anything like any of this too, would it still fall under that label umbrella? The rigidity and black and white thinking seems like it might. However, the constant obsessive pursuit of perfection and constant discomfort and anxiety and frustration when I don't reach my own standards (yet I'm still not going to change them because it's still the only right approach and anything else would be inferior and I'm terrified of that) seems like it may not necessarily be considered a common AS thing. It's not the label so much that matters to me as I'm just curious if others can relate to this.
(If you reply, please understand the difference between OCD and OCPD.)
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'No one designed us. We're just an accident, Harold. We're just bad code.'
i am similar to you. At work this pops up a lot. I'm in a bit of a different situation, however, as I was just finally diagnosed this week with AS, but I have a long history of anxiety and depression. Since my work is very specialized, and I've been working in the same area for 10 years, I run into this situation often. And I am pretty darn sure I become an obstinate person who insists that the data are x or y, and not z. I generally will only let go of this if in a meeting I've made the point multiple times and the other person (most often a superior) will also not let it go. Then I've got to yield.
My ASD assessor said she thinks this may be related primarily to AS but also to anxiety. My anxiety is so generalized and pervasive, and my uncertainty around social situations, etc., so profound that when I find something that I know about, and that I'm certain of, I start to sort of overcompensate and become insistent. I'm not sure if it's an obsession and/or compulsion, but I think I feel the same way. We do tend to see things as either black/white. And there is most often a right answer.
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Nothing witty here...