OCD

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I'm having a periodic worsening of my OCD, where it gets to the point that I dare not do anything.
I just sit in the living room (if I'm alone - which I completely dislike) or upstairs, and when I have to go eat or so I simply won't.
The same goes for anything that requires me to move out of my established 'little-more-comfortable zone'.

The reason being that whenever I have to do such things I know I will get 'stuck' on every little thing I touch. I will have to touch it again and again and count endlessly while doing so. And when, for example, I touch the door 7 times and count to 7 all 7 times, it may not be 'enough' to negate the anxiety. Which means that I have to do it over again. And since I count and touch 7 times and I'm doing that 'round' for the 2nd time, my mind will tell me I have to do 7 total rounds (so there will be another thing done 7 times). It can go on and on like this. And the hardest part is that not only I have certain rituals with specific actions/items with which I do this, it can occur with simply anything that I touch - or sometimes even see.

Anyway, I'd like to know how others with OCD (and preferably AS, but it's not a must) deal with such things.
Does anyone have similar OCD-symptoms and what do you do to reduce them?

Are you on any medication?

I have some OCD myself, with making sure the refrigerator door is shut by pressing down on the handles to make sure it's shut, and the same with closing my bedroom door to make sure it's shut by pressing the door down. I do that to make sure that I don't forget to close both the fridge and the door.

Yes I have read that medication helps when OCD becomes too much and interferes with daily functioning. I have OCD somewhat and it does not interfere enough with my life that I feel I need medication. I like even numbers and feel that if I do not set the volume to an even number then it is not safe (I realize at the time it is irrational, but this is what I feel or think). Or if certain numbers of things are not even then it bothers me. It is very strange and I used to think that I did not have OCD because I thought a person had to do something such as walk up and down the stairs so many times, etc.

Good luck and hope it gets better.

Okay, alright, I struggled with OCD beginning pretty bad age 16 and a half, and periodic worry outbreaks since, but I've figured out some tricks or really just methods for dealing with it. One helpful thing, if I can wind to a place where it's okay to do the extra precaution and also okay not to do it, that's a pretty good place to be. I mean, I'm not a bad person for doing the precaution.

And some medications such as Prozac can work for OCD, but it may not be the first medication, just that everyone's biochem is a little different. And also, it's often important to step down from a medication in phases even if it doesn't seem to be working.

One thing you probably should be aware of is PANDAS. This is where antibodies to strep attack the basal ganglia of the brain causing OCD symptoms. So far, they've only looked at children and adolescents, but I don't see any logical reason why this couldn't apply to adults, too. One study found that approximately 50% of kids with rapid-onset OCD probably had PANDAS. Plus, some doctors are skeptical about the whole thing, reasoning that children get strep all the time and OCD symptoms tend to come and go anyway, so of course there's going to be all kinds of apparent correlations. But, if you seem to have an increase in OCD following a sore throat (or perhaps other strep infection), might be worth looking into. Especially since given the seriousness of OCD, the cure of prophylactic antibiotics is relatively low-risk, longterm antibiotics like someone might take for acne or an ear infection.

And as far as what doctor, a person can go to a psychiatrist or to a 'regular' doctor such as an internist or family practitioner (who used to be called a general practitioner) who can prescribe prozac, other SSRIs, or antibiotics as needed just as well as any other doctor. Either choice of type of doctor can be a good choice. I myself have not had the best luck with so-called mental health professionals. Other people have.

And there's something called responsibility OCD where I'm 'responsible' for preventing bad things. I got a heavy dose of this from my parents to the effect that if something bad happens, I must have done something wrong. Not necessarily, there's a heck of a lot of luck involved in the natural flow of life, it's more like percentage baseball, and the really beneficial skill is building and flowing with positive things (of course easier said than done, and zen mistakes made here, too), and not just damage-controlling negative things.

And my mom did secret health precautions, and she described sensory issues pertaining to smell as 'allergies.' Well, this is to be expected in an age before it was known that autism is a spectrum. And when I was a teenager, it seemed like about the only thing they talked about in health class pertaining to germs and disease was sexually transmissible diseases, plus my fellow students seemed to find this embarrassing and at times giggly and didn't take it with the level of seriousness I thought they should. So, the whole situation was awkard, tension-filled, and the fact that I knew a lot seemed to work against me.

All this is so much better knowing about influenza. For example, if a child (or presumably an adult) seems to be getting better and then relapses with high fever, that's a red flag, for that relapse might be bacterial pneumonia and should be treated promptly with antibiotics. Well, believe it or not, a lot of people aren't interested in hearing about this, even when H1N1 swine flu was in the news. Well, that's their loss and that's how I look at it. This is usuable, practical, non-obvious information. I'm not really embarrassed about sharing it. It's more a problem on their side, and maybe I over-explain, but fine, they should still make more of an effort to reach me halfway.

So, one possible avenue is to be open to learning health or safety information which might be easier to share.

I made a post about PANDAS.
http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt232970.html

Again, it's controversial. And the one study found that approximately 50% of rapid-onset cases were, meaning 50% were not.

Very interesting, thank you.
I will read this

You're welcome.

Im almost certain its happened to me once, but I blamed it on the combined pill.

I remember always feeling exhausted and out of breath until one day I collapsed on the kitchen floor just as I was getting a glass of water, and shaking uncontrollably, after I felt scared and swore Id never try a pill again. In terms of the OCD as mentioned, It was because I was never really happy with my status in life and knowing I was different and not actually having a diagnosis at the time kind of got me anxious and depressed and I was soon checking stuff and over and over mainly the taps, and certain order issues I had then, its much better now and if I do get over-stressed with things or life in general i'll always find a way of balancing it with something else, or just blank it out and walk away to take a breather from it.
I currently don't take meds.

I have contamination OCD and fear of illness. I avoid ill people, wash my hands too much, and worry about food hygiene. I also check appliances to make sure they are off, and feel the urge to repeat the checking, which is most unpleasant. I also have a noise in the house phobia, am always on edge (particularly at night time), and have several extreme phobias: dogs (apart from golden retrievers and guide dogs), thunderstorms, travelling on the sea when it is choppy, fireworks etc.

I also have health anxiety - I fear dying from a heart attack or stroke, despite getting a clean bill of health from my doctor. I check my body for signs of illness repeatedly.

Well there is obsessed and then there is phobia based obsession which cannot be stopped or helped, mainly caused by environmental and inferior factors id prefer not to think about, but of course its always there and will never go away.
I think personally, if you do not worry about the 'normal' things in life, you will wake up feeling unholy and purity will drain you until you forget what life's meaning truly is.
with ocd, the main factors are what people have described, but there can be far more mental disturbances that whilst they relate to one individual, may not relate to another and its important to add that a person who believes that they have or may have had one aspect of the condition may soon come to see, that many people are not that unaware of it, but to be honest, it takes one to know one.
Usually, the more inclined you are to think about these things in detail and accept the change, the less they will come to creep up on you and take all the fiction out of mundane things.
With aspergers ive come to acknowledge that there will be differences though not all of them the same, depends on genetic interference I guess and managing to deal with it.
Depression may come for instance, but it never goes, fully.

OCD and sore throat you say... Thanks for bringing that up, I never saw any connection.