OCD and ASDs

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Unlike many other anxiety disorders, e.g. social phobia, or even ADHD, it is possible to be diagnosed with OSD and an ASD simultaneously, according to the DSM.

Does anyone know how many people with ASDs are also diagnosed with OCD, and vice versa? (I could probably look this up, but I'm too lazy at the moment.)

How many people here have been diagnosed with OCD? Was it before, or simultaneous with your ASD diagnosis? (My suspicion is mostly before or simultaneous, but....)

Has anyone been diagnosed with OCD and then had that diagnosis invalidated after receiving an ASD diagnosis?

OCD is my oldest diagnosis. I'm mystified as to why it was the only one I received at the time, since it could hardly come close to explaining all or even most of my difficulties, but there it is. Just curious about others' experiences.

I was diagnosed with OCD as an early teen (along with anxiety disorder and social phobia) but I think that my experience is better explained by autistic spectrum rituals and routine. When I was diagnosed with OCD in 1992, the asperger diagnostic criteria had only been in the dsm a year so they would have been unfamilier with it. So me lining things up and that sort of thing put them in mind of OCD. I think it is deeper imbedded into my character than OCD and with less likely hood of being able to change.

I have real problems with chemicals and contamination, I was so upset a couple of days ago when I stroked a dog and the owner told me he had just covered it in pesticides, argh I washed my hands for more than half an hour and had to go straight home and wash my clothes several times and wash and wash, dam it grr Im never stroking dogs again!

Interestingly when I got my asperger diagnosis a year ago I was suprized to read that the Dr maintained the social phobia diagnosis, saying the aspergers lead to social phobia.

I received an OCD diagnosis a few years ago, and then finally an AS diagnosis this year. But, in my case, I do feel that the OCD is a completely separate OCD, and not simply AS-related. Whereas my AS-related behaviors feel natural and like a part of me, the OCD-specific behavior certainly does not. The former have always been there, while the latter I clearly remember having no problem with at all.

I do think it's possible that AS has made me more prone to developing OCD, but I do still consider them two different issues. I would like the OCD to be cured.

Diagnosed with OCD before the ASD at the mental hostel, and it was right. I still have OCD, it's just not near the "malignant" level that it was before treatment. Diagnosed based on a written test and verbal questioning (the bleeding and cracked hands and ulcerated scalp really gave it away, though).

They chalked up all of my other weird rituals and routines from the ASD to the OCD at the time. Flapping and stuff was thought to be shaking from anxiety (which when you think about it, it is right, as I only flap when I'm overwhelmed/anxious, unlike the rocking/swaying which I just do for some unknown reason).

I don't know the statistics, but I can quote something from the DSM-IV-TR which shows how much they [don't] know:

I was diagnosed with OCD at age 17. (I knew I had it at age 16, though, from doing my own research.) I was diagnosed with AS at age 18 1/2 by my old CBT therapist. She realized that something else was going on besides OCD, because my anxiety was not following the typical straight-OCD pattern. (I've since been diagnosed with AS and OCD by several other professionals.) My OCD diagnosis has not been invalidated after the AS diagnosis. I have both. In fact, I had a pretty bad bout of OCD since my AS diagnosis (it happened last spring). I'm on Anafranil now (started taking it last July), and it has been a miracle. First time in my life that I can actually control my thoughts. As a sidenote, I've had OCD for almost as long as I've had AS. I was born with AS. I started demonstrating OCD fears and compulsions at age 3. The OCD became full-blown at age 11 1/2.
-OddDuckNash99-

i was schooled in special settings (adolescent psychiatric units) for much of my schooling.
there was much biased opinion from the student psychologists (that accompanied my main psychiatrist with me in our daily consultations) to diagnose me as OCD as well as my other diagnoses. my main (professional non student) psychiatrist did not think i was OCD. there were subtle differences in my obsessions to the obsessions of classic OCD sufferers.

there are 2 parts to OCD (my psychiatrist was writing papers on autism, but she was mainly a psychiatrist for troubled adolescents. and i was in the system for years, so i was always asking her things, so i learned from her a lot i believe).

there is "obsession", and there is also "compulsion".
an "obsession" is something that can not be ridded from the mind, and a "compulsion" is something that one can not refrain from doing.

i have both these characteristics, and the younger student psychs stamped me as OCD very rapidly.
but my main psych noted that my "obsessions" were of an internal nature, and not external.
she also noted that my "compulsions" were actualy a strenuous effort to adhere to routine, rather than to "set something right", as classic OCD people do.

the common idea of OCD people is that they obsess about things like cleanliness and order, but they also obsess about death and other anxieties they have that are unresolved.
they obsess about things that are not quite right in their environment.
the classic OCD "compulsion" is to perform a ritualistic act that has some magical influence upon the flow of events. like touching every 12th tile in a wall that they see as are walking by.
there is a superstitious element to the compulsivity of OCD.
it is like "the slightest disorder will invite uncontrollable chaos"

my "compulsion" is the refusal to act in any other way other than to return myself to my routine of existence.
it is not the same.

my obsessions are not borne from anxiety but from curiosity.
they are not the same.

so i may look and smell like an OCD but there the similarity ends

I found statistics saying the proportion of people with ASC who have OCD is about 7%. Certainly higher than the general population. Just as with Asperger's you have obsessions that are interesting and pleasurable for you, with OCD you have obsessions that are displeasurable so the two conditions can often go hand in hand.

I'm not diagnosed but I do think I have a few minor OCD traits.

I was diagnosed with AS at age 10, at age 11 I was diagnosed with OCD.

I was diagnosed with OCD in 2007 then diagnosed with AS 16 months later

Thanks for the responses, all very interesting.

I'm surprised to hear that some people were diagnosed with OCD after ASD. I'd think that OCD would be more easily picked up on than ASD, but maybe not. It just seems that ASD (on the high-functioning end of the spectrum) is so often overlooked, but for all I know, the same could be the case with OCD, not something I really know a lot about (at least compared to ASD). And OCD seems a lot less complicated than ASD. But I guess my perceptions of this are inevitably colored by my own experience, and even though I would think one would be most likely to be diagnosed with OCD first and then ASD, of course for at least some people it will inevitably be the other way around.

The 7% figure is also quite interesting - if anything I would have thought it would have been higher than that. I guess that is high compared to the general population but for people with ASDs it seems fairly low. Then again, I don't really know what comorbidity rates are for other disorders with ASDs. I should do some research on that.

As for me, ironically as it is my first diagnosis and apparently still considered my primary diagnosis by my psychiatrist (who has not diagnosed me with AS - others have), I have thought about it and am not really sure what I have, or have had, that qualifies me for the diagnosis. To be fair I was first diagnosed over eight years ago and since then I have been fairly heavily medicated, so it's possible I've just forgotten the symptoms I had in the past and they are under control now. Still, it's rather curious because my other diagnoses (like AS) make very obvious sense in my mind, whereas this one really doesn't. Out of curiosity I may ask my psychiatrist more about it next time I see him. I also ought to research it more as my research has pretty much been limited to ASDs so far - AS has become a huge part of the way I see myself since I found out that diagnosis (I guess you could say that it is certainly my "primarY" diagnosis in my mind).

I don't know to what extent my tinge of OCD (CDO is the letters in the proper ORDER!! !) is connected to Asperger's. From what I've read, I have mild Asperger's. It's there, but it's not as bad as it gets.

I've been describing myself as "Very bi-polar, mildly autistic, with a dash of OCD thrown in for good measure" for a while now. It works pretty well, since those terms are known to people, and they have a basic grasp of what they mean.

Two of my three roommates have some OCD tendencies, but none of us are severe.

My cousin went to four specialists and 3 out of the 4 diagnosed him with HFA or high functioning Autism and the forth diagnosed him with OCD. It is in my honest opinion that he has both. He didn't want the Autistic label because of the stigma, so he kept seeing specialists until one disagreed with the HFA diagnosis.

I have a few OCD "traits" as well but not enough for an official OCD diagnosis. Sometimes what appears to be OCD really isn't though. I wash my hands frequently but it isn't because of obsessive thoughts; I just hate the texture and feel of dirt on my hands, so there is a difference.