Anyone else OCD/AS?

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How many people here have characteristics of both OCD and AS? Anyone?

*raising hand*


Even worse: I am diagnosed with both OCD and AS. And anxiety disorders... I've had contamination OCD since I was 15

OCD. Mostly patterns/counting, although it manifests as a repetitive sequence of pushing doors closed, so it looks very like a checking form. There's a bit of crossover. That's diagnosed, and I'm doing cognitive behavioral therapy. The AS isn't formally diagnosed, but I started reading about it before I started treatment for the OCD because I know treatment can be different when you have both disorders, and it became (and continues to become more) clear that I have AS also, although a very mild expression of it. The autism resources in New Mexico are virtually non-existant (my wife just E-mailed me a story from the local paper on this today), they don't even track numbers of autistic kids although they're finally working on it, so until I move, I'm likely to remain undiagnosed of my AS.

Does it ever feel like your sense of self is too strong? As if you're so conscious of your own behavior and your own thoughts that you seldom immediately process the contents of your environment?

Do you have an overdeveloped "sense of justice" or some similar inclination, to the point of a perceived "wrong" throwing you into counter-productive fits of cursing and anger? Not meltdowns...not at all, really. Completely different. It's like you perceive something as being somehow incorrect about a situation, and it's like you know you won't be able to live with yourself, as a person, unless you've nearly gotten yourself arrested or killed trying to "put the universe back in balance." Does that ring a bell? Is it more OCD or AS?

Griff,

It depends whether you want said justice for you feel something bad will happen to you or someone you care for, if yes: OCD. If not, delusions of becoming a superhero.

I've got OCD and autism.

Yes.
Too occupied & interested in self to much notice people or things outside self. Takes much effort & attention just maintaining my equilibrium for me to feel I've much left over to devote to others. No, I don't think I'm so great-merely that there's a lot of me for me to handle, mentally. Have always been described by other folks as being intense (whether they liked me or not). Only immediately notice what's important to me (that which intrudes on my consciousness), such as very appealing or very bothersome stimuli.

Somewhat.
Am dx'd AS, but also have plenty of OCD-seeming traits. Obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD), not OCD, fits me better as description. Don't have rituals, repetitions, checking behaviors. I have need for balance, according to how I perceive that-but it's idiosyncratic (I know when things feel "okay" enough again), not measured with counting.

Easily upset by injustices & unfairness, which could be called garden-variety (normal) 'crestfallen idealism' or considered yet another characteristic of my 'pathology'-dunno'. Have issues with honesty & have hard time even discussing some things at all because I can't possibly be exact/accurate/comprehensive enough. Am always examining my mind for faults, second-guessing self, trying to meet my own high standards for being scrupulously & rigorously aware of my imperfections and admitting all these to people I trust. That grew out of having people attack me verbally throughout school years-later I developed defense of cutting myself down (baring scars/flaws/uncertainties/biases) before others have chance to do it to me (point out my bizarreness, inconsistencies, and counterproductive thoughts/feelings/actions).

Sensory overreactions to food used to be called OCD, because no one knew how else to explain it-though recent AS dx finally gives more proper reason for how I perceive things. Can't draw line between aspects of myself that would be subsumed under this or that dx, since I'm all just how I am-diagnoses pick me apart artificially, and that's not how I'm constructed. I do wonder "what's this (problem I'm having) associated with ? AS, my agoraphobia, social anxiety, etc."

I do.

Well, it's like both at once, really. The sick thing is that I know at the time that it's a foolish delusion. Picture being gay, alright? You know you're madly in love with a person of the same sex, but you're trying not to be because your psychotic, fundy parents would have you boiled in holy water for it, right? That's kind of how I feel when I'm trying not to act like a delusional imbecile. LOL. It's crazy. I have all these weird, unwanted thoughts, and it's like taming a tornado to keep them in some sense of order! I can have like this "lucid dreaming" version of delusions of grandeur (among other assorted things). You know you're being stupid, you know? And you're like "GAH! NO! GO AWAY! I DON'T WANT YOU!" Other times, I'll just let it go, and I'll allow my mind to spin these elaborate, far-fetched fantasies, and I'm like this bystander here in my own mind. I can only kind of shake my head and go, "heh, cute."

I've dealt with these things since I was a little kid, basically. I remember going crying to my teacher, going, "I can't get these stupid things out of my head!" and the teacher just completely didn't realize how intense this internal experience was for me. Then I was told to stand in the corner for obnoxious throat-clearing. Retrospectively, I think they also thought that my weird groping of the desk with all the panicked breathing and stuff was my idea of a hilarious sex joke...

HAH! YES! That's exactly it. It's like I'm this little guy wandering around in this great, big inner world. It's overwhelming.

Yeah. It's like when you're a smoker and you need to have all these rich spices in your food to make it taste good.

Well, I do that sort of. The thing is, I'm also calculatedly matter-of-fact about it. I want to convey an accurate sense of who and what I am. It's like an intense point of personal pride there.

Okay, here's what you do: throw your DSM in the toilet. We were better off with fukkin' Karl Gustav Jung. At least he was isolating single dichotomies. Trying to understand the etiology is more helpful. It's trickier, though, and you have to teach yourself a little biochemistry. Start yourself off with the catecholamines, and see where they take you. It's really fun.

I have AS but not diagnoised with OCD yet although i do see it in meself.

Plus, the outside world (including but not limited to the people) is (to me) so vast & massive, I need to shut out most of it just to be able to sense my own self & not become consumed by the culture at large. That seems a symptom of these modern times in complex society, not merely subjective experience of dx'd individuals (though it can be more extreme for "us", I guess).

Not quite sure what you mean with this comparison-can you explain the commonality ?


No offense meant, but I was only responding to your question in post that began this thread:

Perhaps I misunderstood how to interpret it.


It's my own 'honor system', for which I know my own rules. Being accused of cheating drives me bonkers.
For instance, I draw mazes, and when someone tried & couldn't solve it, he accused me of faking him out/making joke/pulling trick. Yet the maze did have solution, it just took me a while to find it (by which time this guy was gone)-it still bothers me that someone had wrong impression of me, all those years ago. I don't prank people or try to make fools of them by pretending something untrue is real-that's huge 'point of pride' for me. I become enraged with those who treat me using those tactics (taking advantage of my gullibility).

Oh, the maze years were crazy. Oh, and I still have this propensity for turning around in mid-step while I'm talking to people, and I may walk like a quarter-mile completely backwards just as a convenience for carrying on a conversation. Not anything tacky like trying to show off or anything; it just happens to be convenient. The thing is, though, I'll eventually start skipping. Soooooo dorky, I know, but I'll be there like skipping backwards while I'm rambling about cytokines, psychoimmune interaction, genetics, and so forth, and the person I'm talking to will have this "Oooooookay" look. Not like being afraid of me or anything. I'm really gregarious, abnormally so. There's nothing at all to find creepy about me. Maybe irritating, maybe confusing, but the Aspie flat-affect...don't have it. Not usually, I mean. When I'm on a roll, my voice can get almost musical. The flat affect thing only comes in when I'm trying to explain or talk about something practical. Lots of sense, no common sense whatsoever. My mate's brother thinks I'm a bimbo or something.

There's a lot of overlap between autism and OCD, as I understand it. I have some OCD-ish ways, not enough for a clinical diagnosis.

Studies on people with AS and HFA diagnoses have shown that about half of them have at least a bit of OCD. A study on people with OCD has shown that around half of them have some autistic tendencies.

I've been told I have both AS and OCD.

I am diagnosed with both AS and OCD