StampySquiddyFan
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13 Aug 2017, 4:21 pm
will@rd wrote:
StampySquiddyFan wrote:
nephets wrote:
Thanks to everyone for their comments. I'm sure there is a causal relationship between AS and OCD, AS and GAD (I have also been diagnosed with GAD) and doubtless several other disorders. Stampy's idea that AS caused his OCD matches my own experiences. I have always wondered if my need for routines, coupled with poor short-term memory created my OCD, perhaps because if you need routines and struggle with focusing on anything other than your fear of the world, you can get obsessional about things that you need to do. For example, if you struggle to remember to lock the door or are afraid of the consequences of not doing, how far away are you from checking you've locked the door 10 times? Perhaps anxiety generated by AS leads to OCD?
Exactly. My "theory" (it's not a great one lol
) is that every "psychological" disorder has a neurological basis. I don't believe in psychology (I know that's weird!) because I don't think it's the environment that causes these things. Of course the environment can make it worse, but if you don't have that neurological basis, you won't end up with a disorder. To make things more clear, say you have two people who each go through the same traumatic event. One ends up with severe PTSD and the other has bad feelings about what happened, but doesn't have the amount of anxiety that the other one has. Some people might just feel that one is slightly more inclined towards anxiety and an anxious personality, but what causes that anxious temperament is where the neurological basis comes into play. The person with PTSD has a brain that is structured slightly differently than the other person's. That's just what I think lol, since it seems doubtful that the person who ends up with anxiety got that just as a result of their environment. Same with OCD. IMO, you are born with OCD, but something may not trigger it until later in life. I also think anxiety generated by ASD can lead to OCD and other anxiety issues. Sorry for the monologue, but I'm curious as to what you think .I would agree with that for the most part, although I think there are also chemical imbalances and physical brain injury that can have the same effect as a congenital neurological birth defect.
I do agree that comorbids like OCD, ADHD, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, etc. are (or can be) as much a product of defective neurology as Autism itself and that's why if you have one, you're much more likely to experience others as well.
It would be easy to say I experience chronic depression because of the circumstances created by my autistic handicaps, but the truth is, my brain is simply predisposed to pessimism, and interpreting every obstacle as a catastrophe.
I agree with what you've said as well. Once one set of "wiring" is messed up, it just makes sense that some others might be abnormal as well. My brain is predisposed to obsessive thinking and anxiety, so I ended up with OCD. It wasn't really my circumstances, because I was very young when I started obsessing over things, and I didn't really have a chance to recognize my handicaps yet. I thought I was the "normal" one in regards to socializing and sensory processing differences!
15 Aug 2017, 7:15 pm
mr_bigmouth_502
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15 Aug 2017, 11:50 pm
Definitely not me, haha. OCD is arguably a much bigger issue for me than autism. 
16 Aug 2017, 3:00 pm
16 Aug 2017, 3:10 pm
StampySquiddyFan
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16 Aug 2017, 6:12 pm
SaveFerris wrote:
Could someone explain what nice OCD is ?
I think they just meant the ASD type of obsessions. That's not OCD, though.
16 Aug 2017, 6:14 pm
StampySquiddyFan wrote:
SaveFerris wrote:
Could someone explain what nice OCD is ?
I think they just meant the ASD type of obsessions. That's not OCD, though.
Yeah , that's what I was thinking but don't know enough about it.
19 Aug 2017, 4:24 pm
StampySquiddyFan
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19 Aug 2017, 7:45 pm
anti_gone wrote:
I do not always have OCD as many others here. I do have an inclination towards obsessive behavior (mostly in my thoughts, but I had also some behaviorial stuff), though. For me, it's almost always triggered by stress (usually not knowing how things will work work out before a job interview, an important meeting, an exam etc.) and/or low blood sugar (I get depressed, anxious and obsessive when I haven't eaten enough). E.g. I had schiz OCD as a child at a time when I had no friends at school and was bullied. After some intervention by my teacher, the bullying stopped a bit and I befriended two girls. The schiz OCD vanished entirely.
What I still don't get: What is the difference between pure-O and general anxiety disorder? E.g. constant worrying I could have infected people with some disease is usually seen as OCD, whereas constant rumination about what mistakes I could have done in an exam would be seen as GAD I guess? But personally, I don't really see the difference. It's one exaggerated fear for hours. Is it really about topics? Is there some difference I miss?
Edit:
Here a list of some of my unpleasant thoughts. What would you say is pure-O and what is GAD?
-worrying about how robots will control the future
-extreme worrying about climate change
-worrying about mistakes in an exam, constantly trying to figure out how many points I could have in worst case and best case
-worrying I could have hallucinations
-worrying that substances I have taken could be neurotoxic and I could have a brain damage because of that
What I still don't get: What is the difference between pure-O and general anxiety disorder? E.g. constant worrying I could have infected people with some disease is usually seen as OCD, whereas constant rumination about what mistakes I could have done in an exam would be seen as GAD I guess? But personally, I don't really see the difference. It's one exaggerated fear for hours. Is it really about topics? Is there some difference I miss?
Edit:
Here a list of some of my unpleasant thoughts. What would you say is pure-O and what is GAD?
-worrying about how robots will control the future
-extreme worrying about climate change
-worrying about mistakes in an exam, constantly trying to figure out how many points I could have in worst case and best case
-worrying I could have hallucinations
-worrying that substances I have taken could be neurotoxic and I could have a brain damage because of that
It's hard to differentiate between OCD and GAD, but some of the main differences are that OCD has obsessions and compulsions, while GAD is more constant anxiety without relief from compulsions. Also, the obsessions seen in OCD are not excessive worries about real life problems- they are much more irrational than that. I can't say for sure what is OCD and what is GAD for you, since I don't know you in person and all you have mentioned are the worries (not what you do about them). But I'll just say from my personal experience that the hallucinations/neurotoxic worries seem more like OCD, while the other worries seem more like GAD, since they are more real-life (though I don't think robots will control the future). That's from my own experience- I'm no clinician
.
19 Aug 2017, 7:57 pm
19 Aug 2017, 8:31 pm
StampySquiddyFan wrote:
anti_gone wrote:
I do not always have OCD as many others here. I do have an inclination towards obsessive behavior (mostly in my thoughts, but I had also some behaviorial stuff), though. For me, it's almost always triggered by stress (usually not knowing how things will work work out before a job interview, an important meeting, an exam etc.) and/or low blood sugar (I get depressed, anxious and obsessive when I haven't eaten enough). E.g. I had schiz OCD as a child at a time when I had no friends at school and was bullied. After some intervention by my teacher, the bullying stopped a bit and I befriended two girls. The schiz OCD vanished entirely.
What I still don't get: What is the difference between pure-O and general anxiety disorder? E.g. constant worrying I could have infected people with some disease is usually seen as OCD, whereas constant rumination about what mistakes I could have done in an exam would be seen as GAD I guess? But personally, I don't really see the difference. It's one exaggerated fear for hours. Is it really about topics? Is there some difference I miss?
Edit:
Here a list of some of my unpleasant thoughts. What would you say is pure-O and what is GAD?
-worrying about how robots will control the future
-extreme worrying about climate change
-worrying about mistakes in an exam, constantly trying to figure out how many points I could have in worst case and best case
-worrying I could have hallucinations
-worrying that substances I have taken could be neurotoxic and I could have a brain damage because of that
What I still don't get: What is the difference between pure-O and general anxiety disorder? E.g. constant worrying I could have infected people with some disease is usually seen as OCD, whereas constant rumination about what mistakes I could have done in an exam would be seen as GAD I guess? But personally, I don't really see the difference. It's one exaggerated fear for hours. Is it really about topics? Is there some difference I miss?
Edit:
Here a list of some of my unpleasant thoughts. What would you say is pure-O and what is GAD?
-worrying about how robots will control the future
-extreme worrying about climate change
-worrying about mistakes in an exam, constantly trying to figure out how many points I could have in worst case and best case
-worrying I could have hallucinations
-worrying that substances I have taken could be neurotoxic and I could have a brain damage because of that
It's hard to differentiate between OCD and GAD, but some of the main differences are that OCD has obsessions and compulsions, while GAD is more constant anxiety without relief from compulsions. Also, the obsessions seen in OCD are not excessive worries about real life problems- they are much more irrational than that. I can't say for sure what is OCD and what is GAD for you, since I don't know you in person and all you have mentioned are the worries (not what you do about them). But I'll just say from my personal experience that the hallucinations/neurotoxic worries seem more like OCD, while the other worries seem more like GAD, since they are more real-life (though I don't think robots will control the future). That's from my own experience- I'm no clinician
.Thank you for your input!
I know that OCD involves both obsessions and compulsions, but that's why I wrote about pure-O, since I read pure-O means "obsession only".
About how rational the worries are: MDMA is definitely neurotoxic, on the other hand it's very improbable that after taking it once my IQ would be lower that before. It's still unclear if cannabis is neurotoxic. I would not say this is totally irrational, but highly exaggerated. Also it's unclear if this would have any effect on my life.
About the robots: Ok, "control" was not the right term. But a thought that crossed my mind was that once robots can make art just as good as human art it's useless to create any art. That thought caused anxiety. I don't think the thought is totally irrational. It's just totally useless because I don't know what the future will be like and there's no use in worrying about things that might happen in some distant future.
The schiz OCD when I was a child was clearly utter nonsense. Totally irrational.
Quote:
real life problems
That would make sense, yes.
19 Aug 2017, 8:36 pm
StampySquiddyFan
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19 Aug 2017, 8:39 pm
19 Aug 2017, 8:39 pm
SaveFerris wrote:
I'm also no clinician and haven't even been diagnosed with OCD but the two examples Stampy mentioned above are IMO the most likely candidates to be OCD out of all your examples if any.
Thanks for your answer.
The thing is, although GAD and OCD/Pure-O are different diagnoses and OCD doesn't even belong to anxiety disorders, the feeling is quite the same for me. So worrying about neurotoxicity on one side (if it's really OCD?) and worrying about climate change feels really similar to me. These thoughts usually appear when I'm really stressed, they are very unpleasant and they are coupled with a lot of anxiety.
Also, most of the actual compulsions (if these were really compulsions?) I had did not have anything to do with checking but more with anxiety and feeling bad about myself (e.g. there was a time at school where I would feel bad for every English word I did not know and I would have to write every English word from every text I read into a text file and punish myself mentally for it..though I don't have the compulsion anymore I still have trouble reading English novels because on every page there are at least 5 words I don't know). So for me it's all about anxiety and often about self-hate.
Edit: Ok, now I'm really confused
StampySquiddyFan
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19 Aug 2017, 8:46 pm
anti_gone wrote:
SaveFerris wrote:
I'm also no clinician and haven't even been diagnosed with OCD but the two examples Stampy mentioned above are IMO the most likely candidates to be OCD out of all your examples if any.
Thanks for your answer.
The thing is, although GAD and OCD/Pure-O are different diagnoses and OCD doesn't even belong to anxiety disorders, the feeling is quite the same for me. So worrying about neurotoxicity on one side and worrying about climate change feels really similar to me. These thoughts usually appear when I'm really stressed, they are very unpleasant and they are coupled with a lot of anxiety.
Also, most of the actual compulsions I had did not have anything to do with checking but more with anxiety and feeling bad about myself (e.g. there was a time at school where I would feel bad for every English word I did not know and I would have to write every English word from every text I read into a text file and punish myself mentally for it..though I don't have the compulsion anymore I still have trouble reading English novels because on every page there are at least 5 words I don't know). So for me it's all about anxiety and often about self-hate.
Of course it's the same feeling- it's anxiety lol
!Checking is one type of compulsion, but there are a lot more. It does seem like you were "punishing yourself", though. I can't say for sure if that is a compulsion or more a rumination. That sometimes happens to me- if I ever think a "bad" thought, then I make myself feel really bad for weeks and constantly obsess over it.
19 Aug 2017, 8:49 pm
StampySquiddyFan wrote:
anti_gone wrote:
SaveFerris wrote:
I'm also no clinician and haven't even been diagnosed with OCD but the two examples Stampy mentioned above are IMO the most likely candidates to be OCD out of all your examples if any.
Thanks for your answer.
The thing is, although GAD and OCD/Pure-O are different diagnoses and OCD doesn't even belong to anxiety disorders, the feeling is quite the same for me. So worrying about neurotoxicity on one side and worrying about climate change feels really similar to me. These thoughts usually appear when I'm really stressed, they are very unpleasant and they are coupled with a lot of anxiety.
Also, most of the actual compulsions I had did not have anything to do with checking but more with anxiety and feeling bad about myself (e.g. there was a time at school where I would feel bad for every English word I did not know and I would have to write every English word from every text I read into a text file and punish myself mentally for it..though I don't have the compulsion anymore I still have trouble reading English novels because on every page there are at least 5 words I don't know). So for me it's all about anxiety and often about self-hate.
Of course it's the same feeling- it's anxiety lol
!Checking is one type of compulsion, but there are a lot more. It does seem like you were "punishing yourself", though. I can't say for sure if that is a compulsion or more a rumination. That sometimes happens to me- if I ever think a "bad" thought, then I make myself feel really bad for weeks and constantly obsess over it.
If OCD is basically anxiety, I wonder why it's not an anxiety disorder...
Quote:
more a rumination
And what would rumination be? GAD? Or something else?
