All disorders on one overlapping spectum?

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So when you look up things like Borderline, Schizotypal, Schizoid, Autistic, Obsessive Compulsive, and other personality disorders. You find that many of the symptoms in all of them tend to overlap, especially in the social aspect of them. BTW when i say Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, I'm not talking about OCD which isn't really similar. Well actually I have a friend with OCD and we do have a lot in common so let's add that one too.

My point is I don't feel like all of these things are completely seperate and that's the law of the universe. I feel like I see myself in a little bit of each one and maybe the entire personality disorder section of the DSM is all one big spectrum. 20% of autistic people have OCD which is by definition, nothing like autism really at all. I don't that's a coincidence. If I had read about OCPD before AS I would probably be obsessed with that instead of AS. Maybe this is just my own personal experience, but maybe we all have a little bit of each one, or maybe they're all part of the same thing. Or maybe I'm just rambling.

I think all brain disorders have something in common. I could probably be diagnosed with any one of them, maybe not OCD. I have some OCPD traits though.

I think disorders like AS, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia could all merge and be one disorder. All the symptoms overlap and you could get diagnosed with either one, or more than one.
I used to call it brain 2 syndrome (I know, how imaginative right? )

A lot of these disorders affect the frontal lobes so they would share similar traits.

these disorders are multifactorial, arising from the interaction of multiple genes.

it is unsurprising that their symptoms overlap, given the probability that many of these genes are shared between disorders.

Ah that's like an ah-ha moment for me. I didn't realize that, it explains it pretty well though. Thanks for letting me know.

On paper, many of these disorders may look very similar, but in practice many of them are different because of the degree of the symptoms.

A perfectionist might walk away from their car, then always have to walk back to double-check that the doors are locked. I do this often. Someone else might call me a bit obsessive.

A person with OCD might have to walk back and check the doors 22 times (and always exactly 22 times) before they can finally leave the scene - not just my once. The difference is in the degree and rigidity of the checking. Double-checking is just everyday obsessiveness; a true OCD compulsion is much more significant than my paltry double-checking. It involves doing actions dozens, even hundreds of times, that I might only do once thoroughly, or a second time if I am not sure ("I forgot whether I checked the front door before I went to bed - I better get up and make sure").

When I read about the actual lives of people with OCD, I know I'm not one of them - not by a long shot. Read a few case histories - bare diagnostic criteria can be misleading to the layperson.

The point is: you may see yourself in many descriptions, but a psychologist might not.

everyone has their own thing. psychriactic labels are used to group people into where they are most fitting. when they cant figure it out they get several diagnoses's like we did. the reality is that labels are a bunch of crap because everyone actually has individual "disorder". labeling people into groups doesnt tell a whole lot other than they have so many traits out of a list of traits.

I'm starting to realize the non-importance of the label thing too... like my psychiatrist says, labels are just grunts that doctors use. I happened to have been put on meds that help with moods and psychosis, but I have lots of other problems too that meds are not helping, but the stuff the meds are helping is the most important, I can function like this.

It's hard being different though, very hard.

Well OCD isn't really a personality disorder. Out of all the things I mentioned I agree OCD has the least in common. I happen to be co-morbid OCD and I understand the constant checking of things you were talking about. It's really more of an unproductive intrusive thought, that makes no sense. I know they make no sense yet I listen to the thoughts anyways. For example, if I have something I'm obsessing over my brain's OCD tries to rid me of anxiety by creating certain thoughts. I don't know if the obsessing is because of PDD of OCD but whatever. My brain says, "If you get to your locker right at the exact moment this song ends, everything will be ok." Let's say I don't get to my locker, my brain creates another way to relieve the anxiety..."If you get your combo open before the next song starts." It goes on and on and it end up with me doing ridiculous things that create even more anxiety. The person checking the car door might be thinking, "If you check your car 22 times, it won't get broken into. If you don't, it will."

I probably have a lot in common with the friend of mine who has OCD because I have it too. Don't know why I didn't see the connection with that, maybe because my OCD is so minimal and overshadowed by PDD. Alot of times People on the spectrum will develop OCD to releive anxietys caused by autism. Because that's the whole point, an intrusive thought to relieve anxiety. I used to have my OCD tell me things to get passed my social anxiety. It would say, "If you don't go to this dinner, you will get fired." I know if I don't go to dinner, I probably won't get fired. There's no connection between the two things. Yet the thought remains and it's persistant enough that you can't ignore it. I think those are the kinds of things that cause 20 percent of people on the spectrum to develop OCD.

The other disorders though are very similar. Similarities in things like abilty to make and read facial expression. Level of interest in social interaction. The way the disorders sort of affect the way you interact with other people is what makes them all overlap in a way which makes me think they are all sort of part of the same thing or continuum. But then again, I'm not a phsycologist and I don't make the rules. Yet I just can't shake the feeling that labels are completely BS.

I agree...and then you have these other traits that aren't listed on your particular disorder, but are on another disorder's list of traits. However, you don't have enought traits of that other disorder to warrant a diagnosis. Therefore you have certain things about you that you are struggling with that might get ignored. Maybe one day doctors will say, "You have frontal lobe disorder and it includes all kinds of things." Then there wouldn't be such a stigma on certain things like autism because by then lots of people will have heard of FLD and realize lots of people have it. There would be famous people with it, politicians, ect. Self esteems would be higher, denial would be lower. It would all just depend on the level of functioning and not exactly what particular group you fall into. Because honestly labels like autism, schizotypal and schizoid disorder can sound so bad and harm a person's confidence and, if he/she tell people, make people avoid that person. This can cause a high functioning person to become lower functioning just because of a stupid label. Labels suck.

I don't think autism spectrum should be lumped in with personality disorder at all.

I'm not sure that obsessive compulsive disorders should be lumped in with personality disorders either. Like, a lot of the hoarders don't appear to have personality disorder except when it comes to hoarding, other than that compulsion they seem functional.

To me autism spectrum is sensory and should be classed more with sensory disability like blindness, deafness, etc. To me moving it toward psychiatric disorder is a huge mistake and a step in the wrong direction.

It never will be lumped with all of the other personality disorders. Really I'm just commenting on the imperfection of labels. I experienced this wonderful sensation of clarity when diagnosed with PDD. I also had a lot of doubt. I've done a lot of research on autism and I felt like I was trying to fit myself into a neat little box where everything made sense. I mean I was trying to fit myself to the autism description perfectly and it just never worked. I fit the descriptions for a lot of other disorders that I'm not diagnosed with and have nothing to do with autism. Someone mentioned earlier in the thread that they all affect the frontal lobe and I just think there's a lot to that. They will probably always be separate though. I just don't like the stigma society has put on all the labels.

I've been trying to fit in perfectly with the autism description too. While I think I have it because of some behaviours I had in early childhood, I think there's more to it than that. In 6 days I have an ADHD evaluation, because of memory and concentration problems. ADHD seems to fit really well, especially the inattentive type but autism does too. With me the fact that I have a lack of interest in people and like to do things the same way or dress the same has a lot to do with autism, my concentration, my switching from activity to activity and my sketchy memory (even long term) has a lot to do with ADHD. I know I could have both because of the frontal lobe thing. I also think I didn't spend enough time in the womb to have a fully developed brain, which makes my IQ 10 or 20 points lower than others on the spectrum or with ADHD.
I have OCPD traits too.

You've seen a color wheel, right?


Imagine that every human trait (attention, memory, different types of sensory processing, academic intelligence, reading body language, etc.) were a color on the wheel. Each color is like its own spectrum, but they're all on the same wheel. This is how I view the various learning disabilities. They're not really all one thing, but sensory processing problems, for instance, aren't split up any more in different disorders.

I think you are very close mosaicofminds.

Every facet of human functioning is controlled by one or more areas within the brain. I have a hunch that a very wide subset of the whole spectrum of disorders is caused by differences in the handling of neurotransmitters. Dopamine receptors come to mind.
Those differences could affect one part of the brain or more than one in conjunction.

If decision making areas are affected you might end up with ADD(of which there are several subtypes). If emotional centres are affected you could have a clinical mood disorder. Still other areas could result in psychotic disorders or Tourettes or what have you.
But having one type of disorder would not exclude the possibility of having another as well.

A complicating factor is that many disorders weigh heavily on the individuals functioning in life. Or maybe because of the genetic dimension you have the chance of growing up in a difficult situation.
Both of which in turn or combined can cause anxieties, self-esteem issues, body image issues, situational mood disorders or even PTSD or OCD.