So, one psychologist says this, but another says that...

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16 Sep 2012, 4:07 pm

Yes, I have a conflict of ideas.

My diagnosing psychologist said that I have OCD tendencies, but that they are a part of my ASD, not that I have both ASD and Asperger's.

My therapist disagrees. He said that I not only have Aspergers, but that I also have a "whopping" case of OCD (he used a metaphor that I don't understand, so I said whopping instead). He said he's seen people with ASD without it, and people with it.
Where are the lines drawn between OCD and my routines?

For example, I have to check locked doors, check light plugs, check my car over and over, check this and check that. I have to, usually 3 times. Usually tasks take me twice as long because of checking.

But I also have routines that I can't live without...

So I don't know. Anyone else had this issue?

1000Knives
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16 Sep 2012, 4:11 pm

I'd say unless you come with diagnoses already to the psychologist, in my experience, if you go to 10 different psychs, you'll get 10 different diagnoses.

Raziel
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16 Sep 2012, 4:13 pm

It's really a matter of interpretation.

I know some psychiatrists who think that OCD tendencies are in most cases just part of ASD and others who just think that routines are part of ASD and everything else in this direction is OCD.

There are no clear rules how to diagnose this.

There is just one simple rule:
If you suffer under this behaviour it is propably OCD and if you don't suffer it is propably just routines.

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Raziel
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16 Sep 2012, 4:16 pm

1000Knives wrote:

I'd say unless you come with diagnoses already to the psychologist, in my experience, if you go to 10 different psychs, you'll get 10 different diagnoses.

No, at least 15, because most shrinks give more than one! :lol:

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Wulfart
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16 Sep 2012, 4:19 pm

The problem with profesionals is that, while yes, they are profesionals, they are still human, subject to mistakes and personal bias. We have a tendancy to view profesionals in various fields as being flawless, or at least better then human. Add in that the field of pyschology is such a murky and little understood field. WHile humanity has made great strides in understanding our minds, there is still SOO much that we still don't understand. I once heard someone say that "We know more about the surface of the moon then the bottom of the oceans, and more about the bottom of the ocean then we do about our own minds.

EstherJ
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16 Sep 2012, 4:23 pm

Raziel wrote:

So why would routines be included in the diagnostic manual if they don't make someone suffer?
(I dont suffer with some routines, but maybe others do?)

btbnnyr
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16 Sep 2012, 4:32 pm

Things that are weird to NTs are in the diagnostic criteria, because they are weird to NTs. Stimming doesn't make me suffer, but it's there.

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16 Sep 2012, 5:15 pm

EstherJ wrote:

I have taken notice that depending on what professional you see about ASDs, some will say you have OCD and that it's part of your ASD and another professional may say you don't have OCD and it's all autism. My specialist said I have both OCD and AS and that OCD is part of it.

There seems to be an argument over autism and OCD and about rather they are both the same or not with the obsessions and routines. I even knew a specialist that considered stimming as an OCD thing that was part of autism.

It does sound like OCD by what you listed in the last part of your post about checking locks and light plugs and stuff. I don't have that part of OCD.

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1000Knives
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16 Sep 2012, 5:36 pm

Raziel wrote:

1000Knives wrote:

I'd say unless you come with diagnoses already to the psychologist, in my experience, if you go to 10 different psychs, you'll get 10 different diagnoses.

No, at least 15, because most shrinks give more than one! :lol:

I've gotten this from psychologists, and then told another psych the exact same thing and have them say "Oh, there's nothing wrong with you and you're really cool!" Hard for me to put much trust in psychiatry. I'm not on the Tom Cruise level I used to be with it, but I still don't like it much and find it for the most part very unreliable. The only useful thing I have is it allows me to categorize people into mental disorders and types, after studying it a tiny bit myself, but even then, it's only useful for my own categorization and nothing more.

cathylynn
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16 Sep 2012, 6:48 pm

it's OCD if more than an hour per day is taken up by senseless activities.

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16 Sep 2012, 7:07 pm

EstherJ wrote:

I had an AS assessment almost 3 years ago by a psychiatrist who stated that I had OCD (I also do the thing with the checking you've locked/closed things and turned things off but it was about other things I do that he said OCD) and also stated I had overlap with autism spectrum behaviours. I would take this to mean that he viewed OCD as part of an ASD and he's supposedly the expert in my area.

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EstherJ
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16 Sep 2012, 7:35 pm

Maybe the psychologist means that OCD is part of it, but it can go beyond it to an extreme that has nothing to do with ASD.

Ah well.
So annoying.

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16 Sep 2012, 8:24 pm

EstherJ wrote:

I have this EXACT issue......my old psychiatrist said that my OCD tendencies were part of AS (need for sameness, rituals) not OCD because I didn't have a specific bad thing I thought would happen if I didn't complete my rituals (no obsession) I would just be anxious and upset. Now my new psychiatrist thinks I have serious OCD along with the ASD and should treat it. ALSO originally a long time ago another psychologist said I had subsyndromal OCD (symptoms beyond normal but not the full disorder). They don't agree..........

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