Need for Routine Vs OCD

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There is Quite a overlap between ocd and a Need for routine for repeating things is part of both. Anyone have any thoughts on this, I got to go soon so I'll reply around 12:30 which is when, I get home from school.

I have a lot of routines that I have to follow. And, if those routines are disturbed, it causes a lot of distress on varying levels. Sometimes disproportionate to the level of actual disruption, if that makes sense. And, when I do anything, I have to follow a method. And, I have great difficulty with being spontaneous. Change bothers me greatly.

But, I am not OCD by any means. I don't have to have things arranged a certain way, I'm not locked into the repetitive behaviours (like constantly washing the hands to make sure they're clean) and I have great difficulties finishing things.

I've never had anything close to OCD as a diagnosis in all my many years in therapy.

I always thought ocd routines were more like I have to flick the light on and off 4 times otherwise my child will get hit by a car, (as an example) sort of thing. Like they do something to stop something bad happening. Whether that's right or not I'm not sure though but that was always my understanding of ocd routines.

Whereas before I go to bed I always check the front door handle twice to check its locked, for no particular reason apart from I started doing it and now I just keep doing it and it feels like something is missing if I don't.

Like any routine I have is right for me, I don't do it to stop something happening, I do it for no particular reason apart from that it is routine.

The first thing I do in the morning is have a shower, if I don't everything is out of whack and nothing feels right at all. I have a variety of other routines that things must happen in a certain way but only because when they happen in that specific way everything feels right and balanced. Not because I have to do something in a certain way to stop something bad happening.

One of the symptoms is thinking about something at various intervals like a routine.

OCD is complicated to understand because it's not all black and white. We often hear that OCD means having to repeatedly check things, excessively worrying, repetitive counting, excessive hand washing, excessive cleanness and neatness. Then I hear that OCD means "If I don't do this something bad will happen." I never thought bad things would happen if I don't do X.

But then I hear OCD is about needing to do things to relieve anxiety and because it calms you and relaxes you so I guess you don't need to dislike your routines to have OCD and with autism it's more about liking things to be predictable and knowing what to expect while for OCDers it's more about keeping them calm. I guess if a routine is OCD, that ritual will go away whatever goes away that was causing the person stress in their life so they need control so they will find routines is what they can control. I also find other conditions that are similar to OCD like eating disorders. Eating disorders isn't always about wanting to lose weight and fear of being fat or fear of gaining, it's mostly about control also. The person uses food for control and makes them feel comfortable because they have something they could control. Even anxiety has an overlap with OCD with overly worrying I can't even tell the difference because they both look the same.

There are lot of stereotypes about OCD but I actually read in a book "The Man Who Couldn't Stop" by David Adam that only 30% of people with OCD are obsessed with cleaning. I was OCD about having a clean house. Messes drove me chaotic and felt out of control for me so I had to clean. To me clean mean relax and peaceful so I would keep the house clean and it would always cause me distress if it was messy. I liked having a clean house so it's not like I hated having a clean house and still felt compelled to do it but it was OCD and also AS combined. Someone else with an ASD may also prefer a clean house but theirs may be due to visual spatial issues so if things are scattered all over, it's too much info for their eyes and they will also stumble and trip over things that are in their way and it's a big obstacle course for them while for a person without that issue, they can easily see where they are going and step over everything and walk around it. So it's not like they have OCD if they also wanted a clean house and act OCD about it. So that makes me think mine was more OCD than autistic about a clean house. So I guess it's also a stereotype for OCD that if they don't do something, something bad will happen. OCD also seems to be a spectrum and doesn't really describe anyone because it's different in each person with it and neither of them will have the same obsessions and compulsions or the stereotypes we often hear. Also I keep hearing how they are obsessed with patterns and order so things have to be organized and into categories and in the right pattern and a little mistake will drive them crazy, also a stereotype and I see that joke a lot online about it mostly on Facebook. But I see that same characteristic in autism which is why I would often see that humor posted in autism groups instead. Yeah if I was obsessed about order and patterns, I would never be able to leave stores and my whole day would be ruined and wasted because I spent my time at Gamestop trying to organize the games and put things back in their proper places instead of letting the store employees do it or spent my time in Winco organizing food on shelves.

A routine is mainly when you have something to do you like to do it a certain way. Eg let's say you go grocery\food shopping for lunch, you might like to eat the same thing each Monday and you like to get your food items in a certain order to fulfil that Monday lunch. So you get item 1, item 2, then find they are out of item 3. Now you might start to feel anxious because you can't get your items in the right order, and you possibly might not even be able to have what you normally have for lunch on Monday.

Now everyone likes to each lunch, but non-Autistics might not particularly want to have the same thing each Monday, or buy the items in the same order, and if something is out of stock they can probably decide to just have something else that day, and none of this causes any anxiety at all.

That's the difference between an autistic's routine and how a non-autistic may accomplish the same task.

OCD when you're obsessed with generally unwanted thoughts, like that something bad will happen if you don't open and close the front door four times. Or that you'll get injured by germs. Those thoughts then cause anxiety, and compulsions are used to self-medicate that anxiety. So someone with OCD will have the constant thought that something bad will happen if the door isn't open and closed, so when the anxiety gets to much they'll get up and open and close the door four times. That will bring them relief, but after a short while the obsessive thought comes back, so the compulsive act is done again, and this goes on and on in a cycle.

Same with thoughts that germs are harming you, so you wash, then the thought that germs are harming you so you wash and so on.

That's pretty much the difference really, an autistic person will perform a task in a certain way as familiarity brings comfort, whereas someone with OCD has a constant cycle of unwanted thoughts that drive compulsive behaviours.

Oh, I understand.