Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is not Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) but its often confused with it.  OCD is a psychiatric condition relating to low Seratonin and high Dopamine which can sometimes result in progressive loss of functioning in almost all areas of one’s life and it commonly co-occurs in perhaos up to 30% of people with autism.  But OCPD is part of the common stereotype of Asperger’s Syndrome so we may one day find a majority of those with Asperger’s in fact fit OCDP.

Of Oldham and Kelly’s 16 personality traits, I most fit the Vigilant, Solitary, Idiosyncratic, Exhuberant/Artistic and Self Sacrificing Traits, but have the Conscientious (which is the trait associated with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder), the Sensitive and the Serious traits as my secondaries.

But I developed OCD in late childhood, a condition which seems to run on my mother’s side. One can have any personality traits yet develop OCD.  My OCD compelled me to repeat patterns until they felt musically balance and stopping before that point filled me with a raging dread that I would thereby cause the deaths of those I cared for.  The result was a progressively depressed and crazier looking child compelled to do patterns for anywhere up to 3 hrs before being free to ‘have a life’ until the next compulsion.  And anything could set off the OCD, having uneven breathing, not standing with my fet lined up, having put something down on an angle or face down or upside down or experiencing uneven numbers.  It was not my ‘special interest’, my ‘splinter skill’, nor was it so when it transfered into compulsive checking and I’d have to check and recheck behind objects over and over again certain that if I didn’t something terrible would happen.

But autism advocates recommend we understand and sooth the distresses of those with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, a personality trait which makes people achievement-driven perfectionists afraid of losing control and often capable of high skill levels relating their their obsessive interests.  And maybe that’s not too big a problem, unless we confuse it with OCD.  For whilst those with OCPD may be soothed by reassurances,  research has found that reassuring children with OCD this will make their condition worse.

We have to learn that similar isn’t same.  OCPD is not OCD, stims are not tics, Cyclothymia is not ADHD , Alexithymia is not Anhedonia, Depressive Personality Disorder is not Depression, Avoidant Personality Disorder is not Exposure Anxiety, Catatonia is not retardation nor autism, Selective Mutism is not speech aphasia but any of these in an autism fruit salad can look alike.

—
Donna Williams, Dip Ed, BA Hons.
Author, artist, singer-songwriter, screenwriter.
Autism consultant and public speaker.

Ever the arty Autie.
http://www.donnawilliams.net
http://www.aspinauts.com