eGuides
Download our eGuides
OCD and Autism
Obsessive and ritualistic behaviours are fundamental traits that make up both OCD and Autism. As a result, many people are diagnosed with both conditions. Although there are many similarities between the two, it is crucial to recognize precisely how each affects you individually. The critical difference between obsessive-compulsive disorder and Autism lies in anxiety.
OCD and Eating Disorders
It is common for eating disorders to be confused with a branch of OCD when it can be essential to recognize that although recognized as entirely separate, there are many overlaps between the two conditions. For example, evidence suggests that people experiencing both anorexia nervosa and bulimia often also have many OCD symptoms, such as intrusive thoughts and a need to act in specific ways to make themselves feel better.
OCD and Depression
Depression is commonly described as everything feeling ‘dark and gloomy’ and descriptions of being unable to feel real feelings of happiness anymore. However, it can often display itself differently, depending on individual experiences. For example, some may describe depression as a reaction to adverse life events, such as a relationship breakdown, failing an exam, or feeling down in the dumps.
Tourettes Syndrome, OCD, Tourettic OCD and Tic Related Disorders
Tic disorders usually begin around mid-childhood, peaking during early adolescence. Like OCD, symptoms can fluctuate, increase, and decrease in severity throughout the person’s life. Often by early adulthood, tics tend to diminish and, at times, can become absent. However, it is still not always clear why symptoms reduce for some compared to others whose symptoms are prolonged or, in rare cases, worsen.
OCD and Depersonalization Disorder
Depersonalization is when a person experiences a range of feelings, often causing the person to become alarmed due to their unfamiliarity. Such feelings can include feeling unreal, detached, and constantly feeling distant or out of touch with your own emotions. Some describe their dissociative symptoms as being always stuck in a jar, whereby they can see their life unfolding around them but never feel like they are truly experiencing it.
OCD and BDD
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), or body dysmorphia, is a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time being overly concerned or worried about their perceived flaws around their appearance. Such defects are highly unlikely to be viewed by others, and in most cases, such can be non-existent or extremely minimal, yet to the person with BDD, these flaws become magnified. Having BDD is nothing to do with being vain or self-obsessed. On the contrary, such fears typically originate from a place of deep distrust and lack of self-esteem, quite the opposite of vanity.
OCD and ADHD
ADHD is a behavioural disorder that includes inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsiveness symptoms. Most ADHD symptoms are noticed within early childhood, with most children successfully diagnosed between 6 and 12 years old. Often the school environment can become increasingly testing for a child with ADHD, meaning that symptoms usually begin to show reasonably early on within a child’s academic career. More often than not, symptoms of ADHD improve with age, with many teens and young adults having minimal symptoms whereby they deem their ADHD to have a minimal impact on their lives.
OCD and Trauma
PTSD and OCD are both anxiety disorders that commonly occur alongside each other in people exposed to one or more traumatic events. Up to one-fifth of people with OCD also have a comorbid trauma diagnosis. Many features of OCD and trauma are incredibly similar. Both have an emotional trigger, with trauma primarily being something fundamental in the environment, whereas OCD is usually a combination of environmental stimuli and the role that the imagination plays.
OCD and Social Phobia/Anxiety
Social phobia mainly revolves around caring too much about what others think of the person. More specifically, this revolves around fears of being negatively judged, humiliated, and rejected by others, especially within the public setting. Such worries are also every day concerning Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, whereby the person’s over-inflated sense of responsibility causes them to become overly concerned with what others may think of them. Fears are usually exclusive to social situations, leading to increased anticipatory anxiety about upcoming social events, including parties, going to school, college, or work, or any event where other people may be present.
OCD and Hoarding
Although hoarding was once thought to be less treatable than other types of obsessive disorders, amongst many professionals, hoarding is often recognized as a treatable condition. Using many techniques that can help with OCD, hoarding is manageable and can have little to no impact on the sufferer’s life with the right skills and treatment.
OCD and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
It is inevitable, especially in today’s society, that we will all experience anxiety at one time or another. However, when this lasts for a prolonged period (usually around the six-month mark) and falls into the persistent and excessive category, this can generally be defined as Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD).
OCD and Emetophobia
Emetophobia is a term used to describe the fear of vomiting or being sick. Many people experience disgust concerning vomit, with common descriptions including feeling dirty or ‘yucky’ at just the idea of themselves or another person being sick. However, developing a specific fear of this is relatively uncommon, not entirely unheard of. Such concerns are often about vomiting in public, although the fear also revolves around the feelings associated with being sick.