Quote:
Originally Posted by jimi...
Calling an interest OCD is so ignorant. Interests and hobbies with Asperger's are often called special interests because sometimes they get very important for the person and the person really goes deep with it and learns everything. It has nothing to do with OCD, it has to do with being able to focus a lot and focus on a narrow aspect of something.
OCD isn't an interest, OCD is horror.  It makes you do things you hate doing like scalding your hands under hot water because of "germs" or refolding a sheet 10 million times because it doesn't feel right and perfect, or doing things like having to step into a room with the right foot first or "the world will come to an end".
Sometimes I wish experts were real experts. |
I agree, what we dub special interests may appear to be obsessions to people who aren't on the spectrum, but they are not something that falls under OCD.
Though just to be a douche (sorry, I don't mean to be, it's just I have OCD so feel I should mention this) the type of OCD you've listed is only one of four distinct types of OCD. Not all OCD sufferers have that type.
The four types of OCD are;
Checking,
Contamination/Mental Contamination,
Hoarding,
Ruminations/Intrusive Thoughts.
Checking and the Contamination/Mental Contamination variants are the most stereotypical views of OCD used in TV and by the media. It's what everybody assumes OCD is limited to, but it is not.
Hoarding
Pretty self explanatory, it's when people become obsessed with keeping every little piece of useless rubbish they've ever owned/found/rescued from bins.
Ruminations/Intrusive Thoughts
Probably the least known about and least understood because people don't see it.
Ruminations refers to obsessional thoughts about questions or themes which don't have any productive value, for instance somebody may become obsessed with the question of "what happens after we die". They could spend weeks thinking about nothing else, researching all possible evidence, philosophies, religious details etc and still never reach a conclusion (because it's something we can't ever really know).
Intrusive Thoughts, in the spectrum of OCD, are where a person generally suffers with obsessional thoughts that are repetitive, disturbing and often horrific and repugnant in nature. For example, thoughts of causing violent or sexual harm to loved ones.
Because the intrusive thoughts are repetitive and not voluntarily produced, they cause the sufferer extreme distress - the very idea that they are capable of having such thoughts in the first place can be horrifying. However, what we do know is that people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder are the least likely people to actually act on the thoughts, partly because they find them so repugnant and go to great lengths to avoid them and prevent them happening.
In addition to the four main types, there are also many sub categories.
Sorry, had to share.