You are completely correct, bizi. I have had a fair degree of OCD since I was a child. There's the slightest difference that I've noticed between the compulsive obsessing and the bipolar rumination. The difference is that...blah, how do I describe it...the bipolar "spinning" has an emotionally-charged roller-coaster ride mania-up/potential crash-down whirlwind feeling to it. And it often gets "crazy"...no, I don't like that word- BUT crazy is what I feel...not sure anymore of what's real, what matters, what doesn't...I am driven. Everything is heightened; bigger than life itself: Nothing can stand in my way.

Whereas, the OCD thing has a monstrous fear attached to it...If I don't do 'this', then 'that' awful 'something' might happen...lots of connections and an absurd overload of cause and effect. What if, what if, what if.

Or something like that. There's mania and depression and anxiety all balled up in there, too.

Definitely plenty of overlap. Such fun