What's the difference between OCD and OCPD? [Archive]

MyNameIsTerry

14-04-16, 07:32

Straight away, impulse control issues are in personality disorders. OCD is completely different to impulse control. The latter forms things like sexual impulsivity, substance abuse, etc. You may understand this because of your knowledge of bipolar as that can have impulse control issues too.

PD's are far more ingrained than anxiety disorders which makes them harder to treat because the issues are more at the core and identity related.

At the end of my CBT my therapist asked me to look at a list of criteria for OCPD and said I needed a minimum of 4 to quality. I had 4. She said she couldn't diagnose (above her pay grade) and I was referred back to my GP as my CBT had ended. I went away thinking this could be the case and ended up reading about to discover I didn't have the required foundation traits for it!

For instance:

(e)excessive pedantry and adherence to social conventions;
(f)rigidity and stubbornness;
(g)unreasonable insistence by the patient that others submit to exactly his or her way of doing things, or unreasonable reluctance to allow others to do things;

Whilst I had an element of this, which came out of my work in my late twenties, not from my childhood (PD's are formed in earlier years) I was flexible to others if I agreed with them or would at least listen and consider their options. I largely changed in my later years in my work because I knew the people I was working with or for (as a stakeholder) were crap because they were crap before then, and it was a general view held by many other peers too. But I had plenty of time for other people and would still agree with these crap ones if they were right, I was just on the back foot with them more.

That told me, there is no way I could have OCPD unless I had somehow managed to beat these elements at the height of my anxiety without any help. No chance!

These others, were where I came closer:

(a)feelings of excessive doubt and caution;
(b)preoccupation with details, rules, lists, order, organization or schedule;
(c)perfectionism that interferes with task completion;
(d)excessive conscientiousness, scrupulousness, and undue preoccupation with productivity to the exclusion of pleasure and interpersonal relationships;
(h)intrusion of insistent and unwelcome thoughts or impulses.

My reasoning was:

- I had become a "micro manager" in many things, which was sadly again because of people being crap! This wasn't just me, this was a whole load of people who had spent years learning how to do their work, how other people worked, how the industry worked. The people who were crap were the ones who sacrificed this just to get a leg up by chasing promotions. It was a culture thing, anyone who was good just ended up leaving because the crap ones wouldn't learn and those of us who cared ended up stressed trying to sort their mess out. I dreaded holidays for years as I came back to find a crap one had messed up my workstreams.
- I was making a lot of lists. I had a lot of things on in my work, more than a lot of other managers. Those like me were in the same boat but I don't know if they coped the same way. I would make lists at home about things to remember to do. I basically buried myself in work. I took too much on and let them pile it on further. This is what caused all of my anxiety due to a breakdown.
- I wanted to get things perfect far too much. In my role I was working with large numbers of customer and their data. I was getting to the point of fixing everything, no matter how small and how much time it took when the strategy needed to be the larger numbers only. Sad but true, firefighting and quick wins is how big companies tend to run.
- Perfectionism and taking too many things on meant never finishing anything. When I got close, I seemed to look for something else. I also worked to fulfil the whole project in one rather than delivery it in stages in a quicker & more efficient manner.
- I started doing a lot of double checking of my own work, to ensure perfection.

I also used to hoard bits of paper because of all these notes. I couldn't seem to bin them because I would save them to action 6 months later, when they meant very little and things had moved on.

All of this fit the criteria. There was more too but you get the idea.

So, be wary of thinking OCPD, it's not just about the criteria but about your behaviours & beliefs. Basically, you would live your life that way.

On top of that above, there are specific general criteria to cover all PD's:

(a)markedly disharmonious attitudes and behaviour, involving usually several areas of functioning, e.g. affectivity, arousal, impulse control, ways of perceiving and thinking, and style of relating to others;
(b)the abnormal behaviour pattern is enduring, of long standing, and not limited to episodes of mental illness;
(c)the abnormal behaviour pattern is pervasive and clearly maladaptive to a broad range of personal and social situations;
(d)the above manifestations always appear during childhood or adolescence and continue into adulthood;
(e)the disorder leads to considerable personal distress but this may only become apparent late in its course;
(f)the disorder is usually, but not invariably, associated with significant problems in occupational and social performance.

There are a few people on here with PD's. From speaking to some, it's much stronger than an anxiety disorder.