Information

 

 

 

 

 

    Versus

 

 

“This round is the final match. It will determine which of these two Disorders is truly the winner. Back to your corners and wait for the bell then come out punchin’.”

What are the differences between OCD and OCPD? Answer: There are many.

Both of these mental illnesses pack a punch but not so much ‘in your face’ as in spirit. They start out slow but gain momentum, endurance, speed and impact on their self-made journeys to relentless uppercuts, lasting sucker punches and in the final round, emotional and painful wounds to everyone around them without any physical contact.

What are the differences between OCD and OCPD? Answer: There are many. Let’s break it down. Each disorder may seem to have common weight, height and reach but the differences, by comparison, will chime through.

OCD – Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
1. Anxiety Disorder
2. Affecting about 1% of the United States
3. More widely known
4. Affects all peoples, ages, cultures, walks of life and incomes
5. Obsessive thoughts and urges OR repetition and compulsive behavior
6. Can affect you, your job, family, friends, relationships, quality of life in general
7. Fairly easy to diagnose
8. Professional Mental Health provider intervention and diagnosis recommended and prescribed
9. Generally gets worse with time goes by without having professional mental help or prescription of drugs
10. More common in women than men
11. Psychotherapy generally required

What is obsessive behavior or thoughts?
Obsessive behavior are reoccurring thoughts. Constant thoughts of violence, worries about getting hurt or others being hurt, are simply a few. On the outside, it seems a realistic concern that anyone can be hurt walking across the street, for example. It could be a real challenge for the very young, elderly, mentally challenged or when it is very busy. Taking into consideration that the individual is an adult where common sense prevails and will be crossing at the corner, the concern should be fleeting, yet for some OCD sufferers, it lingers. That simple concern persists and no matter how many times they cross correctly, fear, stress, and the not-knowing will grip and take hold like a right hook out of nowhere that is surely going to make full impact. It may also, prohibit them from crossing the street or perhaps, from even going outside.

What starts out as a realistic concern, quickly envelops the individual mind, body, and spirit to the point of their original concern not being realistic any longer.

What is compulsive behavior?
Typically, compulsive behavior are reoccurring actions. Wikipedia reads ‘as performing an act persistently and repetitively without it necessarily leading to an actual reward or pleasure’1. Normally what follows is an internal, repetitive behavior to compensate for the ill feelings and stress. In the mind of someone with OCD, stress is real and it is defined and lessens when whatever act they need to do, is done, at least for a short time. As the act is repeated, the final outcome is never satisfied and thus, people wash their hands even more or collect more  dogs, etc.

Having watched television or read books about OCD, we are all aware of those poor souls. Lost in their need to constantly lock and unlock doors and windows, wash and rewash hands, accumulate more cats,  etc.  Their lives are a mere existence and not one that is being lived. So condemned and defined by their OCD, depending on the severity, life brings nothing else but the same thought and behavior demands: I have this fear and so I must do this. Overwhelming, foreboding thoughts combine with the physical act to relieve oneself of these imagined fears. With the thought and the behavior process gaining speed and strength, the vicious circle rages and can be so extreme as to trap the individual to be confined in their own home.

Fortunately, there are treatments, prescription drugs and CBT(Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) either alone or combined, seem to assist with depressions, repetitive and stressful actions and feelings.

While Obsession and Compulsion are in two corners ganging up and anticipating a knockout, OCPD is in a third.
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder is defined as perfectionism, having defined rules, viewing everything as black & white where there is no middle, and that their way is the right way and thus the only way of doing something. Unfortunately, it does not stop there, as the OCPD sufferer must inflict their very high standards on everyone and everything around them to the nth degree.

OCPD
1. Personality disorder
2. Perfectionism
3. Preoccupation to rules, lists
4. Very disciplined
5. One of the better disorders to have
6. Control
7. Relationships generally suffer
8. They are always right
9. Very good at their job or career
10. Affects all peoples, ages, cultures, walks of life and incomes
11. Don’t believe anything is wrong with them
12. Estimated that 5%-7% and possibly as high as 10% of the US Population

As a personality disorder, it is not an anxiety disorder like OCD that is brought about by stress, unrealistic concerns or thoughts.  A personality disorder generally involves a pattern starting from childhood, perhaps, with unhealthy thoughts and behaviors. These disorders tend to make the person inflexible and not easily adaptable to change of any kind.

OCPD likes to hang out in the center of the ring, starting this behavior in the teenage years. Due to trauma or fear, the gene is triggered, beginning this unhealthy behavior. The longer it is undiagnosed, the more difficult it is to change the brain pattern started as a child or teen.

Ironically, OCPD is one of the better disorders to have. It allows an individual to have a disciplined work behavior, and due to the control and rigidity issues, substance abuse is normally not a problem.

OCPD affects twice as many men as women and has been estimated to include 5% – 8% of the US Population. Ironically, OCPD affects almost 7 times the amount of people than OCD, simply due to the fact that most adults do not realize they have a disorder! However, not only does this disorder affect those with it, it inevitably and significantly takes its toll on everyone else around that individual, primarily family and loved ones. We see the final blow signifying the game changer of at least doubling to 10% – 16% or more people affected with or by OCPD.

Unfortunately, there is no cure for OCPD, however, psychotropic drugs may help in the everyday stresses for the individual who has it. As any medical professional might say, “Admitting you have a problem is half the battle.”

1. Wikipedia.com

 

Be advised this is not medical advice. Listen to your doctor or mental health professional about treatments, medications or other recommendations. Do not stop taking your medication or stop treatment without speaking to a medical professional. Seek treatment or help for any and all abuses immediately and talk with a professional.