OCD and ASD overlap

[Orwell1984]

I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos and reading a lot of articles on co morbidity. A person speaking on one of those videos, herself an Aspie with OCD said there is a Danish study (which I can't locate) which says people with OCD are 4 times more likely to have autism and people with autism are twice as likely to have OCD. Pretty huge stats if true. Anyone else read this study and if so, can they link me to it please?

There is so much to learn. Feels like being in the twilight zone in the middle of OCD land and Autism land and part of neither tribe :/

I haven't been diagnosed yet but I am fairly confident I have both conditions. Which is a bit **** because then the intrusive thoughts about people and communication etc will always be there and can't be CBTd away. 

Is there any reputable info on the co morbidity of Aspergers and OCD? And just out of interest who else on this forum has both and how do you navigate the world without making the impacts of one of the conditions worse? Thank you

[Em00]

I have both. I don't know about figures on co-morbidity. On an ASD forum I'm on lots of people have OCD too. I find that most of my days are spent obsessing, either OCD obsessions or ASD related ones. I do think they reinforce each other (for me I mean). It is exhausting. 

[Wonderer]

Hey, I’ve mentioned before that my son has both. My own therapist also suspected that I may have both too, however I have so many coping skills now that it would be unlikely I’d have a straight forward diagnoses now, but I think had I been aseased as a child I may have been potentially diagnosed. I was sort of interested in finding out but the waiting lists here are excruciating and the adult support is practically non existent, so I thought I’d just leave it because the label will not make one iota of a difference to who I am today as a person. I frequently take an interest in random topics and google them to death until I’ve read all I can about things, most recently the ancient Egyptians lol, I find this is a harmless quirk and giveme pleasure so I don’t see an issue with it. When I was young I’d be fun and outgoing with certain people or a small group but when a new person or group was introduced I couldn’t for the life of me speak! I never spoke in class at school despite knowing answers and dying to speak up, something just stopped me all the time, I also felt immense pressure to keep up with my peers which resulted in me going to a school disco every Thursday night for months, I’d go in and stand against a wall alone until it was over, I just didn’t have the confidence to dance or join in but did not want to let everyone down by not going, for a long time I thought this was a a low self esteem issue but with hindsight and experience of my son I’m now thinking it’s most likely high functioning autism. Guess I’ll never know for sure!  I just focus on helping myself with my OCD and anxiety and don’t worry about the rest! One thing that makes me rethink wether I have ASD or not is because when I was a teenager I told a lot of lies in order to appear cool or interesting, it’s very embarrassing to think of now but I know what my motives were and I’d never act in such a way now, but most professionals say people with ASD find it near impossible to lie, my son can’t do it no matter how he tries! Then again it is a spectrum so maybe many can?! X

[Orwell1984]

Hi- I found the Danish study. Here it is: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4641696/#!po=39.8990

I get the feeling the social obsessions won't disappear. I'm very interested in a modified version of CBT that accounts for Aspergers. I think it is mentioned in the study (may not be because I've been reading so many articles lol. Yes I google everything to death too. Like a sponge, always need more info to soak up!) 

apparently, re lying, it is easier for women to lie through their behaviour as we have been trying to mirror neurotypical behaviour from the onset of being able to communicate so I guess it's inbuilt acting rather than lying? With men, it's less so hence women overall seem to be diagnosed later in life than men. It's very confusing but very interesting. 

Edited February 11, 2018 by Orwell1984

[JennieWren]

I've been thinking about this a lot, which lead me to read a bit more about female autism which seems to have different characteristics to those which men experience?

and although I would never be diagnosed as having aspergers, out of interest I took a few online tests as I have significant problems keeping friends, I find social occasions extremely stressful etc. What came up is that my personality is split pretty much down the middle of neurotypical and aspergers traits. Some of those traits have diminished as I've grown up and developed coping systems.  This has been helpful to understand as it helps explain why I find certain things very very challenging.

Orwell, I think exploring this could be very useful. Ok so it means you may always have significant challenges in certain areas, but at least you'd be able to find the right approach in therapy for you. And as I see it, you probably have traits that make you exceptional in other ways. They are worth celebrating.

[Orwell1984]

Wrong thread

Edited February 14, 2018 by Orwell1984
Wrong thread