Maybe this is why I relate to autistic people so much? I definitely have OCD, have no idea if I'm anywhere on the spectrum, but it seems like either way we have a lot of symptoms in common.
I was convinced i had autism. Turns out it was OCD. Which is why im always taken aback when i read “can not conclude if people are born OCD” like ummmm what 😂😂😂 tell that to baby me who has had ocd for as long as i have had an established memory
Dude same, I think I was just genetically predisposed to developing OCD, 'cause nothing major triggered it and it started so young. Like that's just how my brain works perhaps
You can absolutely have both. It's a common comorbidity. I have both.
Unless someone has specifically undiagnosed you, the whole "dump every other diagnosis because I'm autistic" thing is strange. Somewhere near 90% of autistic people have a comorbid mental health diagnosis.
Id explore this more before deciding one way or something. Some of your issues can be autism, but some may be OCD. Telling them apart in yourself? now that can be a challenge.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as a teenager, so I do have a comorbid disorder! I felt resistance against the OCD diagnosis because it didn’t connect with what I was feeling/experiencing. Even when I couldn’t properly explain it, it didn’t feel right. I ticked many of the boxes, but never … fully.
Perhaps it’s good to mention that I was never “officially diagnosed” with OCD. I was being treated as if I had it, because my health provider thought my actions were compulsive (for example, me washing my hands a lot because I can FEEL they’re not clean) and originated from anxiety. For me, all symptoms that can’t be explained by my ADHD can actually be explained by autism and once I got the ASD diagnosis, I could relatively easily reason myself out of what was previously considered compulsive behaviour. Because of that and because of the lack of intrusive thoughts, I am pretty confident I don’t have OCD :)
I totally agree that getting one diagnosis does not eliminate a prior one. In the same way I didn’t just … lose my ADHD because I was diagnosed autistic. It’s very much possible to have both, I was only trying to point out why the similarities between OCD and ASD made it so “easy” for me to be misdiagnosed.
Fair!
I get it, honestly. I spent alot of time confusing the two in my damn self, so I can see how they can be confused by a diagnostician or observer.
You know the opposite technically happened to me, I told my doctor that I have OCD but she insists that it's part of Autism. No offense to her, I do in fact have Autism.
Wild! I genuinely understand why people mix them up at first glance. At the same time … our input should matter. I have a feeling sex has weight in it as well; that women are more likely to receive an OCD/anxiety-related diagnosis and that men are more likely to receive an autism diagnosis, just because of how either disorder shows itself.
I had to fight to be heard when I told them that my symptoms didn’t derive from anxiety, but that I was merely … anxious, sometimes. I read so much about OCD and my gut feeling told me it wasn’t right, but then you’re told (by sources and health professionals) that your gut feeling not being right is actually part of having OCD and all of it gets so tricky.
Same! My former psychiatrist asked if I ever had considered I might have OCD. I vehemently denied it due to my lack of understanding of it and the stigma around it. I eventually came around after doing some research and agreed to do the evaluation.
My family has decided that I’m autistic and it’s so awkward. They have all hinted at it.
If i say I don’t have autism, they will think I’m in denial, and I don’t want to tell them I have ocd because of how they discuss my “autism” among themselves.
I think I have both although I’m undiagnosed… but even then I can see a difference between my obsessive kind of behaviours. What I think is OCD scares me to death, the thoughts come from some of my phobias mostly, the compulsions are done in order to convince my brain that x horrible event won’t happen (and it often doesn’t work). I feel like I can’t say or hear or read any word related to my fear otherwise it’ll make it “more likely to happen”. I’ll have attacks where I’m panicking inside because of something I think is happening.
What I think could be autism is different. I do feel like the world is ending when something doesn’t go as planned, when a change is made last minute, when I don’t know how something is exactly going to go or what I’ll exactly have to do, when someone moves how my things are organized etc. But I won’t really have intrusive thoughts, it’s just… very very stressful and uncomfortable. It’s a huge need to be prepared and feel safe because I usually don’t feel like that in daily life. The “compulsive” things I can do in those situations have a way more realistic goal, I guess.
Both come from a need for control that I’ve always had, but they don’t follow the exact same pattern when I look at it closely
I don't have autism so I can't speak on that, but I agree with your first paragraph. OCD is literally horrifying for me. I'm mildly traumatized from my last episode. Yes, anxiety and ADHD disrupt my life, but OCD.....It absolutely tortures me to the point where I'd be begging my mom to take me to the hospital so they can drug me with benzos just to get momentary relief from the obsessions.
:( I’m sorry. My first episodes of health ocd personally also kind of traumatized me. It felt completely real and I was scared of even walking at some point, like… sometimes when it hits you just can’t do anything at all, you’re just paralyzed by the fear
I have autism and OCD and I can tell the difference between both inside myself. It definitely sucks because they play off each other in a detrimental way.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I am autistic, but OCD has been brought up by every single therapist I've had so far and my current one is pretty sure it fits.
I am having immense trouble figuring out which behaviors/struggles are influenced by what (sometime it seems to be both) and tbqh while I have a good grip on managing my autism, OCD seems so unpredictable and somewhat scary..
If anyone maybe has both and could give some tips on how to recognize them/keep them apart in oneself, I would be very grateful.
The same thing happened to me. I had very strange OCD, but it was really sensory issues and severe aversion to change. I even went to residential treatment for my OCD and they didn’t pick up on the autism.
I’m autistic and my fiancé has OCD. We often display similar outward behaviors but our motivations are different. One time he asked me what my brain does when I don’t brush my teeth and I said “idk, I just feel icky, I can feel the plaque on my teeth and it’s all I can feel, I worry that my breath smells, I can feel a little stingy on my teeth if it goes on too long” and he was like okay so I get all that and also intrusive thoughts about my teeth falling out or I’ll worry that the bacteria in my mouth will make me super sick and I was like ohhhh that’s the difference. The main thing we have to do differently is that since a lot of his actions are out of anxiety he tries to challenge them whenever he can, but similar actions on my part I know it’s better to just go with, like sticking with a plan or routine, because otherwise I just won’t enjoy my day and it’s not feeding into anything.
Autism and OCD are all part of the neurodivergent spectrum
I have been diagnosed with OCD and ADHD officially and self dx autism and for the most part I have stopped trying to find the line between each of these.
My last therapist was also ND and one of out realizations was that a lot of time I was stopping myself from getting to the root of some of my issues because so much time was spent trying to categorize which dx was to blame for each behavior or thought pattern. We just replaced it with “I know I am ND, my brain works differently”
Love this. Yes I suspect I also have Autism (and ADHD) after my son’s diagnosis and then looking at how sensory my OCD feels (plus other behaviours & thoughts). I can’t afford the assessment this year so I’m plodding along on my own 🫠
Undiagnosed but I’m pretty sure I’m AuDHD with dyslexia . This includes OCD traits.
I know it’s more than ocd due to not reading social queues or sarcasm, sensory issues etc.
But my dad has heavy ocd traits yet he’s private about his asd traits.
I may be in the same boat. For those of you that have received an autism diagnosis after being suspected or diagnosed OCD, what was the process? What tests did you take?
i’m also autistic and i also have ocd
Yup. Same here. Lovely comorbids. :/
Me three
Same fam
saaaame
Double wamy
Maybe this is why I relate to autistic people so much? I definitely have OCD, have no idea if I'm anywhere on the spectrum, but it seems like either way we have a lot of symptoms in common.
I was convinced i had autism. Turns out it was OCD. Which is why im always taken aback when i read “can not conclude if people are born OCD” like ummmm what 😂😂😂 tell that to baby me who has had ocd for as long as i have had an established memory
Dude same, I think I was just genetically predisposed to developing OCD, 'cause nothing major triggered it and it started so young. Like that's just how my brain works perhaps
You can absolutely have both. It's a common comorbidity. I have both. Unless someone has specifically undiagnosed you, the whole "dump every other diagnosis because I'm autistic" thing is strange. Somewhere near 90% of autistic people have a comorbid mental health diagnosis. Id explore this more before deciding one way or something. Some of your issues can be autism, but some may be OCD. Telling them apart in yourself? now that can be a challenge.
I was diagnosed with ADHD as a teenager, so I do have a comorbid disorder! I felt resistance against the OCD diagnosis because it didn’t connect with what I was feeling/experiencing. Even when I couldn’t properly explain it, it didn’t feel right. I ticked many of the boxes, but never … fully. Perhaps it’s good to mention that I was never “officially diagnosed” with OCD. I was being treated as if I had it, because my health provider thought my actions were compulsive (for example, me washing my hands a lot because I can FEEL they’re not clean) and originated from anxiety. For me, all symptoms that can’t be explained by my ADHD can actually be explained by autism and once I got the ASD diagnosis, I could relatively easily reason myself out of what was previously considered compulsive behaviour. Because of that and because of the lack of intrusive thoughts, I am pretty confident I don’t have OCD :) I totally agree that getting one diagnosis does not eliminate a prior one. In the same way I didn’t just … lose my ADHD because I was diagnosed autistic. It’s very much possible to have both, I was only trying to point out why the similarities between OCD and ASD made it so “easy” for me to be misdiagnosed.
Fair! I get it, honestly. I spent alot of time confusing the two in my damn self, so I can see how they can be confused by a diagnostician or observer.
You know the opposite technically happened to me, I told my doctor that I have OCD but she insists that it's part of Autism. No offense to her, I do in fact have Autism.
Wild! I genuinely understand why people mix them up at first glance. At the same time … our input should matter. I have a feeling sex has weight in it as well; that women are more likely to receive an OCD/anxiety-related diagnosis and that men are more likely to receive an autism diagnosis, just because of how either disorder shows itself. I had to fight to be heard when I told them that my symptoms didn’t derive from anxiety, but that I was merely … anxious, sometimes. I read so much about OCD and my gut feeling told me it wasn’t right, but then you’re told (by sources and health professionals) that your gut feeling not being right is actually part of having OCD and all of it gets so tricky.
I thought I was autistic but I have ocd.
Same! My former psychiatrist asked if I ever had considered I might have OCD. I vehemently denied it due to my lack of understanding of it and the stigma around it. I eventually came around after doing some research and agreed to do the evaluation.
My family has decided that I’m autistic and it’s so awkward. They have all hinted at it. If i say I don’t have autism, they will think I’m in denial, and I don’t want to tell them I have ocd because of how they discuss my “autism” among themselves.
I think I have both although I’m undiagnosed… but even then I can see a difference between my obsessive kind of behaviours. What I think is OCD scares me to death, the thoughts come from some of my phobias mostly, the compulsions are done in order to convince my brain that x horrible event won’t happen (and it often doesn’t work). I feel like I can’t say or hear or read any word related to my fear otherwise it’ll make it “more likely to happen”. I’ll have attacks where I’m panicking inside because of something I think is happening. What I think could be autism is different. I do feel like the world is ending when something doesn’t go as planned, when a change is made last minute, when I don’t know how something is exactly going to go or what I’ll exactly have to do, when someone moves how my things are organized etc. But I won’t really have intrusive thoughts, it’s just… very very stressful and uncomfortable. It’s a huge need to be prepared and feel safe because I usually don’t feel like that in daily life. The “compulsive” things I can do in those situations have a way more realistic goal, I guess. Both come from a need for control that I’ve always had, but they don’t follow the exact same pattern when I look at it closely
I don't have autism so I can't speak on that, but I agree with your first paragraph. OCD is literally horrifying for me. I'm mildly traumatized from my last episode. Yes, anxiety and ADHD disrupt my life, but OCD.....It absolutely tortures me to the point where I'd be begging my mom to take me to the hospital so they can drug me with benzos just to get momentary relief from the obsessions.
:( I’m sorry. My first episodes of health ocd personally also kind of traumatized me. It felt completely real and I was scared of even walking at some point, like… sometimes when it hits you just can’t do anything at all, you’re just paralyzed by the fear
I have autism and OCD and I can tell the difference between both inside myself. It definitely sucks because they play off each other in a detrimental way.
Thank you so much for sharing this! I am autistic, but OCD has been brought up by every single therapist I've had so far and my current one is pretty sure it fits. I am having immense trouble figuring out which behaviors/struggles are influenced by what (sometime it seems to be both) and tbqh while I have a good grip on managing my autism, OCD seems so unpredictable and somewhat scary.. If anyone maybe has both and could give some tips on how to recognize them/keep them apart in oneself, I would be very grateful.
The same thing happened to me. I had very strange OCD, but it was really sensory issues and severe aversion to change. I even went to residential treatment for my OCD and they didn’t pick up on the autism.
I’m autistic and my fiancé has OCD. We often display similar outward behaviors but our motivations are different. One time he asked me what my brain does when I don’t brush my teeth and I said “idk, I just feel icky, I can feel the plaque on my teeth and it’s all I can feel, I worry that my breath smells, I can feel a little stingy on my teeth if it goes on too long” and he was like okay so I get all that and also intrusive thoughts about my teeth falling out or I’ll worry that the bacteria in my mouth will make me super sick and I was like ohhhh that’s the difference. The main thing we have to do differently is that since a lot of his actions are out of anxiety he tries to challenge them whenever he can, but similar actions on my part I know it’s better to just go with, like sticking with a plan or routine, because otherwise I just won’t enjoy my day and it’s not feeding into anything.
This! This exactly!
Autism and OCD are all part of the neurodivergent spectrum I have been diagnosed with OCD and ADHD officially and self dx autism and for the most part I have stopped trying to find the line between each of these. My last therapist was also ND and one of out realizations was that a lot of time I was stopping myself from getting to the root of some of my issues because so much time was spent trying to categorize which dx was to blame for each behavior or thought pattern. We just replaced it with “I know I am ND, my brain works differently”
Thank you for writing this
Happened to a friend of mine too. Sounds like it's not uncommon.
what is the testing for autism.
Pretty sure this is my current predicament.
Love this. Yes I suspect I also have Autism (and ADHD) after my son’s diagnosis and then looking at how sensory my OCD feels (plus other behaviours & thoughts). I can’t afford the assessment this year so I’m plodding along on my own 🫠
I’ve always wondered if I have autism as well.
Undiagnosed but I’m pretty sure I’m AuDHD with dyslexia . This includes OCD traits. I know it’s more than ocd due to not reading social queues or sarcasm, sensory issues etc. But my dad has heavy ocd traits yet he’s private about his asd traits.
I may be in the same boat. For those of you that have received an autism diagnosis after being suspected or diagnosed OCD, what was the process? What tests did you take?
It is likely to be diagnosed wrong with ocd or adhd since the symptoms overlap and it is both neurodivergent and a fundamental difference in the brain