How to differentiate autism and ocd?

@ezzieorsomething all that to say me liking jpop for 30 years is me having autistic monotropic interest and me having a compulsion to "always make sure my door is locked" is OCD. however they can both look similar in certain ways. because they both can cause rigidity and immovable preferences.

@ezzieorsomething Thank you. I would say I recognise ocd in myself more than Autism. The hard thing is I have mostly mental compulsion (pure o). And I told my mental health nurse a very small part about my ocd (specifically harm) and they cannot diagnose me but they wanna hear more. I felt discouraged to though as they stated talking about how everyone has intrusive thoughts and they may think it’s just my autism. They don’t even know I have that either, they just highly suspect. But for years, since I was a little girl I have lived in fear terrified to tell intrusive thoughts until this year I came across a video explaining ocd and how you literally cannot move on to intrusive thoughts until it becomes an obsessions for weeks/months/years. I also realised years ago they distressed me and it was maybe just my anxiety getting really bad. But leaning about ocd made me feel more accepted knowing others suffer too.

@suenna367 I don't think the nurse you talked to doesn't understands autism very well. Autism has no preoccupation with harm or is really related anxiety. Autism can cause sensory overwhelm and meltdowns, which isn't the same thing at all. and autistic people can get anxiety from having to mask. When I said "everyone has intrusive thoughts' i didn't mean that as dismissal. i just meant the mechanism of OCD is that you cannot get rid of the intrusive thoughts. they feel sticky if that makes sense. the way my intrusive thoughts are for me is i can get stuck in loops for days trying to resolve a thought. i don't necessarily look for reassurance from others, wash my hands or do any overt rituals. (other than maybe checking the door to make sure i locked that but that's not a primary compulsion of mine) and that is still ocd. My ocd started around when I was 7 around existential and religious themes. so experiencing it since you are young is normal for ocd. When you are ruminating on an idea, theme, or "what-if" scenario for days months years, that can be OCD. no overt rituals need to be involved. Like sometimes my compulsion is just to repeat a thought to see if it feels "just right". obviously, I can't tell you for sure whether you are or aren't, since i'm not a clinician. What makes the nurse think it's autism? if you feel like sharing

@ezzieorsomething Well I before I had ever spoken about ocd, mental health professionals have suspected autism due to my socialising issues and finding it hard to make friends etc. it’s taken years to spot it because I’m very high masking. They’re quite certain. So when I mentioned the ocd, he wanted to mention that it could just be autism. Because of certain ‘rituals’ he said for example an autistic person might flip a light switch a certain number of times because they think something bad is going to happen (I don’t do that btw). When I mentioned the harm theme, I felt it was the most appropriate theme to mention and to be taken seriously enough. But he explained that everyone has intrusive thoughts like that, I tried to argue and say they were sudden and it repeated for a few weeks and scared me a lot. And that I constantly argue with my own mind to say it’s not true. I’d say I’m out of that theme now, as it constantly switches. And, I wouldn’t say I have many physical compulsions beside hand washing, everything is mostly mental. It started that way. It distressed me for years and I could never understand why I never felt 100% certain over my fears. I realised it’s most likely because ocd makes it hard to feel certain. I also have MANY other themes, but I’m too scared to mention them because he claims to know about ocd, but it’s hard to open up because I would rather a specialist.

@ezzieorsomething Also, he went on to say he thinks it’s a ‘neurodevelopmental’ thing? Idk wth he means. Isn’t ocd neurodivergent too? I have a family history of both autism and ocd. So I wouldn’t see why he would be discouraged to say it’s not. He only heard 5 minutes worth of my story. (Ngl it’d take daysss).