OCD / Autism

I was dx with autism level 1 with audHD and anxiety …as I have gotten older I am pretty sure ocd is in the same dx …but you need to get diagnosed for sure bc some therapy think it’s anxiety vs ocd

I've always thought I was autistic, since I was about 14, but when I was assessed at 27 last year they said I don't have it. Honestly I wonder if my "autistic" traits can all be explained by OCD and ADHD, which I do have diagnosed. Or maybe the assessor was ableist and just couldn't see through my mask? Who fucking knows lol, I'm trying to learn not to care and embrace the uncertainty lol

There is so much information out there about what xyz symptoms means and how to cope with certain challenges. When there are so many opinions-even conflicting opinions-as to what the solution to certain mental challenges might be, it can feel overwhelming just thinking “maybe they’re right, maybe they’re not” about everything in life. If that were true, does that mean that “what works for one person may not work for another” may apply to 99.999% of life?

While autism may have you do the same things OCD does, the two disorders have different thought processes. Autism may have you line things up because it’s fun, while OCD may have you line things up because you’re scared something bad will happen if you don’t. I personally have to sit in the same chair every evening at dinner because otherwise it’s a break in my routine, which is due to my autism. I’m not scared to sit in a different chair; I just don’t like change. When my OCD was at its worst, it was pure-obsessional OCD and though I technically didn’t have any compulsions, I would get very scared that I would say something awful, and I’d sometimes whisper ‘no’ in order to try and disagree with the thoughts, thereby convincing myself I was making it less likely I’d say something bad. Where it gets a little confusing is when autism things happen that could be mistaken for OCD, like this one time when my English class’s teacher randomly decided to change everyone’s seats with no warning, and I started crying and had a complete breakdown. The key thing there, though, was that the bad thing *was* the change of seats, rather than a hypothetical bad thing that would happen as a result. So, if you’re treating autism symptoms, you’d focus more on things like calming yourself down when emotions run high; if you’re treating OCD, you’d focus more on things like exposing yourself to the scary thing and realizing nothing bad actually happens. Basically, autism symptoms are when you can’t handle a bad thing that causes you distress in and of itself; OCD symptoms are when nothing inherently bad actually happens, but you get distressed anyway because you’re scared that an unrealistic bad thing will happen. This is not to say that OCD is stupid and not real—OCD is very much a real disorder.

Idk you can have both, i have both. And you can have trauma, because of or independent of it. I have a tangle of all of it at once

I think it matters — I’m AuDHD and I have OCD. Providers have suggested that this helps explain my lack of success with ERP. And now I’m specifically looking for a neuroaffirming provider, or better yet a neurodivergent provider. I think someone who treats you should know how your brain works.

Thanks, everyone. It’s helpful feedback. It’s difficult to determine which path to take most of the time. Since it’s difficult to determine which diagnosis is guaranteed or most likely to be present, and since different providers have different opinions about the same presentations, it can feel difficult to know how best to live serenely. Even though this is likely to have been the case since the first humans existed, it does not make it easier to experience. Sometimes, this makes it harder since after all these years, these struggles still present across the World it seems.

I am an analyst-analysis paralysis sometimes. I question everything and that can help sometimes and not other times.