I am curious about the intersection of OCD and neurodivergence. From some sources, it sounds like OCD is officially considered a neurodivergent condition, and from others, it sounds like we're still not really clear whether or not it "counts". I'm curious about how often it happens that neurodiverse folks also have OCD. Or do you have OCD and consider yourself neurodivergent bc of it? Personally, I'm still waiting for my first NOCD appointment to formally confirm or rule out OCD as a diagnosis for myself, but I think it would make a lot of sense for me as a neurodivergent condition. I am fairly sure I have some form of neurodivergence but this is the form that seems to be the strongest fit for me.

:(:

Date posted: 4y

I definitely consider myself neurodivergent. I have a lot of experiences in common with my neurodivergent friends. The way our brains work are similar to one another and our experiences are just different overall to neurotypical people.

Casey7madsen

Date posted: 4y

I identify as neurodivergent. I have OCD, misophonia, and schizoaffective D/O. (Mental health D/O are often argued to be neurodivergent as well). I mostly consider my OCD and misophonia as the “divergence”.

:(:

Date posted: 4y

do you know if ocd and misophonia go together at all? I really think I have misophonia but i’m just curious

Casey7madsen

Date posted: 4y

@:(: I’m actually not too sure. That’s something I plan to ask my therapist tomorrow. I’ll get back to you.

:(:

Date posted: 4y

@Casey7madsen cool, thanks!

JoyousEffort

Date posted: 4y

This is the very question that sent me back to university 7 or 8 years ago. After doing enough reading/reflection that being autistic might explain a huge amount of the weird shit in my life, I hired a literal forensic psychologist to do the mother of all psych evals on me (I was lucky to find someone local who also specialized in ASD in working adults). As part of the report afterward, she shared this paper with me that had just been published a couple months earlier: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23453885/

AEA13

Date posted: 4y

What does neurodivergent even mean?

JoyousEffort

Date posted: 4y

Neurodiversity is a term that describes a group of people (exact definition depends on who you ask). So “neurodivergent” is just the descriptive term that applies to an individual in that group. http://larry-arnold.net/Autonomy/index.php/autonomy/article/view/AR23/html

StillHoldingOn

Date posted: 4y

I think so..

megswift

Date posted: 4y

Can you share your sources? I haven’t heard this and am interested.

maybe_maybenot

Date posted: 4y

Honestly, I would just recommend googling "ocd and neurodivergence" and check out what information is there. Most of the first several links that I found look to be fairly reputable but I'm just not sure what the like, "authority" on this is exactly, if such a thing exists. But at the very least, a Google search like this will get you in the loop with the discourse, if not a specific answer 🙂

Lms526

Date posted: 4y

I've never done any research on this, but I don't consider myself neurodivergent. People with OCD tend to also be people of above average intelligence. OCD is believed to be the result of a malfunction in the brain. I don't think that is the same as nuerodivergent the way something like autism is. But I could be wrong.

JoyousEffort

Date posted: 4y

Being autistic isn’t tied to intelligence >_>

Lms526

Date posted: 4y

@JoyousEffort I never said it was. Autistic people can be incredibly intelligent.

JoyousEffort

Date posted: 4y

@Lms526 All good, just read like you were drawing a contrast- my mistake 💜

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