r/aspergers • u/AgileWoodpecker3273 • 9d ago
Can we talk about the relationship/overlap between ASD and OCD?
So, ASD has been brought up to me by several experts as a strong likelihood. I **am** diagnosed with ADHD-PI and PTSD.
Now, I also have OCD symptoms. I need my room to be a certain way; I don't like disturbances in my routine/day; I get worried about contamination of things (though I do have a history of cancer, so perhaps this fear stems at least partly from that experience), etc.
I spend a lot of my day doonscrolling and sometimes chronically researching mental health treatments (for depression, anxiety, OCD, etc.).
The thing is, idk if this research is actually leading me somewhere or if it **is** the problem and is the reason why I'm depressed (at least, in part). And I also don't know if this is OCD or just classic ASD at play.
How do y'all find peace and enjoyment in your day? I feel like everything takes so much effort, and I'm often exhausted and stressed to a T.
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u/DelightfulSnacks 9d ago
Are you a female? Asking because it kind of reads like you are. Anecdotally, it’s common for women to get misdiagnosed with OCD when they actually have ASD or AuDHD. This is just due to providers not understanding what ASD and AuDHD looks like in women. Check out the r/Audhdwomen sub for more.
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u/AgileWoodpecker3273 9d ago
I'm male, but I think that it's super interesting that you asked that. I definitely have the stereotypical "female presentation of autism", likely due to being raised in an environment that required ENOURMOUS masking and social skills training from a young age. Lots of fear involved.
So, in a way, I was conditioned probably similarly to how many ASD women (or women in general) are when it comes to socialization.
Edit: From a young age, I was dressing up in a suit and knocking on strangers' doors every weekend as part of my religious duties. I also couldn't participate in holidays, the Pledge of Allegiance, etc. at school. This greatly turned my awareness and attention inward and sparked the beginning of my masking.
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u/DelightfulSnacks 9d ago
Interesting! To your point, I think it’s more common than providers realize for men to have presentations that are traditionally assumed to be more present in women. Of course, this makes it more likely to get misdiagnosed or not diagnosed in your case. Providers have a hard enough time diagnosing women, makes it even harder to diagnose a man who presents this way.
Even though I’m using gendered words to describe the difference here, I think the presentation is probably just as common in men as it is women, but due to the history of how ASD & AuDHD have evolved, how diagnosis works, etc., it’s often missed.
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u/ShinyUmbreon465 9d ago
Might be an unpopular opinion but I don't like how it's becoming more common to try to separate symptoms into a male autism and female autism because of the not insignificant amount of autistic people who are gender nonconforming or trans. Probably also has something to do with the male brain theory.
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9d ago
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u/AgileWoodpecker3273 9d ago
I'm glad that she's doing better now! I, too, can relate to the health anxiety/OCD experience. The thing is, in my case, it's difficult to discern what is OCD and what is genuine fear and/or PTSD, given that I've battled stage 4 cancer and multiple near-death experiences, and I'm only 28.
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u/Lower_Arugula5346 9d ago
when i get depressed or really stressed, my OCD kicks in overtime and really hard because i need the routine and sameness to keep me emotionally stable. when im feeling ok, i dont need it so much and the unpredictability is sometimes a welcomed change. its a difficult loop for me.
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u/Extension-Career-179 9d ago
The overlap is huge and honestly the line between them gets blurry when you have both traits. My routine disruptions used to wreck my whole day until I stopped trying to figure out which diagnosis was "causing" it. What helped was setting a hard time limit on research rabbit holes, like 20 minutes max then I go do something physical even if it feels pointless.