• Welcome to Autism Forums, a friendly forum to discuss Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, High Functioning Autism and related conditions.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Private Member only forums for more serious discussions that you may wish to not have guests or search engines access to.
    • Your very own blog. Write about anything you like on your own individual blog.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon! Please also check us out @ https://www.twitter.com/aspiescentral

Autism vs social anxiety & OCD?

N

Nervous nelly

New Member
How do you differentiate between someone who has autism and someone who has social anxiety and OCD? I’ve always had a lot of trouble socially (for example in high school I had a phase of a couple of years where I had zero friends, I carefully rehearse what I’m going to say in my head before saying it when around people I don’t know well, I come across as super shy, rude or awkward to many people all my life, and I would always drop classes in college if I found out there would be an oral presentation). I also have some obsessive qualities like I pick at my skin and bite my cuticles (have done both of these daily, sometimes throughout the day since middle school) and I also obsess sometimes over people or things to an unhealthy degree. For example- I’ll become obsessed with skincare products and buy so many I can’t possibly use them all, and I’ve obsessed over guys I’ve liked in the past to the point where I still think about them for years after they’re out of my life and stay up late looking for photos of them on the internet (this goes for guys I never even dated, not exes).

However, I have several long term friendships and feel extremely comfortable with these friends. One of my long term friends is an outgoing social butterfly. I’m also married and have been for 10 years (my husband is also socially awkward). I also don’t believe I have any sensory issues- as a child I would sometimes get irritated by things like seams in my socks but never to an extreme degree, and as an adult I’m not bothered by anything that I can think of. I guess I’m just curious what’s “wrong” with me but don’t necessarily want to seek out a professional diagnosis at this point in life. I’ve heard that sometimes different professionals will give you different diagnoses, too, and that adults are especially hard to diagnose correctly, which sounds very frustrating- so I don’t really see the point. What makes you sure that you’re autistic and not something else?
 
My therapist asked if l could be OCD but she admitted that she has no experience with autism. Then she asked me what stim meant. l get what you are asking. Hope you find some clarity for your peace of mind.
 
Nervous nelly said:
What makes you sure that you’re autistic and not something else?
Click to expand...
Apart from the fact that I have an official diagnosis in which presumably the psychiatrist I saw was seeking to rule out other diagnoses that might explain my traits, I can relate most clearly to the characteristics of autism, and less to OCD. I can relate to some aspects of OCD but not all, and those aspects I can relate to (desire for precision and perfection, some repetitive behaviours) are the overlap that OCD has with autism.

Social anxiety - I have social anxiety. I was diagnosed with it in the early 90s before I was diagnosed with Asperger's. But Asperger's is more than social anxiety - it's the result of having a brain that works and processes information in a different way. Asd has a different, more complex range of symptoms but a lot of overlap with social anxiety - most people with ASD have social anxiety, but not all. Social anxiety comes as a direct result of having ASD - often because of unpleasant experiences we've had as a result of our different way of processing information, lack of confidence and feeling overwhelmed by social situations.
 
I believe OCD to be a fear of ...something... And the need to try to control environment or situation.

It can manifest in numerous ways,
Hoarding, compulsions, catastrophising, rituals and so on. (mostly forms of control)

When experienced over a number of years OCD creates changes in the brain. Living through OCD becomes the norm.
Self help and great therapy can reduce the impact of specific formed habits on day to day functioning.

I believe Autism to be a neurological condition present from birth,
And not a (loosely speaking) learned behaviour.
 
Crossbreed said:
Autism is a neuro-type. Both NTs & neurds can have social anxiety and/or OCD.
Click to expand...

I agree.
Also, you can be prescribed medicines for anxiety and OCD, while I haven't heard about any medication prescribed specifically for autism, only therapy.
Of course, just saying that autism is a neuro-diversity type and anxiety and OCD are disorders cannot help you decide which one you have. I have all three of them, for example, disorders being caused by my autism, but it is hard indeed to know which one is 'speaking' at times.

The best way probably is to do an overall psychological assessment (including IQ and EQ), to know which one you have...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New Threads

Top Bottom