The OCD one bothers me when people say it because I have been living in an ACTUAL OCD nightmare my whole life and it isnt quirky or cute or funny.
Im genuinely curious on your case and how its been a nightmare.
Not trying to be an dick or anything. Ive got an OCD diagnosis but its far from life ruining. Id consider it more of a perfectionist personality trait and it gives me great focus for something I need or want to get done.
Im not haunted by any typical ocd symptoms you hear of like washing my hands multiple times, quadruple checking to make sure I locked the door when I know I did, etc. some intrusive thoughts but nothing I cant shake off with some concentration.
But I understand that my case may be pretty mild.
It isnt life ruining, its just annoying. I have rituals I do all the time with my hands and the way I eat and some other stuff that involve patterns and counting and eveness with left and right. I cant really explain most of them without showing but for example when I eat I always chew my first bite on my left, 2nd bite has to be the same size and chewed on my right. If the size is off it bugs me until I "fix it" on my next 2 bites. If I dont finish my last bite on my right (like if I miscalculate my food) I will obsess over it until I get more food to make it right. Thats just one of many things like even amount of steps with left and right when walking up stairs or in between cracks in sidewalk and it all adds up to me almost alwsys doing at least one ritual while Im awake unless im really distracted.
I see, I understand where youre coming from. Patterns and things being equal or in balance of you want to say that played a bigger part when I was younger. As I grew older I just didnt care as much or certain things like even numbered steps and things but of that nature disappeared. Honestly I think playing sports negated most of it, like shooting off the right foot for basketball or two touches on the same foot for soccer. Hard to explain but I just stopped caring and obsessing over it, especially when I realized it was detrimental to how well I could play.
fenderbender321 posted...
Is it possible to have the same kind of stuff going on in your brain to cause bipolar, but also have other stuff going on in your brain that sort of corrects it a bit and prevents you from going super wild and crazy?
Let me use an analogy. You have a leaking pipe. And the leaking pipe is bad because it gets water on the floor. The leaking pipe represents bipolar disorder. But there's also some nasty build-up in the pipe, which is caused by another issue. This represents another mental disorder. Because of the presence of the other disorder, the pipe doesn't leak very much water on the carpet.
Does that make sense?
Kind of... but not exactly.
Many (if not all? Definitely personality disorders) mental health problems are due to an imbalance of seratonin, noepinepherine, and dopamine in the brain. Cant remember off the top of my head but for example schizophrenics have an excess amount of dopamine and a shortage of seratonin. ---
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