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For six years The Healthy Compulsive Project has been offering information, insight and inspiration for OCPD, obsessive-compulsive personality, perfectionism, micro-managers and Type A personality. Anyone who’s ever been known to overwork, overplan, overcontrol or overanalyze is welcome here, where the obsessive-compulsive personality is explored and harnessed to deliver what it was originally meant to deliver. Join psychotherapist, Jungian psychoanalyst and author Gary Trosclair as he delves into the pitfalls and potential of the driven personality with an informative, positive, and often playful approach to this sometimes-vexing character style.
The following two articles are designed to help you understand yourself better if you suspect that there’s something off in your tendencies to overwork, overplan and overcontrol. They describe the clinical manifestations of Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, also known as OCPD, and the more nitty gritty everyday aspects of what it’s actually like to live with the tendencies, even if you don’t have full blown OCPD. The term diagnosis originally meant to see through to wisdom, to see what is happening beneath the surface. Rather than to pathologize in the worst sense, our work here is to understand the suffering of the soul so that we can get our emotional needs met more effectively. The 2nd article clarifies the differences between obsessive and compulsive, obsessions and obsessive, and compulsions and compulsive—all important distinctions which tend to get lost, distinctions which could help us to better understand ourselves and move toward a healthier way of living.
How Do I Know If I Have Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder? And So What If I Do?
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD)
As many as one in 12 people have the medical disorder known as Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) without knowing it. In fact, while it’s prevalent and well established as a diagnostic category, it is one of the least recognized by the public. Also, the people who have this "disorder," are so determined to maintain order that they wouldn't consider that they have a dis-order. This lack of awareness leads many to perservere in being critical, workaholic, perfectionistic, and procrastinating.
OCPD is characterized by controlling, perfectionistic, and rigid behavior, and has probably wrecked at least as many lives, careers, marriages, families, organizations and communities as some better-known problems. But it goes unacknowledged, undiagnosed, and untreated partly because it’s more acceptable; many of the people who have OCPD are workaholics, and, hey, that’s OK.
At least in our culture. People in other cultures think we’re more than a little crazy for working so hard. But this is about far more than how hard we work. It's about using an old, ineffective coping strategy that we think we need to prove that we are morally good. More later on that.
How Do I Know If I Have OCPD?
If you’re sincerely asking yourself this question, it’s less likely you have full-blown OCPD. People who meet the full criteria for a personality disorder usually find their “symptoms” perfectly normal, if not desirable, admirable and virtuous. Certainly that’s the case with OCPD. And that’s part of the problem. People don’t realize they have a problem. But that may not be you.
Still, there’s probably some reason why you’re asking this question. Even people who don't like these characteristics can still meet the full criteria. But even if you only have some “traits” of OCPD, recognizing the tendencies in yourself can be a first step toward a healthier life.
So, first I’m going to give you the standard psychiatric spiel. Then we’ll get down to what this really means.
But before I do, I want to reaffirm what The Healthy Compulsive Project Blog is all about: seeing past the pathologizing, negative perspective on the compulsive personality and recognizing the more positive potentials that underlie it. Carl Jung called this the Prospective Method…but that’s for another post.
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder Criteria
According to the American Psychiatric Association, OCPD involves “a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control, at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts.”
If you have four or more of the following symptoms, you meet the criteria for a diagnosis of OCPD. If you have one to four of these symptoms you would be described as simply having some traits of OCPD.
DSM-5 Criteria for Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
Is preoccupied with details, rules, lists, order, organization, or schedules to the extent that the major point of the activity is lost.
Shows perfectionism that interferes with task completion (e.g., is unable to complete a project because his or her own overly strict standards are not met).
Is excessively devoted to work and productivity to the exclusion of leisure activities and friendships (not accounted for by obvious economic necessity).
Is overconscientious, scrupulous, and inflexible about matters of morality, ethics, or values (not accounted for by cultural or religious identification).
Is unable to discard worn-out or worthless objects even when they have no sentimental value.
Is reluctant to delegate tasks or to work with others unless they submit to exactly his or her way of doing things.
Adopts a miserly spending style toward both self and others; money is viewed as something to be hoarded for future catastrophes.
Shows rigidity and stubbornness.
(This is different from OCD. Find out more about the difference here.)
So that’s what the APA says. And it’s fine as far as it goes.
Let's Get Personal
A more helpful way of looking at this is to ask whether your compulsive traits have a negative impact on you and those around you. Ask yourself:
Do I cause suffering to others or myself through rules, control and overworking?
Do I get impatient, angry and judgmental when I am blocked from reaching my goals and standards?
Do I have difficulty letting go, and relaxing unless everything I need to do is finished, and finished perfectly?
Am I losing out on the possibility of better relationships or more joy because I work too much or I’m too rigid?
Have I lost the point of what I wanted to work so hard for in the first place? Is my life based on a conscious approach to living meaningfully, or have I become machine-like?
Do I take appropriate care of myself emotionally and physically by taking time for re-creation, reflection, leisure, rest, exercise and play?
Have I been getting depressed?
If I had to boil it all down, I'd say that if you want to know if you have OCPD, ask yourself honestly whether your need for rules, perfection and order detract from your well-being, your original priorities and your relationships.
Four Different Types of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality
Four fairly different people could all meet the criteria for OCPD, some traits being more predominant than others. For this reason I've described four sub-types of OCPD in a separate post. Here is a very brief description of the four types.
1. Teacher/Leader (who can get bossy, authoritarian and critical)
2. Worker/Doer (who can get addicted to work)
3. Friend/Server (who can become a people-pleaser)
4. Thinker/Planner (who may get stuck procrastinating and obsessing)
So what?
So what if you do have any of these traits?
This doesn't mean that the foundation of your personality is somehow irreversibly flawed. It's only a disorder because your priorities are out of order. They've been hijacked for security. I won't pretend that putting them in order is simple, but here are some essential steps.
• Compassionately acknowledge that you've gotten out of balance. Denial will get you nowhere, and intention will get you where you want to go. OCPD and its traits do respond to attention, and to treatment in psychotherapy. But they tend to get worse with age if ignored. Besides, there is good reason that you have this personality. (Find more about this in a previous post on the evolutionary and adaptive benefits of a compulsive style)
• Set intentions to withdraw from addiction to anger, to stop over-working and to quit being so rigid about how things are supposed to be. Yes, your intentions have been very good, but you've gone too far.
• Face into the feelings that you avoid by being so controlling and upright. Fear of being judged or getting in trouble? Fear of being alone? Fear of being found to be an imposter?
• Re-direct your abundant energy to the original intentions that you feel strongly about. You have passion, energy, and determination. You are conscientious and concerned. What's really important to you? Focusing on these by becoming aware of what really holds the most fulfillment and meaning for you will be essential. Part of the problem with OCPD is that people get so lost in their work and their rules that they lose track of how they feel, what they really want and what will make them truly happy. That's really what's out of order.
Of course there's much more to this shift to becoming a healthy compulsive. But the good thing is, because you are compulsive, you have the determination to apply yourself. If you bring the same determination you've brought to your outer world to your inner world, you will reap the rewards.
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Are You Obsessive, or Compulsive? And What Difference Does it Make?
What is the difference between obsessive and compulsive?
The terms obsessive and compulsive are bound together so often that we usually don’t distinguish between them. Even some dictionaries don’t differentiate between the two. But they are different, and blurring the two robs you of a chance to understand your personality and to target the issues you want to change.
To make the situation muddier, compulsive and compulsion, are different. Obsessive and obsession are different. Without distinguishing these, knowing just what to work on is also harder.
If you’re thinking somebody should have made this clearer, and somebody should straighten it out, I agree completely.
But meanwhile, we’ll deal with what we’ve got.
The Difference Between Obsessive and Compulsive
Obsessive usually refers to unrelenting thinking, whereas compulsive usually refers to unrelenting doing or behavior. Obsessive originally derived from the word "besieged," whereas compulsive originally derived from the words "driven" or "compelled."
The two terms were originally wed together to describe how many people use behavior to avoid their disturbing thoughts. But some people are more obsessive than compulsive. And vice versa. And some are only one or the other.
And more importantly, this formulation misses the fact that what’s really being avoided in both cases are disturbing feelings—not just thoughts.
Yes, some people are both obsessive and compulsive. And even then, noticing when you use which strategy could be instructive. We need to identify the background feeling that leads to the thinking or behavior.
Obsessive Thinking
Obsessive refers to a personality style that tries systematically to use thinking to avoid uncomfortable feelings. This isn’t about a few specific thoughts or obsessions, but about a pervasive life strategy.
Oscar, for instance, thinks endlessly about what he’s done wrong or could do wrong. Remorse and regret follow him like his shadow on a sunny day. Doesn't matter what he does. He'll regret it whether he goes to happy hour with his colleagues or not. He plans tens steps down the road. He tries to use thinking to get away from the feeling that he could make a mistake and hurt someone else. It doesn’t work but it’s hard to stop because the feeling of shame seems intolerable. But he’s not aware that that’s why he obsesses so much of the time.
Compulsive Behavior
Compulsive refers to a personality style that tries systematically to use behavior to avoid uncomfortable feelings. This is not about a few specific behaviors or compulsions, but about a pervasive life strategy.
Cameron, for instance, always keeps busy by getting things in order at work and home. Nothing specific, just a way of being. She genuinely likes the result of having a well-organized house, but it crowds out any awareness of something missing. She’s not aware that it helps her to avoid her depression and sense of meaninglessness that she’s hid from herself for so long.
The Difference Between Obsessive and Obsessions
Obsessive is an adjective that describes someone’s overarching personality style. It’s not limited to particular subjects, but rather is characterized by generalized repetitive and anxious ruminating that goes in circles. It’s justified as attempts to plan and perfect, but often leads to procrastination. The obsessive personality likes to think that it can successfully take control by thinking.
Obsession is a noun that refers to a specific intrusive thought that you can’t stop, such as a fear that your house will catch on fire if you forget to clean the lint out of the dryer, that if you touch a cat you will be dangerously contaminated by germs, or that you will grab a knife and kill your mother. Consciousness feels like it's being invaded by specific disturbing thoughts, such as losing control of oneself, images of violence, or becoming ill, rather than consciousness imagining that it can control everything, as occurs with people whose personalities are obsessive.
The Difference Between Compulsive and Compulsion
Compulsive is an adjective that describes an overarching personality style, one that's always doing, fixing, or working, but not necessarily hooked on specific behaviors. Compulsive behavior might seem intentional, conscious and in control, but too often it's a strategy for dealing with uncomfortable feelings.
Compulsion is a noun that refers to a specific behavior that you have difficulty not engaging in. When we use the word compulsion, we usually refer a particular repetitive behavior that we can’t stop, such as repetitively washing hands, checking locks, or turning off the stove. Compulsions feel like we're being compelled by a force that's out of our control.
Some people have all of these tendencies, but for most, one or two are primary.
Diagnostic Categories: OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) and OCPD (Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder)
These distinctions are reflected in different diagnostic categories:
Specific obsessions and compulsions characterize Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), whereas obsessive and compulsive character traits characterize Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). It is possible to have both, but the two conditions are distinct. See my previous post about the difference. or you can listen to The Healthy Compulsive Project Podcast Episode Five.
Diagnostic categories such as these can give us a rough sense of where our challenges are. Metaphorically speaking, they can identify the state you live in psychologically, but not the neighborhood. It can tell you that you live in California, but not whether you're in Haight-Ashbury or Beverly Hills. Your own version of OCD or OCPD will be different from everyone else’s. But it still helps to know which state you’re in.
In a previous post I described different types of OCPD that result from being more obsessive or more compulsive, with suggestions about how understanding these differences can help us move toward wholeness. You can listen to that blog post in Podcast Episode 8.
Moving On
No oncologist would simply say, "You have cancer," and treat it indiscriminately, blasting your entire body with chemo and radiation. Informed treatment specifies the location of the problem and targets it precisely.
If you want to work on yourself to improve the quality of your life, it’s helpful to look closely at whether you are obsessive or compulsive, and whether you have specific obsessions and compulsions, or broader character traits.
While each of these are strategies to attempt to cope with disturbing feelings, identifying specifically which feelings trigger you, which strategy you use, and when you use it, will all be helpful. Anxiety and insecurity underlie most disturbing feelings, but doing your own investigation of which feelings lead you to be obsessive or compulsive is essential.
Identify the process as it's happening in your everyday life, or in a session with your therapist. Once you can identify your strategy, you're much better prepared to make different choices when you notice familiar feelings arise.