OCPD Symptoms
“Symptoms of OCPD can include a persistent obsession with order, perfectionism and control, leading to inflexibility, an excessive focus on details, difficulty delegating, a strong need for rules and a tendency to prioritize work or productivity over relationships and leisure time and activities,” says Tarik Hadzic, MD, PhD, a child, adolescent, and adult psychiatrist and medical director of Newport Healthcare’s National OCD Services.
- Difficulty completing tasks due to an obsession with perfection
- Extreme doubt and inability to make decisions
- An unwillingness to compromise
- Going to extreme lengths to avoid their perception of failure
- Difficulty dealing with criticism
- Tendency to focus too much on others’ flaws
- Unwillingness to throw out objects that are broken or have no value
- Black-and-white thinking, also known as all-or-nothing thinking (thinking in extremes or absolutes)
- Intense control over budgeting and spending money
“Seemingly, people with OCPD usually appear confident, organized and successful, however, their inability to compromise or change their behaviors usually negatively affects their relationships,” says Roeske.
OCD Symptoms
OCD is a mental health condition in which a person has persistent obsessions and compulsions that interfere with daily life. “Obsessions are persistent, unwanted thoughts, urges, or images that cause significant anxiety or distress,” says Dr. Hadzic. “These may include fears, harm obsessions, intrusive disturbing thoughts, and persistent doubts.”
- Fear of contamination from touching objects that have been touched by others
- Worries or doubts that you turned off the stove or locked the door
- Intense distress when objects aren’t ordered or faced in a certain way
- Intrusive, unwanted thoughts about harming people, such as driving a car into a crowd
- Thoughts of losing self-control in public in ways like shouting obscenities or acting out in some way if you’re not careful enough
- Unwanted sexual thoughts
- Excessive preoccupation with your gender identity or sexual orientation
- Going out of one’s way to avoid situations that may trigger obsessions, such as shaking hands
- Excessive need for reassurance
- Bathing, cleaning, or washing hands until the skin becomes raw
- Repeatedly checking a door to make sure it’s locked or the stove to ensure it’s off
- Rituals involving numbers, such as counting in a certain pattern
- Silent repetition of a word, phrase, or prayer during unrelated tasks
- Attempts to replace each bad thought with a good thought
- Arranging certain objects, such as canned goods, in very specific ways
- Collecting or hoarding items with no value
- Constant reassurance-seeking
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