rockgeek

Hey everyone, I don't know much about all the different ways OCD manifests itself, but lately I've been wondering more and more about my mom, my brother, and even myself. We all seem to have different symptoms of OCD and I was curious if OCD is something that is genetically linked?

Here are some of the reasons I'm curious: Let's start with my mom. First of all, I'm now 18, and I've never had a good relationship with my mom. I've never liked being at home because my mom is a horrible packrat. She never throws anything away, instead she puts everything away in boxes, all with labels of what's inside. And these arn't just a few boxes, I mean, my entire house is filled with boxes. We have a single path that leads through our living room, kitchen, den, and through a hallway. Her room doesn't even exist as a bedroom anymore, it's been enitrely filled with boxes, and now my mom sleeps hunched over the kitchen table. After 4 years of trying to find a place to put everything that had been in my room, I now have the only real room in the house. My brother's room is also filled with boxes.

Any attempt I've ever made to get rid of these horrible boxes has been met with threats to change the locks on the doors and to be kicked out. As far as I know, my mom has never seen a psychiatrist, and I doubt she ever will. By now I know that all of this is not normal, and I have a feeling it's OCD related, although I can't really think of any other OCD-ish things she might do.

Now for my brother: When he was younger, we thought he had Tourette's because every few months or so he would develop a new tic. One thing he used to do was make a low noise in his throat every 30 seconds, without being able to control it. He also used to have a thing where he'd have to look over his shoulder every minute, also something he couldn't control. While I used to think this might have been Tourette's, from some of the posts on here, little things like that seem like they might be OCD-related.

And now for me: I suffer from both anorexia and bulimia, although I'm currently recovering. The main thing behind these two disorders is the control I have over my food. I've also heard that the control thing could be OCD-linked.

Sorry for the super long post, but if anyone might be able to shed light on any of this, it'd be very appreciated.

-Denise