Self preserving illness? Intelligence - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

tigerdream · 10-13-2003, 08:03 AM

I just had a thought about OCD being a type of self preserving illness. It seems that it stops me personally (somewhat)in a sense from trying to stop it. I want it gone but know that if that happens, if I stop it I will be exposed to germs, etc. And obviously that is what I fear so why would I want to do that? I mean of course because it consumes my life much of the time, it can be exausting, I can't make my mind turn off the thoughts that are driving me to do all of these behaviors (see previous post) I want it out of my head. So I wish I was'nt this way of course, but, thats where the catch 22 comes in, if I was able to find a way to stop, I will be exposed to germs. Ugh, round and round. Does anyone else experiance this? Ok, also I wanted to comment on a previous post about someone saying perhaps OCD was an intelligent persons disease. I have just wonder that IF that is so, (not saying it is) that is it because genetically intelligent people are more likely to get OCD, or people with OCD are more likely to obsess when learning, in a need to know sense, therefore learning more about each individual interest and aquiring more intelligence on individual subjects. The which came first, the chicken or the egg thing. Are we over analyzing everything? I seem to, and discuss things to driving my point into the ground. I know that personally I reseach everything I have any interest in thoroughly. And have aquired alot of probably pretty useless knowledge in my life. But what do you think about these subjects? I welcome any and all comments. Thanks ahead of time.

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~tigerdream~

lynn45 · 10-13-2003, 05:54 PM

the egg the chicken, I don't know which came first.
Tigerdream, I don't know which causes which, but I think I go through the same problems as you. If a question pops in my head (which happends from time to time), I HAVE to research it and find out what the answer is, or I can't think about anything else. THANK GOODNESS FOR THE INTERNET!!!! The only problem is, as I am researching the first question (usually completely useless), I think of more questions that have to do with the same question, luckily, those questions aren't as important, if I find out the answer to the first question, I can usually write off the others.
Maybe us obsessing over questions and our minds going 400 miles an hour even when there is nothing to think about, makes us able to...cover all angles, when I think the normal person can just, you know, go to sleep...and/or relax.
AND I absolutley have to know how everything I come in contact with works and why it works. I think of this as a blessing when I am at work and I think well what if this happends and what if that happends, until I have covered every possible situation that could arise. I think of this as a curse when I am laying in bed and I can't get these questions out of my head until I absolutely cannot sleep.
I need a switch to turn off my thinking...OR at least turn it down.
I don't know, I don't know, but you aren't alone.

hangtenvetter · 10-13-2003, 08:38 PM

Lynn45, wowee. That was me writing your post. It amazes me over and over again to meet people like you guys, Tigerdream and Lynn, who have the same bewildering over analytical thought processes.

Quote:

AND I absolutley have to know how everything I come in contact with works and why it works.

I totally understand. This helped me in some respects, and hurt me in other respects. It hurt me in a way that you might not expect. It's hard to explain, but I haven't been good at encapsulating knowledge. Everything tends to lay bare. I only feel comfortable with a problem when I can build it from ground up and "see" it. I have a good capacity for "seeing" the whole picture. But real-world problems get really complex. At some point, you have to group things and forget about the underlying complexities. This way you can solve bigger problems with more complex building blocks. So I have always feared projects where the complexity outgrows my ability to understand each nook and cranny.

So when somebody asks me, "Do you understand that?" I most normally say, "No.", even if I understand it better than anybody else. For me to understand is to be able to hold the entire thing at once.

This, of course, has its plusses too. I get real good at things.

But a lot of it is mechanical. What I mean is that I can solve problems brute force with an incredible tenacity (compulsive problem solving!). If you exhaust all possibilities you can solve most anything. It just takes time. Or you can divide and conquer. Spit a large problem in half 20 times, you can narrow things down quickly.

Anyways. That is mechanical. Then there are those that are fluid. Things just come to them. It is easy. There isn't a knot in the stomach, an ache that drives them. It's the difference between a real artist that paints a beautiful picture in a few graceful strokes, and the one (like me) who can grid a piece of paper and tenaciously draw using disciplined skills.

BTW: The egg came first... everybody knows that breakfast is before lunch :-)

tigerdream · 10-14-2003, 07:26 AM

It is so nice (a comfort) to know that other people think in a similar way that I do in these particular areas, somehow it makes my difference from others around me in this way seem not quite as strange. I kind of tried to go through my life saying to myself "Well I'm just unique, I'm not like you," while inside a small thought swept by semi-ignored that said "but, you're a little strange too," I do agree, Thank God for the internet, a source of great knowledge, to comfort the extremely curious who always seem to have a question or two rolling around in thier head. Yes most of the stuff is useless, its funny, mostly, the only thing I do with that silly info is winning dinners for two at various restaurants on a trivia radio contest that they run everyday LOL!
I think when the mind races it fells like you've drunk ten cups of coffee in five minutes. One of the things that may be my biggest downfall in the "need to know" matter is I do this not only with mechanical and personal questions I have, but with people too sometimes. Not strangers, but with people I know. I need to know what they think in detail sometimes so I might bombard them with questions, sometimes an hour apart. And thier saying "you're still on that?" I just reply that I was just curious. Or like I said I can drive my point into the ground by going on and on, I seem to keep doubting that they are understanding it. I can explain things ten different ways. How annoying is that! Fortunatly I go into that mode rarely, (once every month or so). I bet they just want to say "Why don't you just shut up?" or "Why do you have to analyze this to death?" (they have said the latter) Oh well. LOL! I wish that when someone said to me "Do you understand?" I would say "no" but once in a while I spew useless facts at them, pertinent but maybe not to important at the time. I'm really glad that at this point I have a bit of a handle on that. Does anyone else do that as well? Thanks again.

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~tigerdream~

fm5 · 10-14-2003, 12:05 PM

Yes, I believe that ocd is all about self-preservation.

But, I also believe (and feel that statistics back me up on this) that ocd occurs at all intelligence and i.q. levels.