Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder: Symptoms And Treatment
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) which should not be confused with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), is a type of mental disorder that characterizes people whose desire to make all the pieces of their lives fit together perfectly has been taken to the extreme. In some way, it can be said that the problem lies in a kind of vital perfectionism taken to its limits.
Normally, in this type of patients they feel the need to have total control over how the events of their life happen, and this causes them to experience a lot of anxiety and anguish every time the plans do not go as planned, which It happens very frequently.
Next we will see what they are symptoms, causes and main proposed treatments for Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder.
What is Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder?
The concept of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder is a diagnostic category used in manuals such as the DSM-IV that is used to define what happens in a type of people. whose perfectionism and need for control over their own lives They have become so pronounced that it causes them a lot of discomfort and deteriorates their quality of life.
People with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder experience an obsession with doing things the way they should be done, without experiencing dissonance between their plans and what happens in reality.
This disorder belongs to the category of cluster C personality disorders (anxious disorders) along with Avoidant Personality Disorder and Dependent Personality Disorder.
Symptoms
The diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder like any other mental disorder, should always be carried out by duly accredited mental health professionals, and through personalized evaluation on a case-by-case basis. However, as a guide, this list of symptoms can be used to help detect this disorder.
The main symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder are the following.
1. Extreme concern for details
This manifests itself in practically all aspects of life. For example, the person plans very precise schedules that cover everything that should happen throughout the day, create rules for all types of social events, decorate spaces following very clear rules, etc. This attention to detail comes to overshadow the main purpose of the actions.
2. Rejection of the possibility of delegating tasks
People with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder tend to frown upon the idea of ​​delegating tasks to other people, since distrust their ability or willingness to follow instructions exactly and the rules about how things should be done.
3. Constant search for productive activities
Another symptom of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder is the tendency to shift leisure and rest time to occupy it with tasks that are considered productive and that have a clear beginning, a series of intermediate steps and a clear end. This generates great exhaustion and increases stress levels.
4. Extreme ethical rigidity
In personal life, the morality of people with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder is so rigid that they focus more in the formal aspects of what is considered good and bad than in a deep analysis of the ethical implications of one action or another.
5. Extreme perfectionism
The need to make everything go as planned makes many tasks take too long which causes them to overlap with other plans. This mismatch in schedules creates intense discomfort.
6. Tendency to accumulate
This type of diagnosis is associated with a tendency to save and accumulate ; Very little money is spent and objects whose future usefulness is unclear are preserved. This has to do with the need to know that we have the means to face future problems and the extreme need for stability.
Patients with Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder they hardly change their mind since their belief system is rigid and offers stability.
Differential diagnosis: similar disorders
Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder can be confused with other disorders that do not belong to personality disorders. The main ones are Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Autism Spectrum Disorders. However, there are certain differences that allow them to be distinguished.
OCD
In Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder, unlike what happens in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder there is no awareness that one has a disorder related to perfectionism and rigidity, since this psychological characteristic has become related to one’s own personality and identity.
This means that this type of patient does not decide to go to therapy to treat this problem, but rather to try to solve the problems derived from the symptoms, such as anxiety and fatigue derived from putting their habits into practice.
On the other hand, in OCD, obsessions are not perceived as something that is part of one’s own identity. Furthermore, in this disorder the compulsions are of a specific type, and the rigidity does not permeate all aspects of one’s life.
Autism Spectrum Disorders
The people who present Symptoms associated with Asperger Syndrome today subsumed in the category of Autism Spectrum Disorders, differ from those experienced by OCPD in their difficulties when carrying out mental processes related to the theory of mind (such as reading between the lines, detecting sarcasm, etc. .) and in their poor social skills, mainly.
Causes
As occurs in all personality disorders, the specific causes of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder are not clear, since it is a complex and multicausal psychological phenomenon based on variable and constantly changing psychosocial mechanisms that, however, generate very stable and persistent symptoms over time.
The most accepted hypothesis about the causes of OCPD is based on the biopsychosocial model, so it is assumed that its origin has to do with an interrelation between biological and social elements and the type of learning that has been internalized by the person. Specifically, it is believed that the appearance of Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder has to do with the neural networks most associated with the process of detecting patterns in reality that surrounds us. After all, one of the main functions of the brain is to “bring order” to the chaos of stimuli to which we are exposed by the simple fact of living on planet Earth (hence why we are so prone to detect pareidolia in crevices of the wall, stains on the floor, silhouettes of mountains, etc.).
Treatments
When it comes to alleviating the harmful symptoms of OCPD and preventing the appearance of other mental disorders facilitated by it, Attendance at psychotherapy sessions is recommended. However, as with all personality disorders in general, the progress that can be made with therapy is relatively slow, and the symptoms do not completely disappear.
Cognitive behavioral therapy can help modify habits and thinking patterns based on extreme rigidity, detect moments in which perfectionism is detracting from quality of life, and introduce more time for leisure and rest into daily life.
In some cases, medical personnel can recommend and prescribe psychotropic drugs to be used in a controlled manner and only under medical monitoring. In this sense, the use of a type of antidepressants called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) It has been shown to be effective in many cases if its use is accompanied by psychotherapy.
