ocd is not same as ocpd
in my day, night and weekend job, i happen to be one of the world's experts in the diagnosis and treatment of ocd in kids (www.pcaad.org) so thought to chime in with a bit of corrective information. ocd is a brain hiccup that is isolated from the personality. ocd suffers have obsessions/rituals that typically involve contamination, checking, hoarding, symmetry, and religious or moral scrupliosity. there's nothing adaptive in ocd nor does the person with ocd find anything to like about being mentally ill. taken at face value, matt's list making or tendency to compare a and b therefore is not even remotely like the illness we call ocd. on the other hand, the tendency to be very focused and detailed oriented is a personality trait that can be adaptive, neutral or maladaptive, depending on the context. i'm not at all obsessive and can't imagine approaching kayaking in the way that matt seems to like to work. however, i enjoy and have learned from his posts, am glad that he has a lot of fun with skills development, am a bit jealous of the time he has to kayak, and don't think that any of this has anything at all to do with worth as a human being. just my 2 cents fyi. john