OCD or Anxiety or both?

In my understanding of it, OCD and anxiety are very closely related states.  This makes it slightly more difficult  to distinguish or evaluate.  I would hazard a guess that this is the difficulty for mental health professionals and not only between the above two conditions as diagnoses is more of a precise matter in medical/surgical matters (OK, I'll admit not even then).  

Perhaps there is a need to reify* abstract concepts of mental suffering in order for mental health professionals to get a handle on what you report to them, in order to offer something that can be done about it.  Apart from referring to the DSM (see below) plus other texts and experiences of clients/patients there isn't a precise guide which follows as the problems themselves are not usually physically discernible. Mostly it is all based on what you report and perhaps how it fits into the theories and matches with what other clients report. It is not subject to the 'clinical gaze'#

Anxiety was seen as my problem as I had self-diagnosed myself as someone with OCD. However, some therapists believed it was an anxiety problem but with an OCD component.  

Perhaps the important thing is not worrying about the label or being labelled. But the label can help you identify what your difficulties are so you can follow or try what has been successful for others that have similar 'symptoms'.  Even here I've found using medical terminology an easier way to explain what I'm trying to say.

Can most of us 'be OCD' at times? Many people turn something over in their minds, may worry all day, for example, about a forthcoming dental appointment.  Being in love appears to be a classic OCD symptom, where people sit around (or even stand around) thinking of the object of their affection all day with either a big, daft grin or with their head down on the back seat of the last bus blubbing and muttering, "Why don't they love me?"  Perhaps, a mixture of both.

I suppose there is a kind of differentiation here.  Apart from the above examples, OCD-lite or OCD free people do not have the ongoing, automatic compulsive behaviour or intrusive anxiety provoking thoughts day to day which no external event appears to have provoked or elicited.

However, if you watch TV you may note how much more OCD has been featured as of late and (surprisingly to me) how much more common it is than was previously thought.  An addition to my understanding was hearing reports from friends or contacts that under stress they can display a kind of OCD behaviour.  They report finding themselves checking if things have been done, turning things over in their minds more than they usually do.

Perhaps the point I'm trying to make (!) is that sufferers of OCD and anxiety aren't experiencing something exclusive only to them as generally those not necessarily having identified themselves or having been 'diagnosed' can also display the same 'symptoms', if you will.  It is only perhaps a matter of magnitude that it may become necessary to try and formally do something to combat it, as I guess intermittent or rare bouts of anxious worrying or rumination or checking may pass by unnoticed.

Furthermore, there is always the factor that under reporting of OCD is common, due to the persistence of fear of being thought abnormal or mad if admitting to having problems with their mental life.  Although thanks to TV (As Homer Simpson would say) this effect is somewhat ameliorated due to its exposure and its recognition as being more common than previously thought.  If TV says it's OK it must be right! 


Notes and recommended reading

reify* to regard (something abstract) as a material or concrete thing (Webster's dictionary definition - I've always wanted to reference Webster's dictionary.)

clinical gaze# - apparently what doctors of old used to practice when seeing their patients return on a regular basis, as when walking into the room they could notice if they were looking better, worse, thinner.  Also, a diagnoses could be made by spotting physical signs (e.g. yellowing eyeballs = possible jaundice).

DSM - Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5
Perhaps not really a recommendation for the non-clinician (as the title gives you an indication of where it's coming from) but may be of interest to see what criteria is used in psychological diagnoses by psychiatry.