u/Fryingpancake

My brain keeps telling me this is a stupid clarifying question to ask so I'm being brave and asking anyways. So this subreddit has a tag and flair for "suspected OCPD" and "OCPD traits", so like what's the concrete difference between the two?

Like is "suspected OCPD" meant moreso for self-diagnosed/suspected or (also) professionally suspected but not (yet) formally diagnosed?

And is the "OCPD traits" meant for self-diagnosed as having traits (but potentially not enough to seek and receive diagnosis) or (also) professionally investigated and "you have traits but not quite enough for a diagnosis"?

And full disclaimer I don't mean to invalidate the way anyone uses these tags/flairs or anything, I'm just feeling very uncertain about how those two are defined and differ from one another, since they can be interpreted in more than one way and can have a lot of overlap...

(And yes I am also personally pondering what would be most accurate tag/flair for me to use, since I have had several mental health professionals echo my suspicions of OCPD and an SCID II interview done as part of my ADHD evaluation some years ago also indicated a lot of OCPD traits, but that was never pursued further for some reason so no formal diagnosis for me, even though a psychiatrist did seem quite convinced of me having it, but the appointment was about other things and this likely can't be diagnosed during just one session in our system)

I wanna have a little light-hearted giggle with how absurd and arguably silly some of our things can be, so share something that you do that is more or less silly/absurd/ridiculous :D

Mine is that I often redo keysmashes (you know the ajshrgjsfjaihshd letter spams) if they don't feel good enough™, which is just plain ridiculous if you actually think about it, like "oh no, the random letters I pressed don't look random in a good way, gotta do it again" xD

I'm struggling to understand how it can be differentiated whether symptoms are caused by OCPD, perfectionism OCD or autism (or some combo of them), when there's such significant overlap. Like I get that one of the "defining differences" is what drives the rigid/perfectionist behaviors, but most resources say OCD is driven by anxiety, but from what I have seen here with a little scrolling, there's actually a lot of fear and anxiety in OCPD too. I did the POPS survey and was constantly just thinking how many things in it are similar to what is in OCD and autism questionnaires, so how can one know if it's OCPD or just autism and/or perfectionism OCD...

(And yes, I am asking because I am myself very bothered by not knowing which of these conditions apply to me, (well ok autism I am fairly sure I have) but I am not asking for anyone's opinion on what I have, just more clarification on how these conditions can be differentiated with the overlapping symptoms very present, so I could myself better assess what could be causing my issues and discuss it with my therapist)