An amazing thing has been happening in my old post about the OCD of Howard Hughes. It has become a gathering place, for people to share.
I have made sure to leave it open, because people seem to need to talk. People are Googling the words “Howard Hughes OCD” with more and more frequency … and they get to me. Read all the comments – it’s quite extraordinary.
Ignore the commenters at the beginning of the thread who seem hostile to even discussing the OCD aspect of Hughes, as though it somehow takes away from his accomplishments. These people are not “my kind”. Move on to the more testimonial comments later in the thread.
Hey Red…
One of your commenters made a particularly salient comment about OCD – namely the difference between OCD and Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (OCPD).
As the commenter notes, most people we look at and say “that person is obsessive-compulsive” has symptoms of OCPD, not OCD, because people with OCD are much less functional in society.
Hughes apparently had full-up OCD, not OCPD, and eventually drove him to irretrievable insanity.
Personality disorders, on the other hand, are usually not clinically disabling. But with modern medicine, often the worst ravages of a psychiatic condition like Hughes’ OCD can often be avoided.
CW – thanks, I’ll have to go back and take a look. As you can probably tell, I’ve got doctors, reporters, and people who suffer from OCD all commenting. Some of them are children – 13, 14 years old. Amazing.