I remember reading somewhere that at least some cases of OCD involve a problem with whatever neural mechanisms are supposed to tell you that your task is completed. So for example, you remember washing your hands–but the part of your brain that is supposed to thereby register “Hand washing accomplished” fails to register, so you feel a compulsion to go wash your hands again.
Is that information still up to date? Are at least some cases of OCD known to be due to a problem like this?
If so, is it known whether the problem could occur in the other direction–one could have the feeling something has already been accomplished, even though one remembers quite well that it hasn’t been accomplished?
I ask, incidentally, because I suspect (mostly jokingly) that if there could be a disorder like this, I have it. It would explain a certain failure to attach urgency to the need to finish things. A kind of procrastination. If you see what I mean.
Well OCD is a disorder that is based in impulse control, yes, there are neural regions of the brain associated with OCD type behavior, but what you are saying seems more along the lines of a thought disorder something on the psychological side. I love this:
In essence Laziness, yes, I have seen this affliction before, subjects are usually male, 25-35…just kidding
Yes to answer your question OCD can be related to a thought disorder - as for whether the information in your head is up to date or not? Hrmmm. I hope so!
I know what you mean, and I would wager a guess that the info in your brain is part present and part little bits of the past.
I just asked my wife what the oppopsite of OCD was and she said, “YOU” - which is true. I definitely have ADD, have since I was a teenager, not an ounce of OCD in me.
>but the part of your brain that is supposed to thereby register “Hand washing accomplished” fails to register, so you feel a compulsion to go wash your hands again.
I dont think thats necessarily the case. OCD believes handwashing 100 times a day is fine. Its not like they dont recall doing it.
ADHD might be seen as the opposite as they can be very messy.
While I’m not sure I agree with that explanation as OCD, the explanation itself is interesting.
It reminds me of the recent discussion about people leaving their babies in the car. Almost to a man, (or woman) they “thought” they had dropped the child off somewhere. One describes dropping her husband at work (an unusual circumstance) and says that she thinks it “checked” and imaginary box in [her] head, “drop-off accomplished.”
So, this would be a disorder of neurolgic processing the exact opposite of what you describe, something that wasn’t accomplished, but was processed as having been accomplished.
Most of us have probably done this with less important things like putting a cell phone in a pocket, or picking up a wallet from the dresser.
The human brain, he says, is a magnificent but jury-rigged device in which newer and more sophisticated structures sit atop a junk heap of prototype brains still used by lower species. At the top of the device are the smartest and most nimble parts: the prefrontal cortex, which thinks and analyzes, and the hippocampus, which makes and holds on to our immediate memories. At the bottom is the basal ganglia, nearly identical to the brains of lizards, controlling voluntary but barely conscious actions.
Diamond says that in situations involving familiar, routine motor skills, the human animal presses the basal ganglia into service as a sort of auxiliary autopilot. When our prefrontal cortex and hippocampus are planning our day on the way to work, the ignorant but efficient basal ganglia is operating the car; that’s why you’ll sometimes find yourself having driven from point A to point B without a clear recollection of the route you took, the turns you made or the scenery you saw.
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Ordinarily, says Diamond, this delegation of duty “works beautifully, like a symphony. But sometimes, it turns into the ‘1812 Overture.’ The cannons take over and overwhelm.”
But the human brain is split up into a lot of quasi-independent sections. Just because the central consciousness knows something doesn’t mean that parts lower down aren’t firing the “You forgot to wash your hands, do it, do it now!” neurons.
And, as a British comedian recently pointed out, it shouldn’t be called OCD. It should be CDO, so that the letters are in alphabetical order AS THEY SHOULD BE!
I always read that with OCD the real issue was not the hand washing (or whatever) and that was purely a coping mechanism. For isntance, if you are having “issues” then to relieve the stress of those issues you wash your hands repeatedly instead of coping with the problem at hand.
It’s kind of like a distraction that has taken on a life of it’s own.
It would explain a certain failure to attach urgency to the need to finish things. A kind of procrastination. If you see what I mean.