Why wasn't I diagnosed with OCD?

[Choochootrain1]

Sorry this is going to be a bit cryptic as I really don't want to be outed in RL...

I suffer depression/anxiety and had to spend some time on a ward a few years ago where OCD was mentioned but quickly dropped and never included in my diagnosis

If your still with me... Iv just read another thread on MN that struck me as spookily similar to what I experienced that time but that MN'er is diagnosed with OCD.

I'm just wondering if anyone can help me with what would make them decide I couldn't have OCD, what symptom/s would I have needed present or missing to avoid an OCD diagnosis?

It just would have made far more sense of what was happening if OCD had been the label... I was going along fine so everyone thought but then realised I had made a mistake (that was irrational/a non issue to everybody else) and fell apart to being completely devastated and not coping. When I say I made a mistake - I broke my own "rules" that id started living by for that period of my life.

I had completely obsessive thoughts for months, I couldn't even speak at the time other than briefly about having made this mistake.

I still secretly obsess over that mistake but the guilt isn't so consuming now I have the evidence in front of my eyes that it really was just all in my head that my mistake had ruined lives. And I definitely still regularly create "rules" that I have to keep for things to be OK...

?

Obsessive thoughts can be present in other conditions without it.being primarily ocd. Diagnosis can be a bit hit and miss in mental health and its often a case of the best fit in the opinion of the psychiatrist on that day. Do you mind saying what your diagnosis is/was?

Major recurring depression and also anxiety...

But this "episode" just didn't fit with other depressive episodes I previously had, there was no gradual slide into it, it didn't fit the same pattern iyswim

I just "woke up" into it one day, there was a trigger and I was set off for months...

Ocd tends to be life long from adolescence rather than occurring in episodes. Also with ocd the sufferer is usually somewhat aware that their.obsession is unreasonable or excessive. May be the reasons you didn't get an ocd diagnosis?
Hope you're feeling better now.

Ah ok, that could be it - I was impossible to convince that it was irrational, to me the rest of the world was bonkers for being able to carry on.

The rituals are very familiar to me, and always have been but that doesn't usually affect my life enough to be a problem (and/or I actively avoid ppl who suggest it is affecting my life) I don't have to turn things on/off etc, but will avoid various things obsessively and spend a lot of time researching anything I worry about. I think it's probably more about being obsessively controlled than obsessively compulsive perhaps with me...

I currently am functioning ok thankfully but still trying to make sense of how and why I got so unwell then

Hmm, I don't know really. It does sound quite OCD like. It is true that most people with OCD are as Majestic says 'somewhat' aware their fears are not rational. I don't think that your beliefs would have ruled out a diagnosis though. I have it and even though I do know some of fears might be irrational, some I am not convinced about. I frequently am amazed at everyone else's risk taking.

OCD is diagnosed not just by the presence of obsessions and/or compulsions since many people have them - to fulfil the 'disorder' part and be diagnosed it has to be having a significant effect in terms of distress and ability to function, taking up large amounts of time and so on.

If you really think it isn't affecting you much right now, you could leave it and raise the possibility if things get worse. Alternatively you could try to challenge your need to ritualise or avoid now, while things are mild and it will be easier. If you are still seeing anyone from a MH team, you could talk to them about it. Also there are self help books on OCD that might help you work out if that was part of what you went through, and give you some advice on trying to reduce its effect.