Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
ADHD is a disorder regulation where you have features of things like impulsivity, hyperfocus, sensitivity.
Chapter 2: What is the overlap between ADHD and OCD?
In OCD, you have a situation of obsession with something that relates to your health, morality, thought process, time, and you are stuck on this thing.
Dr. Alex George is an ADHD specialist
and one of the most renowned voices in the ADHD space. He's using his incredible knowledge to help you understand your ADHD and live in harmony with it. The cruelty is that OCD feeds on people that care, that care about their own health, that care about the health of others, that care about their impact on other people, that want to learn from their mistakes.
That is the perfect place for OCD to thrive. I tell you one thing for sure, I'd happily lose everything that I've ever done in terms of success and achievements and not have OCD and live peacefully because OCD has definitely nearly killed me.
On the extreme end of it, and only if you're happy to talk about that, how does OCD kill people? So OCD...
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Chapter 3: How does OCD impact people's lives?
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Chapter 4: In what ways can ADHD mask OCD symptoms?
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Chapter 5: What are the defining traits of ADHD and OCD?
References to suicide are made from the beginning. Dr. Alex George, welcome back. Thank you. Thanks for having me. You've had some interesting news recently, which in many ways might be a warning to our viewers and listeners. You've recently, as well as ADHD, been diagnosed with OCD. Yeah. Is there a big overlap there?
Chapter 6: How prevalent is the co-occurrence of ADHD and OCD?
Yeah, I think it's, to be honest with you, OCD is something that I've lived with most of my life, but had no idea that I actually had. And I think this is the thing about OCD. It's a sneaky, sneaky illness because it constantly hides behind your worries and your fears. And you constantly think that it's the thing you're worried about that needs fixing. not the illness itself.
So many people with OCD, like myself, will go 15, 20 years before they're diagnosed for that very reason. So if you're someone, for example, that's constantly worried they're going to get sick, your brain is focusing on not getting sick and making sure that your compulsions, your actions, are going to minimize that risk of getting sick.
What you don't think is that it's not the illness that you're worried about catching that's the problem. it's the OCD. You don't realize that. Or if you're someone that's worried about being a good person, you're constantly like, no, but this thing that I did makes me bad, or this thing, I need to deal with this in the right way, otherwise I'm a bad person.
You think that that is the thing you need to get to the bottom of, and you never do.
Chapter 7: What role does uncertainty play in ADHD and OCD?
You don't realize that actually it's the OCD you need to work on, and it's cruel for that reason. This core OCD is something where There's an obsession. So the core thing that you're worried about often preys on your biggest fears, maybe being a good person or, you know, say, for example, being a good person is your important thing that you want to be.
Then everything in your life is to try and make sure that you don't do anything that could be aligned with not being a good person or punishing yourself for any mistakes you've made that would align with being a bad person.
So it is very cruel because you have this obsession and then your compulsion, the OCD part, so the C, the compulsive part, can be not just people think of as cleaning or tidying pencils, it can be rumination. Rumination is a very core compulsion that people have. fact-checking, reassurance-seeking, checking your thoughts, your context over and over and over again, that is a compulsion.
Now, of course, most people want to be a reasonably good person. Most people have the ability to reflect and go, I made a mistake, I'll learn from it. But the difference is you'll never get to the point where you accept and move on. So a normal thing is like, I made a mistake, I offended someone, I feel bad about that, I'll remedy it, learn from it, move on.
It's not normal five years later to still be thinking about that interaction. over and over and over again.
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Chapter 8: How can individuals manage feelings of uncertainty?
It is a very cruel thing, and I think it's much more common in the ADHD community.
It sounds all-consuming and totally exhausting. Are there any positives of having OCD?
Not that I've realized.
Actually, no, there is one.
And someone said this, I thought it's very true. Having OCD means that you are, if there's a crisis, you're the most prepared person in the room because you've imagined every single day and experienced in your body a crisis continually happening. The way that it feels to have OCD is that you are living with your worst case scenario as if it's happening every single day.
So the visceral response you have, the anxiety, the worry, the dread, the all-consumingness of OCD is as if the thing you're afraid about is actually happening. So when a disaster actually happens, often the most calmest people in the room are the ADHDers and the OCDers. Those ADHDers will focus in and hone in.
And the OCD is, well, I've been preparing for this every day of my life anyway, so the worst case has happened, and actually it's not as bad as I thought it would be. And it's, yeah, I think that's about as good as it gets. I think OCD is a very cruel condition.
WHO names it as the seventh, I believe it's the seventh most debilitating condition worldwide, because it's all-consuming, it absorbs every part. It's all-consuming, can absorb every part of your focus, attention, and being. Suicide risk is exponentially higher in those with OCD. Co-concurrent depression is much higher as well.
And often people with OCD will use other ways to kind of cope with their compulsions or their anxiety. For example, drug use and alcohol as well. It's a really difficult thing to have. And a lot of people don't realize that OCD has a very strong genetic component.
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