The 4 main differences between OCD and perfectionism

Two psychological phenomena linked to behavioral rigidity, although very different from each other.

In psychology, there are concepts that, being complex and presenting many facets, can overlap in some aspects, and be confused by the general public. This is the case of perfectionism and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which have some characteristics in common but must be distinguished due to the many aspects in which they differ.

Thus, in this article we will see what are the differences between them, in this article we will see what are the most important differences between perfectionism and OCD, and in what ways they affect the behavior of people with OCD.and in what ways they affect the life of those who experience them first hand.

Knowing this is very useful, because the lack of information about it can make perfectionist people worry for no reason to think they may have OCD, and people diagnosable with OCD, not knowing this disorder, believe that what happens to them is normal and should not be treated by mental health professionals.

Main differences between perfectionism and OCD

Before we look at what the differences are between Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and perfectionism, let's take a general look at the meaning of each of these two terms.

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a psychological disorder that appears in the diagnostic manuals. used in psychiatry and clinical psychology, and its symptoms have components of anxiety and impulse control difficulties (although it does not belong to the category of anxiety disorders or impulse control disorders).

Specifically, people with OCD experience intrusive thoughts that cause discomfort and distress, and try to dispel them by performing compulsions, stereotyped and repetitive actions similar to small rituals and whose goal is to make these mental images disappear.

OCD can be expressed through many types of obsessions and a great diversity of compulsions.. Examples of the latter are washing one's hands many times in a row, walking alone on certain tiles around the same room, closing a door many times, etc.

On the other hand, in order to speak of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, these obsessions and compulsions must appear very frequently and produce significant damage to the quality of life of the person, often even generating an impact on their physical health.

On the other hand, perfectionism is a category that has not been consensually defined among researchers in the world of psychology. among researchers in the world of psychology and does not form part of the entries in diagnostic manuals, and indicates a tendency to do things being very faithful to the plans and objectives established beforehand.

That said, let's look at the differences between perfectionism and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

1. OCD is always harmful, perfectionism is not.

As we have seen, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder always produces discomfort, either because of health problems or because of the expenditure of time and resources in rituals that do not bring any objective well-being, beyond dissipating short-term discomfort (which is also induced by this disorder).

On the other hand, although perfectionism can lead to many problems if it is present to a very high degree, and can even contribute to a rapidly deteriorating state of health, this does not necessarily have to be the case in all cases. In some situations, perfectionism is an advantageous trait, and in others it is not.In some situations, perfectionism is an advantageous trait, in others it is not; it depends on the context.

2. In OCD there are repetitive rituals

The main characteristic of OCD, and one of the clearest differences between this disorder and perfectionism, is that it leads the person to perform very specific and repetitive rituals.The compulsions are always carried out in the same way. In fact, if on any occasion a new element appears in the performance of these compulsions, people with OCD tend to interrupt the sequence and start again.

The repetitive character of the compulsions is independent of the context; they always arise in the same way, so that a person who observes these rituals will already know what the next ones will be like.

On the other hand, in perfectionism, rigidity is not present in such a literal way.. It is true that perfectionists adopt patterns of behavior linked to discipline, but this is a rigidity that makes sense in order to reach a medium- or long-term goal; it is not so much the discipline itself that is valued, but what the discipline makes it possible to achieve. Which leads us to talk about the following difference between perfectionism and OCD.

3. In OCD, the goal of compulsions is always the same; in perfectionism, it is not.

Perfectionists are perfectionists in many areas of their lives, since they aspire to achieve through it ambitious goals, on the one hand, or an order that allows them to use their time and resources efficiently to all the things they can do on a daily basis.

In contrast, when people with OCD experience the anxiogenic effects of this psychological disturbance, the purpose they have in mind when performing their discomfort purging rituals is always only one: to stop feeling bad at that moment, or to prevent the occurrence of a specific situation that would be catastrophic, and that tends to be always one of them.This tends to be always the same (usually, both phenomena occur at the same time). The goal is always to get away from something bad, and more specifically, something bad that is always the same or almost the same.

For example, a perfectionist person may clean his kitchen every day before going to bed so as not to have problems the next day finding cutlery or clearing a part of the table to eat, or simply because he understands that the default state of the kitchen is cleanliness, but a person with OCD will clean it for fear that the area will be full of cockroaches in a matter of minutes, and he will do it always following the same order.

4. In OCD there is magical thinking, and in perfectionism, not always

The person with OCD performs compulsions because he or she implicitly believes that these rituals will prevent something bad from happening or an unpleasant circumstance from having no effect. He or she may recognize that rationally this does not make sense, but feels that if he or she does not do it, something will go wrong. Therefore, in practice one falls into superstitious approaches (at least for that aspect of life, not necessarily in others).

On the other hand, in perfectionism, magical thinking does not necessarily occur, since there are objective reasons to think that doing things according to a plan brings benefits when it comes to achieving something.

How to seek help for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

As we have seen, OCD is a psychological disorder that always harms the quality of life of the person, and that always deserves a visit to a psychologist.

At Instituto de Psicologia Psicodea mental health care center located in Madrid and Alicante, which also offers online therapy, explains that with appropriate psychotherapeutic assistance it is possible to mitigate the symptoms of this mental disorder, even in cases where it appears at the same time with other disorders (something relatively frequent).

The key to treatment is to intervene both in the thoughts and beliefs, on the one hand, and in the actions and concrete habits of the patients, on the other. From this double path of psychological intervention, facilitated by cognitive-behavioral therapy, it is possible to transform the daily life of these people quickly and, although it is rare that all the symptoms disappear completely, it is possible to start living in a normal way.

For example, one of the most frequent tools used to modify the actions of OCD patients is Exposure and Response Preventionin which the person is trained to get used to not performing the compulsion and to let the anxiety dissipate on its own.

The professionals specialized in clinical psychology at the Instituto Psicode point out that much of the therapy is based on carrying out activities, and not on simply talking to the psychologist, as many people believe. However, psychotherapists guide each patient in a personalized way, so that they are clear at all times about what to do and why it makes sense to do it.

On the other hand, in many cases the use of psychotherapy is combined with the administration of psychotropic drugs prescribed by the physician, at least provisionally, to control the symptoms.

Bibliographic references:

• Koran LM, Hanna GL, Hollander E, Nestadt G, Simpson HB (July 2007). "Practice guideline for the treatment of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 164 (7 Suppl): 5-53.
• Stern, ER; Taylor, SF (September 2014). "Cognitive neuroscience of obsessive-compulsive disorder". The Psychiatric Clinics of North America. 37 (3): 337 - 352.