Now, I know the following information isn't sexy or intriguing. It's not meant to be. It's just informative, and I will update and revise with other researched information as I can. However, this is good background for you in helping you learn where I stand,and how I stand where I do.
Obsessive–compulsive personality disorder (OCPD) is a personality disorder which is characterized by a pervasive pattern of preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency. People with OCPD may feel anxious when they perceive that things are not right. This can lead to routines and rules for ways of doing things.
The primary symptoms of OCPD are a preoccupation with details, rules, lists, order, organization, and schedules; being very rigid and inflexible in their beliefs; showing perfectionism that interferes with completing a task; excessive focus on being productive with their time; being very conscientious; having inflexible morality, ethics, or values; hoarding items that may no longer have value; and a reluctance to trust a work assignment or task to someone else for fear that their standards will not be met.
Some, but not all patients with OCPD, show an obsessive need for cleanliness. Those without this tendency are sometimes good at setting up systems to maintain cleanliness, but may not always follow through with their need to clean due to other "more important" matters. Some examples are, the need to get a good grade on a test, or to finish a project at work, might cause the person with OCPD to have a messy and unorganized home. This OCPD trait is not to be confused with true domestic efficiency, and over-attention to other insignificant pursuits may make the activities of normal daily living difficult to accomplish. If the same person were to suddenly become unemployed or finished with the activities that held more weight, they could very well become obsessed with cleanliness as their other activities take up less time, they may equally focus their attention on the unimportant but to them urgent tasks required of their other activities. Though obsessive behavior is in part a way of dealing with anxiety through control, it nonetheless may be accompanied by remaining tension. In the case of a hoarder, attention to effectively clean their home may be hindered by the amount of clutter that the OCPD individual resolves to later organize. The nature of obsession is to major on the minor; he or she may be living chaotically, especially so if depression and/or anxiety are present.
Whilst there are superficial similarities to the list-making and obsessive aspects of Asperger's Syndrome, that entity is different from OCPD, especially in the affective behaviours; for example, regarding empathy, social coping and social skills generally.
Completion of a task or problem by an OCPD individual can be affected when excessive time is used in getting such to be considered right. Personal and social relationships are often under serious strain because the "full blown" OCPD individual insists on being in charge and the only one who knows what is right. Uncleanliness is seen by some OCPD individuals as a form of lack of perfection, as is untidiness. They may routinely spend considerable time using a precise manner, as for instance putting everything in precisely the right place in precisely the right manner. OCPD sufferers can be anxious about the potential for things to go wrong in their lives and respond by hoarding money. Pathological money hoarding, which may come across as miserliness or stinginess to other people, may occur to minimize that spent on daily living.
There are few moral grey areas for a person with fully developed OCPD. Actions and beliefs are polarised, being either completely right or absolutely wrong, with the OCPD individual always in the right. As might be expected, interpersonal relationships are difficult because of the excessive demands placed on friends, romantic partners and children. Sometimes frustration with other people not doing what the OCPD individual wants spills over into anger and even violence especially when gambling where lack of self responsibilities show. This is known as disinhibition. People with OCPD often have a negative outlook on life, with a low underlying form of depression. This can at times become so serious that suicide is a real risk. Indeed, one study suggests that personality disorders are a significant substrate to psychiatric morbidity. They may cause more problems in functioning than a major depressive episode.
