OCPD - a little known disorder?

I thought I'd give this topic an airing, as a lot seems to be written about OCD but not OCPD. I admit that I myself make a lot of lists and am somewhat orderly, but I wondered when this would be considered to cross the line into being OCPD?

I've not heard of OCPD before, but I certainly can understand the symptoms as I've seen this in people. Not knowing the exact means of diagnosis for OCPD, it's not really possible to say when being orderly/making lists etc. crosses the line into being OCPD, but I would guess on a personal level, you could take it that crossing the line is whenever not doing those things causes an issue for you, whether that is physical, emotional, mental or even spiritual. I guess there will be different "levels" for different people.

And for people who have, how would therapists treat it?

Tricky one. I guess it would depend on the therapy you would consider having. Using something like EFT or FreewayCER it would be a case of either determining the root cause of the issue (EFT wise) or simply looking at how the issues manifest for you (FreewayCER wise), if in fact you find that it is causing you an issue (although I guess it is, as you've been to get diagnosed, so something must have triggered that).

Of course there are other treatments such as Hypnosis/NLP, Timeline therapy etc. and all should be capable of helping something like OCPD from how you've described it. However, something like EFT/FreewayCER are something that you could do for yourself and use to treat the issues (if there are more than one) in your own time as and when they arise.

There are, of course, other self-help methods and principles/philosophies such as those you can find in Louise L. Hay's "You can heal your life" or Eckhart Tolle's "The power of now" etc. or just through learning to meditate. Any of these could prove beneficial, though it may be a case of "try them and see".

All Love and Reiki Hugs

Thanks for your thoughts Energylz. I must admit I don't think I'm in the zone of needing to go for a diagnosis. Lol. But I have come across people who are - some of my managers certainly were. They were stubborn and rigid and used to insist on having things done their own way, which was very de-motivating. It was very hard to do things without getting criticised. Constructive criticism is one thing, and I accepted that, but as an example, letters I used to draft always used to come back with their spin on things, just for the sake of it. The saving grace was that my colleagues and I were in the same boat, albeit a rocky one.:(

I wish I had known about EFT when I was in those awkward situations. What a bonus that would have been. I am sure I would have been doing a lot of tapping.:D

OCPD is much less common than OCD and even with such fabulous tools as EFT would probably require a lot of work, as the limiting beliefs in personality disorders are so ingrained and intertwined that therapy is likely to be a long and painstaking process (though OCPD is said to be more amenable to therapeutic interventions than some other personality disorders).

I wouldn't attempt to diagnose anyone (including myself) - diagnosis of personality disorders is a really job for a psychiatrist (though many people in the mental health movement question the validity of personality disorder categories anyway) - but for reference, full DSM-IV diagnostic criteria for OCPD can be found here -

Masha