TIGHTROPE WALKING

OCPD
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder
by Amelia Johnston
Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder is a
very common and often hidden problem. It may even
be linked with domestic violence where sufferers find
they cannot get their own way.
Up to 3% (and possible as many as 10%) of the
general population are thought to suffer from this
possibly genetic disorder although they may not be
aware they do despite feeling something is wrong in
their lives. On the whole, though, they believe the
problem lies with other people. This does not mean
they are incapable of self-diagnosis, however rare
this may be.
OCPD appears to run in families, which is why it is
often friends, partners or work colleagues who first
spot something is amiss.
Dr Daniel has written a short downloadable,
completely free, Internet guide so as to raise the
profile of OCPD, designed for those who suffer from
it and those who know or work or live with a sufferer.
People who suffer from it are not aware, until it is
pointed out to them, that they have it, whereas those
who have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder are well
aware all is not well.
If you want to read more about OCPD, click on the
links below or here. You are allowed free access to
this copyrighted work, so long as all normal copyright
laws are respected, in short the authorship of the text
fully acknowledged, not plagiarised, nor the text
quoted in slabs greater than 200 words without the
author's permission through the publisher.
Those who have to live with an OCPD sufferer,
called here by Dr Daniel a 'Tightrope Walker', might
be relieved to see that they are not alone in their
dilemma: What to do about and how to survive living
with someone who might be lovable, fun, a bit of a
maverick, yet is clearly not at ease in her or his world
unless other people do what he or she wants. A nice
enough person, but very hard indeed to cope with,
thanks to their behaviour (see below).
Tightrope Walkers are often described as cold and
remote and 'perfectionist'. Not necessarily. They can
be sloppy about all kinds of things and quite fiery.
The problem with the professional diagnostic criteria
and some of the descriptions offered by these
practitioners, thorough and good scientists though
they surely are, is that these people may never have
seen a Tightrope Walker on home ground at close
quarters – in the house or car or at work.
The message boards on the Internet give a quite
different picture in certain key areas to do with the
way Tightrope Walkers present themselves to those
closest to them, when they are not on their 'best
behaviour'. When I first, as a professional myself,
read the diagnostic checklist, I did not recognise the
people I now know suffer from OCPD. Left out were
anger and violence, attentiveness to loved ones, the
regular lapses into depression, and the sheer
wackiness of some of the crazy rules they invent.
Left out too was the terrible strain on a family of
keeping up with obsessive tidiness and giving
enough attention to nitpicking detail around the
house and garden or on money questions.
Tightrope Walkers can be fiery, passionate, tender
and caring, great lovers even, but always with that
sense of being out of reach emotionally. They don't
open up easily, and they can become incandescently
angry if they don't get their way.
The things to look out for, among many other
characteristics, are these:

Insists her or his views are
always RIGHT
Must be in control
Rigid and stubborn
Reluctant to let other people
do things they 'do better'
Sometimes hard to get on
with
Can't see other people's
point of view
Nitpicking over detail
Money conscious to the point
of extreme stinginess

To read Dr Daniel's free Internet-version book, click
below:
TIGHTROPE WALKING
http://www.lendingtheway.com/tightrope/OCPD3.pdf