mrsd, that's very interesting you say that about needing some OC traits. Years ago on the old usenet TS list, there were many very long and amazing discussions about this very same thing. (that was long before it was taken over by trolls and made useless). It really interests me. I tend to perseverate a lot about certain interests but that's also when I'm most productive.

The problem with OC traits is when they pass the threshold and become OCD as in disordered or disabling. I really do think there are ways to use certain obsessive traits in a positive manner. I mean to channel them into production. People have done that since people first existed. Unfortunately once a person is in the OCD loop where the actual obsessive thoughts and subsequent compulsions become all consuming is when we have the problems.

It's especially difficult to see this in our young children and adults of course, but particularly in young children who don't yet have the knowledge or life skills to help themselves out of the loop. So yes, I totally understand what you mean and it is a very productive thing indeed unless it goes just that little bit further and stops being an obsessive interest or a perseveration and starts to affect other or all other aspects of our lives in a negative way. (and that's where the anxiety lives in OCD).

Thanks for the info. about the Inositol. I'll think about it more I think. I actually don't wish to lose all of my OC or perseverative qualities either. I need them so I can be productive too. LOL

p.s. I find it interesting that in a lot of the studies I read about the Inositol they specifically found it very beneficial for Panic Disorder which I'm thinking would be more about generalized anxiety rather than the anxiety generated by obsessions and subsequent compulsions in OCD but maybe I'm wrong.