Thanks for that. It's one area that's still confusing to me after all these years. That's an excellent OC Foundation link you posted. There's so much OC overlap in so many different conditions that affect us here.

I guess in the long run though it doesn't matter what it's called, hey, just if it's so bad that it's disrupting our lives then we need to figure out how to treat it the right way.

There's actually been quite a lot of work done on researching hoarding in people with Tourette Syndrome which also has overlap with OC behaviours. An example of that research below. A lot of people with TS, for example, might experience compulsions without the obsessive thoughts... that is, without any anxiety. Same with Autism when I think about it. Simon Baron-Cohen wrote a extensive papers regarding the different behaviours between OCD in people with and without Autism. Ref: Folk Physics.

Then again, some people can have more than one condition at the same time, so that's where the water gets muddy and difficult to sort out. To outside onlookers, some of that hoarding type behaviour that is often seen in people with autism could look like OCD, but it's different.

I find this an interesting subject and thanks for posting about it.

as we had two threads with duplicated info I have removed the previous one that firemonkey started.
I had received a request to make that thread sticky, but as the discussion is now taking place on this thread, I have left a redirect to this thread on the "useful websites" sticky above
This will avoid any confusion that could arise with duplicated threads etc
Sorry for any confusion and let me know if any further action is needed.

Very interesting discussion btw

Am J Psychiatry 164:380-384, March 2007

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/...full/164/3/380

Editorial

Is Compulsive Hoarding a Genetically and Neurobiologically Discrete Syndrome? Implications for Diagnostic Classification

Sanjaya Saxena, M.D.

I spent my adult life working insurance claims. One of the more memorable claims involves a hoarder. I was called to a residential, fatal fire that killed the resident who was a hoarder. Every room in this two story, three bedroom house with a full basement was filled to the ceiling. The fire marshal said the fire started when the weight of contents in the kitchen, put excessive pressure on some matches at the bottom of the contents, and the matches ignited causing the fire. The resident was sleeping upstair and panicked when she smelled smoke. In her attempt to exit the home, she inadvertently knocked over some of her possessions, blocking her path out of the room, and out of the home. Because of the amount of the contents in her home, she became trapped and died of smoke inhalation. In short, her hoarding caused her demise.