I see the flat like his mind. Chaos but with neat little compartments like his bedroom x

I agree his mind is neatly arranged like his bedroom but then the main living areas are like an overflow of the chaotic mind we usually see. It's organised chaos.

I see the violin playing as his emotional side seeping out too.

It's not OCD, more like everything around him is an extension of who he is inside x

My son house-shares with a couple of lads who have OCD. Going by his experience I would say no, unless you count the sock-index thing. The living room is waaaaaaay too messy!

Wile Shelock may have some OCD, I think the main this is that he just could care less what the house looks like as long as his stuff is the way he wants it and meals hit the table when he wants them to. Shelock reminds me of a kid that way. "My stuff is where I want it and Mommy feeds me, every thing is all right with my world." 
Wile Shelock is no Monk I am glade he is no Sheldon Cooper. 

Iwantthatcoat wrote:

The many Watsons have always portrayed Sherlock as lazy and messy ( apart from the vanity of personal appearance).
I was thinking that anyone with that degree of observation would have a daily struggle detaching from his environment. I mean, can you imagine his cleaning a bathroom? It would never be done, never be clean enough. The details would jump out to him and the cleaner it got the more the details would just stand out. Better messy and chaotic so it can be ignored. A messy space is far more soothing than an almost clean one.

 
I have OCD but I am not phobic of germs, nor am I incredibly, pathologically tidy. I'm tidy, I keep things clean - but not like that repulsive man on ''Sleeping with the Enemy.''

That said (and beyond issues of tidyness or anything similar) I don't know if enough has been revealed to show Sherlock as likely having OCD. He's passionate about his interests, doggedly almost single minded when he wants to be, but doesn't seem to have obsessions (typically these present as harm obsessions - to self or other) or the compulsions that tend to relieve anxiety.

What you described - with Sherlock being so prone to being overwhelmed by changes (such as when Mrs. Hudson dusts his flat and changes the order of what looks to be his messy apartment) - is that he has an order that he doesn't want disrupted. He can be rather particular. But I don't get the OCD vibe from him. I don't get the sense that he's going to have a melt down if his order is disrupted. When he mentions his sock index (which makes me laugh considering what a pigsty most of the flat is...) I thought it might be one way he channels his intensity and restlessness into some sort of activity. Not because he has to have a sock index, but because he strikes me as the insomniac sort.

Of course, he does like to catalogue items, and put them in order (I could see him alphabetizing his books) - so maybe he's soothed by ordering items, but less concerned about the ordering of items out of an OCD cause?

What John said - about Sherlock seeming aspergerish - is somewhat interesting, because he has *some* tendencies that line up with such a condition (although he also makes good eye contact, moves rather gracefully and doesn't display many other of the key components). So I'm definitely not saying he has aspergers or high functioning autism, but *little* things make me think he may be closer to having a PDD disorder than OCD, if forced to choose.

For example, he trusts John - a lot - and several times in season 1 he cuts John off to qualify why people would like this or that, why they'd like the hat, why they'd want to know he's human. The questions seem almost childlike in a way - as if he can't work the simple (ie. 'boring') realities out - even though his mind can see through a labrythine maze of complexity when it comes to crimes.

I think he's created a little database of common human emotions and reactions and ties it to the evidence he finds, his observations - but sometimes he seems staggeringly unaware of how what he says or does could impact others, such as when he insults Molly during Christmas - then 'reads' her and sees her visibly upset - and apologizes. I really don't think he's trying to be as much of a jerk as he comes across at times. Not always, anyway. (When he outright manipulates someone, I think he understands the mechanics of what he's doing - but he often seems surprised by people's deeper pain once he stops to consider others, and I don't believe he's cruel).

That said, I don't think he's necessarily aspergers - but the whole thing about being overwhelmed got me thinking about sensory processing issues, and overreactivities. I am not aspergers, but I have sensoral sensitivities and many of the same tactics used to calm children or adults with autism I actually employ, such as weighted blankets for sleeping with (this can  help calm anyone - but the more reactive the system, usually the more positive results are noted), and as a child I had what could look like 'stims' and I tended to always fidget, seem hyper responsive to stimuli (removing tags from clothing etc.)

Sherlock I could see as having similar issues. He seems to have little, tiny rituals that seem to calm him (I understand why some people may think he has OCD) - and has imposed rules that he finds helps him focus - going so far as to not eat at all on cases. (I can understand him not wanting to feel weighed down with food - I have similar issues) - but this would also be common for a person who had sensory issues.

Even his lamenting being ''bored'' all the time to such a degree that he shoots up the walls with a gun (and he doesn't dislike Mrs. Hudson - I can't see him wanting to stress her!) could hint at underwhelm/ overwhelm sensoral issues. Some people - even without full blown autistic spectrum disorders - can have issues with underwhelm or overwhelm that cause them to do things that seem wildly inappropriate (again, without being autistic). Sherlock doesn't seem very sensory defensive in terms of noises, scents etc. - but certain things fit him.

Another thing to consider is - in the books at least - there were times where it sounded as if ACD's Sherlock could have bipolar. There is someone in my family with bipolar, and some of the descriptions sounded spot on. His impulsivity at times (shooting the walls, stabbing the pig with a harpoon and then trying to hop onto the tube) and his wildly vacillating moods (sometimes he appears so irritable but later gushes over John as being 'wonderful'), his intensity and drive - at times not eating or sleeping - and the hinted experimentation/ usage of cocaine and possibly other drugs (in the books he also shot up morphine) all fit, and in The Sign of the Four, Watson also describes Sherlock as getting into profoundly black moods and then coming out of them...suddenly treating everyone to diner and talking animatedly about everything under the sun (I'll try to get the passage). And the writers certainly love the ACD stories and seemed to consult them a lot when they wrote their version....

Honestly, Sherlock is one tricky and complicated character. (That's partly why I love him so much)

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with either him or his behaviour.

Manticone wrote:

I don't know if enough has been revealed to show Sherlock as likely having OCD. He's passionate about his interests, doggedly almost single minded when he wants to be, but doesn't seem to have obsessions (typically these present as harm obsessions - to self or other) or the compulsions that tend to relieve anxiety.

 

Normally I don't take a snippet out of someone's post to comment on, because taking something out of context can cloud it's meaning. That is why I took the entire paragraph here.

I want to comment on is the part in parenthesis. (typically these present as harm obsessions - to self or other)

I have to disagree with this statement. My daughter has been diagnosed with OCD and is both on medication for the disorder as well as seeing a weekly counselor. Like you, Manticone, she is not very tidy. As a matter of fact her bedroom is a right mess most of the time. Her stuff  (papers, books, what ever she is looking at or working on) tends to explode out of her room into the the living room fairly regularly. 

She has many very noticeable obsessions, and many internal ones that the casual observer can not discern, but none of them involve either self harm or harm toward others. These odd little behaviors or obsessions, if not preformed, will begin to cause stress to build in the sufferer until there is a stress related consequence. I have learned a great deal about this disorder so that I can identify building stress in my child any change in the obsessive patterns and see warning signs that will indicate that it is time for a med dose change. What I have learned is that these obsessions can be very subtle as well as rather over the top and exaggerated (example: Monk). The self harm (cutting) I have learned has more to do with anxiety related problems than straight up OCD. I have also found that the percentage of teens who engage in cutting is alarming. (In the neighborhood of 60-70%)

Given this information I, as an adult of nearly half a century, have decided that at least for some of these kids (maybe quite a few of them) cutting is more of a trend. It wasn't THAT long ago that I was in that teenaged soup we call adolescence and I only knew of one kid who cut herself and she was viewed by the cool kids, the geeks, the artsy clicks, the athletes etc. - as a freak. No one had the slightest idea why this girl would purposefully cut herself. Cutting wasn't a trend when I was in high school.

That analysis may be a bit broad, but it seems to fit when I compare my high school days to that of my children. We had plenty of issues as teens. My generation had its own ways of acting out. We still had the same suicide rates as we see today, we had the same number of drug issues as the teens today (different drugs though), but the cutting is new, plain and simple.

I don't even remember what I may have written in this thread before about Sherlock being OCD or not, but given my new understanding of the disorder, I now say that from what we are shown in the BBC one series, Sherlock is not OCD. I do not see any repetitive obsessive behaviors shown. He doesn't have to walk a certain way shortening or lengthening his steps to fit in a particular number between door ways or other side objects. He doesn't need to turn his tea cup a certain number of times before he can take a sip, or have to make sure his typing is symmetrical on the keyboard requiring him to type nonsense and backspace over it. (these are a few of the types of visually obvious obsessive behaviors I can think of off the top of my head)

I mean no disrespect to Manticone or anyone else by these comments. I am simply putting out there my observations based on half a century of living and being the parent of someone who has this disorder.

in addition to the above; try to take the test as if you were Sherlock.
http://www.psychforums.com/obsessive-compulsive-personality/topic57651.html

I think it's quite possible that Sherlock has OCPD - only he hasn't done his research, or, most likely, he's trolling Anderson.

Last edited by antigone (March 12, 2014 11:37 am)

Antigone

I have left Sherlock in belis' capable hands, but Mycroft isn't a a bureaucrat; people like that certainly exist but they are weeded out long before they get up to Mycroft's level. It helps if you remember that people like Mycroft make the rules; you can't do that if you are wedded to pre-existing ideas and structures, nor can you do it if you are close minded and unimaginative...