By OCD, I am of course referring to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. I’ve been looking at a number of websites and articles online that talk about a connection between OCD and crossdressing. It’s very interesting to me because 1. I have mild OCD (self diagnosed) and 2. There are reports of crossdressers finding relief of their symptoms by taking medication used to treat OCD.
Firstly, how many of you readers are OCD? I took an online test that seems fairly legit. Click here for the test. For me personally, I scored a 16, and the test says a score of 12 and up means it is very likely I have some sort of OCD. Obviously it is not a foolproof test, but my friends and family members have made fun of my obsessive nature many times, calling me OCD. Watching movies of people with severe OCD people, I can see myself in them, having their same tendencies but not to such an extreme, so that I can still live a healthy life. This article describes me nearly perfectly, minus the paedo thoughts, but with other taboo sexual thoughts. Also, I do count things, have strange obsessions pop into my head repeatedly, I do have extreme compulsions about organizing and cleanliness, and of course crossdressing compulsions. However none of these things really affect my life very much in a negative way. They are all controllable and I do not think I need any medication. The only one that affected me much in the past was of course crossdressing and that one is under control even without medication. But that is me. Perhaps counseling for OCD, or medication for OCD, could be helpful for some of you in treating your crossdressing? That is, if there is truly a connection.
Here are some articles and excerpts from books that talk about the possible connection. See what you think.
1. Abstract – Paraphilic disorders among patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder: case series by Manuela Borges.
2. Abstract – OCD and transvestism: is there a relationship?
3. PDF – Treatment of Transvestic Fetishism With Fluoxetine: A Case Report
This is about a patient who was strictly interested in crossdressing, and did not have gender dysphoria. Different medications are discussed.
4. Google Book Excerpt – Today’s Transgender Realities: Crossdressing in Context, Volume 2 by Bolich.
Go to page 149 in the book. You can see that this author thinks the connection between crossdressing and OCD is uncertain.
5. Google Book Excerpt – Cross Dressing, Sex, and Gender by Bullough.
For this book, go to page 352-358. There are some possible medications discussed with reported successful treatment.
I also found this personal website in which the author discusses the relationship between crossdressing and OCD. Here the author discusses the connection – The OCD/Depression GID Connection. And here – Practical Suggestions for those seeking Alternatives – the author discusses medication and claims to know more than one person who found help from such medications regarding their compulsive crossdressing.
For me I have found great change throughout my life in being less obsessive and compulsive than I used to be. I know if Christ were not in my life I would be a slave to OCD. But the symptoms I described about myself, I have been able to change and force myself to adapt and be less OCD. And I’ve been able to overcome crossdressing. I also found this book helpful – Counseling the Hard Cases. There is one chapter on counseling someone who had severe OCD. Reading this chapter was especially insightful and helpful for me personally.
There is hope for all of us. But if you think it would be helpful for you to take medication, I suggest trying it, and don’t feel any shame any doing so. If crossdressing is ruining your life, and you have been mostly unsuccessful stopping the behavior through the other ways I have suggested, it seems like it doesn’t hurt to try medication to see if that helps. Then after you’ve been abstinent for a while, perhaps you can start weaning yourself off the medication slowly and see if you can still keep yourself under control.
Any comments?
My Score: 13 out of 20 (13+ –> OCD is likely / high risk). Caveat – I took this quiz while on Prozac (ie, Fluoxetine – I’ve been on it for a month so far) and free of CD thoughts/desires.
On Drugs, I found this article on dealing with OCD really helpful to me personally – https://www.sheppardpratt.org/news-views/story/how-to-respond-to-unwanted-obsessive-thoughts/
Do you have obsessive thoughts? For example thoughts about harming others or doing sexually inappropriate things, actions that you would never ever want to do, not any part of you, but they keep going through your head, and you are afraid you will do them somehow?
Yes !
Full-text for ref #2 above can be found for free at the link below. Let me now if it doesn’t work for you or if you’re nervous about clicking. PS, I wouldn’t mind paying for research articles, but there’s no way that I know to pay anonymously.
https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/46004925/OCD_and_transvestism_is_there_a_relation20160527-1833-1dxmlsb-with-cover-page-v2.pdf?Expires=1627916250&Signature=AnWBUvIchGBSDXcMd7193kfe93vF4sDELJPFHMl81kFtYSLSc1oKG~Mp76FbMBv3Q1OHa4BkWbJ1TWVwOTGhumD8FgG2lmS8m8nM9cxjpgPpMDJ1H87vXSGYAJmQq2W8nfNKaMWIwKi6XpVM8OblCo5MLtVsWz9UtAMBsaVnfM~rsCYd-78nQWgDqMLMw4C-TnwML~wyyD8A5BYPe4-APPeoT7v~gT91DSto9ZefHqR3YSG-gkVmREPElqB83CfQ1RYhdClcwQ2iqGU2cSgsJtAkL9S0RF80UTQowooOwE-VAGeWtyibGi0umDaksgF2gyXABJsEpFf2ZQM7lrTxvw__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAJLOHF5GGSLRBV4ZA
The link doesn’t work for me. It’s on my to-do list to pay at one of the research sites to read such articles. But I thought I would first read all the free links I have, which I’m not even close to finishing yet!
I’d be happy to e-mail the PDF to you, and let you decide whether to post it on your site. I believe you can e-mail me privately ? Or if you prefer, I could post it on a dropbox that wouldn’t take long for me to set up. I could also post some of the more interesting research papers that I have collected over the years, but I’m finding that chasing down sources on this CD-OCD connection much more relevant for me personally.
And THANK YOU for that !
I scored a 5/20 on the site quoted and “mild” on a different site. Doing two sites one after the other it was instantly noticeable that though similar (vague) topics the questions on one site gave a range of answers (1-5) but the site that your link goes too is a binary answer, so not sure how valuable the scores are.
Worth keeping an ear open for I guess.
Very interesting, your low number. As Barnabas pointed out in a post about the Fedoroff book, there is probably not one single cause of CD, and what drives the desire/behavior could even change over time. Just like a runny nose can be a response of the body to any number of stimuli; allergies, common cold, flu, cold weather, eating spicy food, etc. CD may be a common behavioral response to any number of different psychological or physiological impacts; anxiety about the burdens of manhood, some genetic screw-up, some malfunction of hormones in utero, an abusive father, influence of an older female relative, belief that only girls are lovable, etc,etc.
I have ocd. With the “d” standing for disorder it does have to negatively affect your life to qualify as a disorder. Many people can have obsessions and compulsions but not necessarily ocd. Also being neat and tidy isn’t ocd. Having to have things in a certain order to avoid extreme anxiety or keep bad things from happening would qualify to be ocd.
What do you think of the possible connections to CD?
Also, so many things overlap between different mental health diagnoses. You may be surprised if you got a physch eval done