Mediancat

-- and no, I don't mean "You get to stay home from work." Right now I'm suffering through a nasty cold and am both exhausted beyond words and suffering through the typical symptoms of a horrible cold: congestion, sinus clogging, headaches, etc.

I also have an OCD -- a fairly mild one, but it's there -- and have occasionally been known to suffer from anxiety (clinical). But right now my OCD is barely registering, and I don't feel anxious at all -- even about things I normally would feel anxious about.

Is it possible that either the exhaustion, the illness or both is somehow responsible for this? And if so, how?

Rob aka Mediancat

Puck

Besides keeping your immune system on it's toes and taking the day off? Naw, it's just a pain in the arse.

But yes, I too find that the things I think are important seem to pale when I'm ill. And I don't sweat things that would ordinarly get my goat, so the OCD abating would make sense. Takes too much energy.

I hope you feel better soon, Mediancat.

CheeseheadHeathen

I have severe seasonal allergies, and I've noticed that they're better when I have the flu (I suppose my immune system is too busy fighting the flu to fight pollen, mold, animal dander, etc).

Mediancat

I've wondered if it was something like that . . . but I can't see a ready connection between immune system and OCD. (Maybe I'm just missing something.)

And Puck: Thanks for the sentiments.

Rob aka Mediancat

trekbette

When I was a kid, my Dad would put his hand on my forehead and say "poor baby." It always made me feel better.

I like to be pampered and spoiled when I'm sick.

Now my husband takes care of me when I'm sick and he does a really good job. He puts his hand on my forehead and waits on me hand and foot without complaining at all.

Plus, I get to lay in bed, sleep and read all day.

Polycrates

For me, I reckon it's just that when I'm sick, I'm too busy feeling sorry for myself for being sick that I forget about feeling sorry for myself about whatever else it is that might be bugging me. But yeah, it's still a pretty bum deal.

Roland98

Actually, OCD is one of a number of (possible) autoimmune sequelae to infection with Streptococcus pyogenes (group A streptococcus). Most of the studies that have been done are epidemiological in nature and no mechanism has been worked out yet, but the possibilities are intriguing. Similar studies have been carried out looking at S. pyogenes and Tourette's, as well as with S. pyogenes and tic syndromes. (IIRC, all of these--or at least a few of them, I can't remember off the top of my head--affect the same area of the brain which Sydenham's chorea, long known to be a post-infectious sequelae of S. pyogenes infection, affects).

Debra Bessen at Yale has written a few review papers on this, if you have access to PubMed, and you're actually interested enough to do some searching. Or you can PM me and I can dig up some info.