Is an eating disorder some form of obsessive compulsive disorder?

[Wombat140]

Hmm, depends why he did it - I mean, what his thought process was. If he did it because he was afraid that something bad would happen if he didn't, for instance, that would probably be an anxiety disorder. Whereas if, for instance, he did it because the pain distracted him from something else that was upsetting him, whether it was his feelings or just some persistent noise that he was sensitive to, that would be something different. I've never heard of a blood-sucking compulsion before, but that doesn't rule out OCD because I often do hear of OCD on topics that I've never come across before - some people's brains seem to be very inventive!

 

(How a disorder "works" is often more important than the actual theme it's on. For instance, common forms of OCD include checking switches over and over again because you can't stop thinking "what if one is left on and the house burns down", repetitively tapping things to ward off the Devil each time you have what you think is a "wicked" thought, and repeatedly washing your hands because you can't stop being afraid that they might still not be clean enough and people might catch diseases from you. All on different subjects, but all working in the same way.)