OCD and Serial Killers *may be very triggering*

Do serial killers have OCD? Somewhere I read serial killing comes in a cycle of fantasy, the compulsion to act out the fantasy, relief of tension, depression, and back to fantasizing.

Some might. There's not much study done into this sort of thing - it's very hard to understand Serial Killers because they're so willing to lie about anything for nearly any reason that it can be excruciatingly difficult to discern the truth about their childhood or backgrounds.

The fantasy aspect seems indicative of OCD, but I read about serial killers on a fairly frequent basis and I can't seem to think of any particular serial killers who come to mind as having been noted as having OCD. It sounds like a definite possibility, however:

1) People who have intrusive "bad thoughts" as a result of OCD are aware of the negativity of these thoughts and understand that they are undesirable and do not want to think of them. Most of these serial killers, while having violent fantasies, do not seem to have any history of wanting to supress them, and from a young age most seem to be very comfortable with the fantasies and don't regard them as something intrusive.

2) "Intrusive thoughts" seem to be the only aspect of OCD that might fit these serial killers. I can't think of many who displayed any other OCD behavior. Remember that some of the criteria for having "Obessions" include:

Recurrent and persistent thoughts, impulses, or images that are experienced at some time during the disturbance, as intrusive and inappropriate and that cause marked anxiety or distress.
The person attempts to ignore or suppress such thoughts, impulses, or images, or to neutralize them with some other thought or action.

These seem like things that wouldn't occur with serial killers, as they are in no way "distressed" by their fantasies (more often than not they probably enjoy them - serial killers often describe the fantasies as something more pleasing than the murders themselves) and generally don't engage in any routines to try and supress these thoughts.

Most Serial Killers seemed to be very good at appearing charming and "normal" - something those of us with OCD often have great difficulty doing.

However, one might argue that some serial killers have some form of OCD, and instead of "canceling out" the obsession with some other ritual, they do so by engaging in the fantasy directly. Ted Bundy, prior to his death, began talking about "The Entity", a force that he claimed seemed to "compell" him towards comitting his acts. However, he only began mentioning this just prior to his execution - being a sociopath it is not unlikely that he was lying in order to postpone his termination; Bundy was very intelligent, having managed to escape twice in the past, only to go on and engage in more murders.

This is absolutely preposterous. There is no link between this disorder and serial killers.
This subject isn't very appropriate for the OCD room as it can be very to triggering to some. If it causes a whole heap of drama I will have to ask the other mods if I can delete it. But for now it seems to be ok.
Ya see folks, those of us with OCD that includes thought intrusions of a violent nature get extremely frightened by these thought intrusions. We know that they are not a product of our own character. Yet they scare us because they are so far from our dispositions that we fear that we are going crazy or one day our hands will idly commit this terrible act that has so rudely interrupted our thought processes. We as rational people in this moment know this is not possible.
The truth is, we would never do these things and that is what brings us to the doctors thinking that we are confessing to all of these sick thoughts and that we are going to be locked up in the bin forever. But usually they turn us away with a diagnosis and a script of an SSRI or something. If there were a link I highly doubt that this would be treated so simply. And that it would be your two brilliant minds that have discovered this lost truth. Come on guys. I love to explore different ideas and I don't always just accept society's word as god, but you guys are really reaching. And probably scaring the crap out of some people. I have been there. Luckily I have moved past this. But a year ago, I would have thought for a second that I was a serial killer in the making. Lol, that is the furthest from the truth. But, this post would have set me off into hysteria and I would begin searching and ruminating for clues as to if this was true or if it wasn't. This would go on for hours.
There is a huge difference between a thought intrusion and a delusion or auditory hallucination or thought insertion. It is impossible for someone, unless of course psychotic, who has an intrusive thought to believe the thought and act it out. When that does happen it is something way more severe than OCD. The intrusive thought is not a delusion or belief and and if so then it is not unwanted therefore not a product of the disorder. These intrusive thoughts are unwanted and cause anxiety and if they didn't it would not be considered this disorder. As this is an anxiety disorder.
Obsessions and compulsive behavior can be a symptom of many different illnesses including schizophrenia. People can just be obsessed without any disorder. And we all compulsively do things from time to time.

However, one might argue that some serial killers have some form of OCD, and instead of "canceling out" the obsession with some other ritual, they do so by engaging in the fantasy directly.

Nope. Wouldn't be considered ocd then.

Ted Bundy, prior to his death, began talking about "The Entity", a force that he claimed seemed to "compell" him towards comitting his acts

That would be considered psychotic.

You know, I really don't know why some people get so upset when another person tries to see a correlation between Serial Killers and OCD. Serial Killers often talk about having urges to kill. I can see how one might see the correlation;however, from what I understand, OCD is a form of Anxiety and Serial Killers are more into power and control. It seems they may also have more of a impulse control issue, to the point of being Psychotic.
With that being said, I am no expert. I just thought I had OCD at one point and a Psychologist explained what it is, basically.
Now, I would like to share my experience with actual OCD people to see what they think. I took Prozac for depression but I never considered myself OCD. Prozac can also be taken for OCD, apparently. I noticed after a couple of weeks, I lost weight. I was able to control my impulses to eat. I also noticed I was able to be more disciplined.
Is that normal? I don't feel Anxiety but do I have small OCD and I just don't notice it?

Garyp41 wrote:You know, I really don't know why some people get so upset when another person tries to see a correlation between Serial Killers and OCD.

Answer: because many people who have OCD, suffer the fear of becoming a serial killer, or doing harm to others. Having a thread where non-professionals discuss the possible correlation between ocd and serial killers without any concrete evidence could do way more harm than good.

In fact, when I used Google to search for "correlation between ocd and serial killers" , this thread came up. A thread in 2007.

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