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Having Parkinson’s Disease doesn’t necessarily mean one will have OCD.  The tendency to be obsessive-complusive has existed in my brain longer than the Parkinson’s Disease symptoms were manifesting.  My propensity to be obsessive-compulsive has been fed continually throughout my life.  Let’s first examine that I am the child of an Asian mother….and, God love her, she was OCD too.  Not many kids have to get up every Saturday morning at 7am to dust and vacuum.  Thinking back to my childhood, my mom took pride in my ability to organize a pantry or spice cabinet.

Of course becoming a librarian didn’t help matters at all.  The constant alphabetizing of books by author’s last name or Dewey classification allowed me to believe I could not leave work each evening until ALL the books were shelved.  I would hum along oblivious to the time/weather/outside world and just sort and shelve until I drifted out of my shelving-fog.

Parkinson’s Disease is a disease of the neurotransmitters in my brain.  We know that the depletion of serotonin causes disorders in my movement, ridigity and tremors.  By taking Ropinirole (Requip), a dopamine agonist (a drug that mimics real dopamine) I am increasing my tendency to fail to control “urges”.  Studies have shown that Parkies on ropinirole may develop gambling or other addictions.  Instead of gambling my OCD is heightened by systematically organizing minute things like paperclips or blueberries in a container.  I count the lines in the road, the number of power poles on the highway, the handles on cabinets and the number of books on a library shelf.

Another manifestation of being obsessive is my urge to eat sweets.  I’ve always loved sweets.  But since starting the ropinirole (Requip or Neupro) I find myself eating foods i – especially sweets – in a certain order….4 cookies at a time, or 4 raisins, or 4 crackers and then 4 bites of cheese followed by the same pattern over and over again.  I suppose I should tell my neurologist about this….but so far I haven’t depleted my bank account by gambling or buying inordinate boxes of cookies.

OCD is part of my personality and has been for so long that it’s difficult to discern what’s caused by the drugs and what is just me – being me.  Parkinson’s Disease defines so much of my life that it all mushes together after awhile and I find it difficult to see where the OCD begins and the compulsions from ropinirole kick in.

Other side effects of ropinirole are day time sleepiness, sweats and being nauseated.  Well, count me in as the perfect ropinirole subject.  I have increased activity in all of these behaviors.  MY OCD brain eats up this drug to control motor symptoms only to be the primo side effect showgirl too.

The decision to weigh the evils of the ropinirole side effects against the restless legs, stiffness and tremors was an easy one for me.  Getting up in the morning and being unable to really walk, and only shuffle caught my undivided attention.  Kicking about wildly while attempting to sleep at night only caused me unparallelled anxiety.  The ropinirole gave me immediate relief – only to make me terribly nauseous.  The Neupro patch has been the saving grace for me.  I get the ropinirole into my brain without being nauseated.  However, the sleepiness is worse than ever and the urges to eat foods in little groups while alphabetizing the spices is a small price to pay.  Parkinson’s Disease has robbed me of the ability to measure my brain’s true behavior against the influences of the disease and the drugs.

I only hope I can withstand these side effects for a long, long time.  Or maybe we’ll find a cure for Parkinson’s Disease and I won’t have to balance these behaviors for the rest of my life.