A Celebrity Case Study

In my last post, I briefly mentioned how I don't really get offended if someone says, "I'm so OCD," even if they don't have it. For my purposes, as long as they know what OCD actually is, there's nothing wrong with them saying it. But, how much would someone have to push my OCD "buttons" for me to get mad at them? Considering that my OCD is purely cognitive, there's not much someone can actually say or do to trigger it.

This isn't the case for everyone with OCD. Some of you may know that TV Celebrity Howie Mandel has germaphobic OCD. This is the impetus for his famed "fist bump," that he would always greet people with on his TV show "Deal or No Deal" as a replacement for a handshake. 

Today, I thought it'd be worth it to go through a Howie Mandel interview and offer insight as to what OCD thoughts Howie is probably having throughout the course of the interview. Hopefully, this might give you a relatable and entertaining idea of what it's like to think with an OCD framework. 

I've chosen an interview of Howie from the Eric Andre show. If you haven't seen it before, the Eric Andre show has a similar format to a typical talkshow, except that all of the questions asked during interviews make absolutely no sense. The show also employs a good bit of physical humor. 

Before this interview even began, Howie was likely running over in his head any potential germ-infested areas on the set, and was wondering how he'd avoid them throughout the course of the show. As he walks on, he heads towards the chair that he's expected to sit in. When he's invited to sit down, he immediately begins talking about how filthy the chair looks. At this moment, with the knowledge that Howie has OCD, it's apparent that this chair is now a problem.  Eventually, Eric pressures Howie to sit down. Although he didn't show it, I'm sure that sitting down in that chair took up 50% of Howie's psychological space for the rest of that interview.

It is obvious that for the rest of the interview, Howie really isn't "there." He's constantly trying to find a reason to get out of the chair. Eventually, Eric pulls a stunt where his coffee cup turns into a blender and explodes, thus giving Howie justification to hop out of the chair. The second that he does, he demands that Eric's co-host, Hannibal, sit down instead of him.

In addition to the large amount of psychological space that the whole "chair" ordeal must have taken up, he also has to consider how his actions might come off as neurotic or irrational. Thus, more of his mental capacity has to be taken up to deliberate the best ways to hide his OCD. This is a common problem for those with OCD: struggling to "cover-up" evidence of your irrational OCD behavior while simultaneously

I don't think Eric even knew that Howie had OCD, or if he did, he didn't take it into consideration throughout the interview. This doesn't make Eric a bad person; however, it is generally considered polite to avoid triggering someone's OCD fears if you are aware that they have the disorder. In the worst days of my OCD, my parents made sure to avoid discussing topics that would launch me into hours of rumination.

To anyone reading, I hope this gave you an informed, relatable, and understandable perspective of what it's like to have OCD. If you have any thoughts, let me know in the comments!

Image Courtesy of Philip McMaster