20 Famous People with OCD

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20 Famous People with OCD

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder in which people have unwanted and repeated thoughts, feelings, ideas, sensations (obsessions), or behaviours that make them feel driven to do something (compulsions). This mental disorder is a chronic and long-lasting condition characterized by uncontrollable and recurring thoughts.  Having OCD is incredibly challenging for people who have it, but that doesn’t mean that a person can’t function normally and even thrive with the condition. It can make it hard for people to perform everyday activities like eating, drinking, shopping or reading. OCD is often compounded by depression and other anxiety disorders, including social anxiety, panic disorder and separation anxiety. Anxiety disorders are the most common form of mental illness and they can affect everyone regardless of age, economic status or where we live. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is one such type that affects a lot of people, including many celebrities and famous people with OCD. Some of the most common OCDs that affect people are excessive cleaning or shopping, addiction to the Internet, playing video games or undergoing various beauty procedures. However, Stephen Whiteside, a psychologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, who specializes in anxiety disorders including OCD, said “there’s no research to show that celebrities are particularly predisposed to OCD.” TV personalities, musicians, athletes and other famous people have been diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) over the years and have become caught in a cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Stigma is always present for those with this mental illness who are variously described as crazy or psycho. Here is a list of 20 famous people with OCD.

Famous Actors with OCD

Cameron Diaz

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Diaz has organizational compulsions. She describes it as the inability to let someone’s cabinets be messy, claiming she occasionally gets insomnia as she thinks about the disorganized cabinets. On occasion, she will go through a stranger’s cabinets to ensure they’re in order. Cameron Diaz, star of such films as The Mask and There’s Something About Mary, admitted in a 1997 article that she suffered from a phobia of germs that caused her to clean the doorknobs in her house so many times that she faded their paint. Further, she has admitted to opening doors either with her waist or her elbows. She has since “made her peace” with this phobia, she says. She even removed stitches from The Daily Show host Jon Stewart’s wrist on camera. In 2007, she reported that she had made peace with her OCD.

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Jessica Alba

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In 2006, Jessica Alba was quoted repeatedly in the media as having admitted to having OCD. Alba’s OCD is about perfectionism and control. As a child, she battled health issues, like asthma, pneumonia, and kidney issues that would keep her sick several times a year. Her health issues left her feeling as if she had no control, which then lead to the need to control other things. She has a need to control things she can within a chaotic lifestyle and career. Alba eventually left acting because of the stress and pressure. Whether this move relieved the anxiety she felt that led to the manifestations of OCD is still a mystery. Alba has not discussed her condition publicly for several years. According to the actor in an interview she gave to CosmoGirl in 2008, she said, “I used to unplug every single appliance in my house. Or I’d double-check every door in my house to make sure it was locked at night. It was like a panic came over me and I had to do something, and once I did it, I was OK. … It was really me needing to control something.” But, Alba was clear in many interviews that she considered OCD a good trait for creative minds like those of actors, artists, and performers because actors like Alba must be at the top of their game to keep going in the world of television and film.

 Megan Fox

Transformers and Jennifer’s Body star Megan Fox revealed in a 2010 interview with Allure that she went to therapy both as a child and an adult to learn to cope with an intense fear of germs that compelled her to wash her hands so often making her knuckles bleed. Therapy helped Fox get her excessive handwashing under control, but she continued to struggle with obsessive thoughts. “People can’t imagine what the struggle is really like when you can’t let go of a thought or a word,” Fox explained. “All day and every day. And I can engage in a conversation with someone and seem like I’m present, and the whole time I’m in my own head thinking about something else, worrying about something else.”

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Famous Sportspeople with OCD

David Beckham

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World-renowned soccer player David Beckham has opened up about his struggle with OCD on a few occasions. International soccer star David Beckham admits to keeping things in straight lines, pairing items and organizing them by colour or type.

 “I’ve got this obsessive-compulsive disorder where I have to have everything in a straight line or everything has to be in pairs,” he told the Independent. Beckham also admitted that he’s tried to stop his obsessive behaviours but has been unable to, including what he calls an addiction to the pain of getting tattoos.

According to his wife Victoria, Beckham once purchased three refrigerators so that he can have one for drinks, one for salads, and one for other foods. The items must be ‘symmetrical’ as well. “If there are three cans of Diet Coke, he’d throw one away instead of having three because it has to be an even number,” Beckham admitted to the behaviour.

Top facts about David Beckham.

Sarah True

Sarah True is an American athlete who competes in triathlon. She represented the United States in the triathlon in 2012, finishing in fourth place, and at the 2016 Summer Olympics. True is the winner of the 2007 ITU Aquathlon World Championships and finished in second place in the 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series.

A two-time Olympic triathlete, Sarah True is no stranger to repetitive, compulsive hard work and training. In an interview with Outside Magazine, True said her struggles with anxiety began as a teenager. In 2017, however, her struggles turned more serious. “I obsessively thought about taking my own life. I’d be out on long training rides and couldn’t stop thinking about swerving into oncoming traffic, every truck becoming an object that could end it all,” she said.

True sought therapy and has learned to be patient with herself, understanding that even the most awful thoughts will pass. Connecting with nature has also been a positive healing mechanism for her.

Celebrity Musicians with OCD

Justin Timberlake

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Pop icon Justin Timberlake admitted on David Letterman’s show about his struggle with OCD. He spoke about the severity in terms of affecting his life. Additionally, he also has Attention Deficit Disorder, which makes it difficult to focus. “You try living with that,” he laments. “It’s complicated.” Timberlake’s OCD behaviours include an obsession with lining objects up and feeling that he absolutely must have a certain food item in the house at all times. Justin has also admitted he is “addicted” to performing live, and gets a thrill out of entertaining arenas packed with his fans. He explained: “I get butterflies. You just kind of get caught up in the electricity of it. Oh, yeah, that still happens to this day. And when that stops happening, you should stop.”

Suga

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Suga (aka Agust D), a member of the South Korean boy band BTS, uses his global fame and popularity to share the ups and downs of living with a psychiatric illness. In his song, “The Last,” Suga raps, “It’s a bit dangerous. Depression. OCD. They keep coming back again from time to time.” A member of arguably one of the biggest bands in the world right now, Suga has been unexpectedly open about his struggles with mental health and, specifically OCD, despite the stigma that South Korean culture places on these issues. Suga talked directly about his battle with depression in an interview with Rolling Stone that was published in 2021, explaining that his symptoms come and go. “It’s almost like cold weather. It may come back in a cycle over a year and a half,” he said. He addresses his battle with OCD and seeking psychiatric help in a song called “The Last,” from his Mixtape. He underscored the importance of talking about mental health struggles rather than bottling them up.

Billy Bob Thornton

Thornton over the years made no attempt to hide his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. His phobias range from the obscure – a fear of Komodo dragons, antique furniture, and plastic cutlery – to the common-or-garden, most notably, a fear of flying (which he once claimed, paradoxically, had completely disappeared after the September 11 attacks). Before any interview, a publicist double-checks the room for any offending objects or furniture. The actor-turned-musician Billy Bob Thornton said his OCD began in his childhood as a result of abuse. An obsession with mathematics and numbers is the primary way his OCD expresses itself, with numbers taking on meanings that are specific to certain people and circumstances. Thornton’s OCD tendencies inspired him to write a song called Always Countin.

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Katy Perry

Singer-songwriter Katy Perry has admitted to being a germaphobe and practices “crazy cleaning rituals in her house.” She explained of her condition, ‘I’m so OCD that I wish the letters OCD were in alphabetical order: CDO.  Katy Perry brushes her teeth four to six times a day, and has a fascination with material items, but insists she is not I’m a hoarder but a collector.  She has on occasion, talked about her struggle. “I’m so OCD,” Perry told a Z100 radio host. “I always want to put things in alphabetical order. I’m also a little Howard Hughes about germs. “ The singer has openly admitted she suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder, which can cause her to freak out if things in her normal routine are disturbed, and believes the mental condition first surfaced when she was a youngster.

Frank Sinatra

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Frank Sinatra was one of the most influential music icons in the 60s. Although there is no clear account of him talking about his OCD, his wife Barbara Sinatra opened up about some of the intimate parts of his life.  In her memoir Lady Blue Eyes: My Life with Frank, she confessed about Frank struggling with intense OCD. He was obsessed with cleanliness, She said: ‘He was a guy who took about 12 showers a day. I mean, he was neat. He always smelled of lavender.’ He was a cleanliness freak. Earlier, he was obsessed with keeping his hands clean. And this obsession with cleanliness grew steadily and reached its peak during the latter half of his career. He also signed his love notes to her, Charlie Neat.

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World Famous Scientists Afflicted by OCD

Nikola Tesla

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Tesla was particularly concerned with germs, cleanliness and avoiding disease. Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer and mechanical engineer. He was a prolific inventor who transformed modern society. He was best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system.  This futurist is also believed to have had OCD and it’s rumoured that he displayed symptoms as early as 1917. Tesla was obsessed with the number three and his obsessions saw him swim 33 laps at the public pool daily. Furthermore, it is alleged if he lost count, he’d have to start over. He allegedly had the urge to walk a city block three times before entering a building as well.  He practised celibacy because he believed this enhanced his concentration when performing his various experiments. Contamination OCD, which involves the fear of germs, also involves the fear of communicable diseases and specifically for Tesla, STDs.

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Marie Curie

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Marie Salomea Sklodowska–Curie was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and the only woman to win a Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. Curie’s OCD manifested itself in her need for order and symmetry. She arrange her furniture in a very specific way, and she would often spend hours cleaning her laboratory. Curie was known to be extremely meticulous in her work, which likely contributed to her OCD. She was also known to be a loner, which may have been due to her OCD. Curie’s obsessions likely helped her focus on her work and achieve such great things.

Charles Darwin

Darwin’s analysis of the plants and animals he gathered led him to question how species form and change over time. This work convinced him of the insight that he is most famous for—natural selection. Charles Darwin is the scientist best known for On the Origins of Species (from which the theory of evolution was first formulated). It’s possible that he could have also spoke on the origins of worrying, as many speculate he suffered from various ailments including OCD. This speculation is due to Darwin’s well-documented struggle with intrusive thoughts. Darwin also suffered from the belief that he was ugly. This is aligned with Body Dysmorphic Disorder, which has similarities to OCD and is hypothesized to be on an OCD spectrum. BDD typically manifests as an obsession over minor “defects” or “flaws” in one’s appearance, defects that are so small that others don’t even notice them. The sufferer experiences great shame in their appearance, nonetheless. Furthermore, Charles Darwin the “father of modern biology,” suffered from illness from early adulthood. The most disabling manifestation was cyclic vomiting syndrome (CVS). Cyclic vomiting syndrome is a rare, chronic, debilitating, functional, gastrointestinal disorder initially described in children but increasingly recognized in adults. CVS is characterized by recurrent, stereotypic episodes of intense nausea, intractable vomiting and abdominal pain lasting hours or days

Famous  TV Personalities with OCD

Howie Mandel

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Howard Michael Mandel is a Canadian-American comedian, television personality, actor, and producer. Mandel voiced the character Gizmo in the 1984 film Gremlins and the 1990 sequel Gremlins 2: The New Batch. In 1987, Mandel starred alongside Amy Steel in the comedy film Walk Like a Man.  A longtime entertainer, host, and comedian, Howie Mandel is one of the most famous people with OCD and he has been incredibly open over the years about his struggle with the disorder. Deal or No Deal host Howie Mandel won’t shake hands with people because of a fear of dirt and germs. Instead, he uses his well-known “fist bump” to compensate. He even keeps his head shaved in order to “feel cleaner.” In his book Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me, published in 2009 Mandel discussed his extreme fear of germs, his inability to tie his shoes because the laces had touched the ground and that he shaved his head because it made him feel cleaner.

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Howard Stern

Howard Allan Stern is an American radio and television personality, comedian and author. He is best known for his radio show, The Howard Stern Show, which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from 1986 to 2005. In 2018, he opened up about his struggles with OCD to David Letterman. He described going into the bathroom before work and touching things for hours. The man also admitted to a failure to get help for a large part of his life. He also offered poignant insight into the disorder, stating, “I’ve come to understand that this behaviour is trying to control a world that is out of control.” It’s possible to suffer from both rage and OCD as unrelated conditions. And Howard is an example of this. He does discuss rage in his interview, which may be triggering for others with OCD, especially if they have  harm obsessions. Rage and OCD are not linked in any regard and, often, those with OCD have a problem expressing anger, internalizing it and turning it into anxiety instead.

Top Captains of Industry with OCD

Howard Hughes

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Extremely versatile, Howard Hughes was a successful manufacturer, aviator, and film producer and director and he acquired enormous wealth and celebrity through his various ventures. He was an American business magnate and philanthropist, known during his lifetime as one of the most influential and richest people in the world. Howard Hughes, died in 1976, partly due to his severe OCD. Hughes famously spent four months in a darkened movie screening room, never leaving. He was surrounded by Kleenex boxes that he continually stacked and sorted. The industrialist also stored his urine in bottles. The industrialist’s obsessions are so numerous that films have been made about his mental illness. Oscar Award-winning actor, Leonardo DiCaprio portrayed Howard Hughes in the biopic “The Aviator,” struggles with OCD.

Bill Gates

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William Henry Gates III is an American business magnate and philanthropist. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen. He is a genius who also suffers from OCD. Gates’ OCD manifests itself in his need for order and symmetry. He arranges his furniture and papers in a very specific way and he often spends hours cleaning his desk. In his case, his OCD may have been a blessing in disguise. Gates’s obsessions likely helped him focus on his work and achieve such great things. This is something that many people with OCD can relate to. Most importantly, Gates’s story shows that OCD doesn’t have to be a hindrance. It can be a source of strength and power. While OCD can be debilitating, it can also be a source of strength for some people. The obsessions and compulsions associated with OCD can often lead to greater attention to detail, which can be an asset in many fields.

Top 10 facts about Bill Gates.

Steve Jobs

According to author Joshua Kendall former Apple leader Jobs was a typical obsessive and probably had a little-known disorder that psychiatrists now refer to as obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, or OCPD. Steven Paul Jobs was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, business magnate, media proprietor, and investor. Steve Jobs was famously fastidious about the cleanliness of his factories, flying into rages when he found too much dust. When he built his company’s first factory in Fremont, Calif., in 1984, he frequently got down on his hands and knees and looked for specks of dust on the floor as well as on all the equipment. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) describes OCPD as “a mental health condition in which a person is preoccupied with rules, orderliness and control.” It often runs in families, but scientists are unclear whether genes, environment or a combination of these factors are behind the disorder.

Donald Trump

Donald John Trump is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump has admitted that he does suffer from partial obsessive compulsive disorder. He is said to suffer from a phobia of germs, due to which he avoids shaking hands with people. He also avoids pressing the ground floor button of a lift due to his phobia. The former president discussed his obsessive-compulsive tendencies during the course of 15 hours of interviews with The Howard Stern Show between 1993 and 2015. Trump has said he is a germaphobe who washes his hands frequently throughout the day and needs to drink through a straw because he wants to avoid contamination. In a 1993 interview, Stern said: “Today, we learned some interesting things [about Donald Trump]: He’s very wealthy and yet he’s a prisoner of obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

Famous Retrospective Case of OCD

Martin Luther

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Martin Luther (1483-1546), the first and most important leader of the Protestant Reformation in Europe suffered from OCD. He was a German priest, theologian, author, hymn-writer, and professor. A former Augustinian friar, he is best known as the seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation and the namesake of Lutheranism. In 1958, psychologist Erik Erikson wrote ‘Young Man Luther’, diagnosing Luther with, among other things, “obsessive scrupulosity” and “compulsive confessing”. Much of Erikson’s evidence didn’t come from Luther himself, though: his conclusion rested heavily on the writings of Luther’s protégé, Philipp Melanchthon. Melanchthon wrote that often when contemplating the wrath of God he would repeatedly mingle with his prayers and went on to claim, “That these terrors he experienced either for the first time or in the most acute manner, during the year in which he was deprived of a favourite friend, who lost his life by some accident of which I am ignorant.”

Many famous people have had OCD that may have caused them some struggles in their personal lives, it is also clear that their obsessions have helped shape their and our world. We would not be where we are today without the contributions of most of these brilliant minds.