Howie Mandel, a renowned comedian and television host, has been open about his struggles with health, particularly focusing on his mental health issues.
Mandel has been living with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, conditions that he has spoken about publicly in an effort to reduce stigma and promote understanding. His honesty and advocacy have made him a respected voice in the conversation about mental health, encouraging others to seek help and understand their own conditions better.
Comedian Howie Mandel’s OCD Diagnosis Was a ‘Huge Weight’ Off His Shoulders
Comedian, actor, and “America’s Got Talent” judge Howie Mandel opens up about living with OCD for decades and how his diagnosis helped change his life. thecelebrityfinder/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images
Acclaimed comedian and actor Howie Mandel was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in his 40s after his wife pushed him to get help.
Intrusive thoughts and compulsions have always been present in Mandel’s life, but as a child, the “America’s Got Talent” judge said he didn’t know how to label them.
“I wouldn’t learn to tie my shoes because I didn’t want to touch the laces cause they had touched the ground, so everybody bullied me and I didn’t have a friend in school because I just would rather them think I can’t tie my laces,” he told Healthline.
He recalled his younger brother holding up the laundry hamper lid during fights to ward him off.
“I would melt and scream in terror and do anything [he] wanted,” said Mandel.
He also practiced rituals that he needed to execute, such as sitting in a certain way, and he wanted other people to sit in certain ways too, like without their legs crossed.
“Everything bothered me. I just couldn’t move on in life unless things were made my way, not only by me, but everybody who was in my periphery,” he said.
“But it was just [brushed off as] the quirkiness of Howie, not anything that anybody diagnosed or said, ‘well this is strange. This is different. Why is he so obsessed with the washing and the cleaning?’ and all the other things that I needed to do.”
Studies show that one-third of adults with OCD first experienced symptoms in childhood.
“[Delayed diagnosis] is both because the person with OCD might not know what they have and might hesitate telling people about their symptoms, and because clinicians might not ask about OCD or recognize the symptoms,” Simpson told Healthline.
One aspect of the platform is that it provides mental health professionals trained in exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy.
ERP therapy promotes exposing oneself to the thoughts, images, objects, and situations that make them anxious and then learning to avoid engaging in compulsive behavior related to those.
Patrick McGrath, PhD, chief clinical officer of NOCD, said that, in his opinion, ERP is the treatment of choice for OCD because it does not try to treat the obsessions.
“We all have thoughts that we consider intrusive or unwanted, but we do not all have OCD,” he told Healthline. “It is the occurrence of the compulsions that ERP targets. It is the compulsions that are the source of the problem, and therefore must be the target of the therapy.”
He noted that people with OCD do not want to have the intrusive thoughts, images, and urges that make up their obsessions and that telling them to stop thinking them doesn’t help.
“In fact, telling someone to stop thinking about something just makes them think about that thing even more. So, it is not about not thinking about something. It is about learning to not pay attention to or believe everything that pops into your head. Obsessions may be disturbing, but they are not truths,” he said.
ERP has been shown to work in people of all ages, said Simpson.
“Alone or in combination with medication, ERP can help up to two-thirds of people who might be struggling to minimize their OCD symptoms,” she said. “To achieve these excellent outcomes, one needs a skilled clinician and an engaged client who practices the skills being taught.”
Mandel echoed the sentiment and said finding treatment today is much easier than it was when he was living with undiagnosed OCD.
“Be aware that if there’s a problem with yourself or someone you know…there are places to go for help and every diagnosis is kind of unique and what works for you might not work for me, but I promise if it doesn’t work for you, there is something else that can be tried,” he said. “[I] take care of myself and it’s worth the fight.”
Comedian Howie Mandel is one of an estimated 1.2% of U.S. adults who live with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
Mandel lived with OCD for decades before getting a diagnosis.
He is sharing his journey with OCD in hopes of helping others find help.
What Are the Different Types of OCD?
Specific themes or dimensions are common in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Some people may call these, subtypes or types of OCD. For example, contamination OCD or harm OCD.
A diagnosis of OCD means you experience obsessions, compulsions, or both. Obsessions are intrusive and distressing thoughts that are difficult to manage at will. Compulsions are repetitive behaviors or rituals you engage in to relieve the anxiety that obsessions cause.
OCD types are typically named based on the theme of the obsessions.
- cleaning and contamination
- symmetry, incompleteness, and ordering
- harm (to self and others), shame, and guilt (this is sometimes categorized under taboo thoughts)
- taboo thoughts around violence, religion, and sexual behaviors
Some people with OCD may also have obsessions and compulsions around hoarding or the need to collect and keep items.
This list isn’t all inclusive. It is possible to have obsessions that center around other themes or fears.
Cleaning and contamination OCD
Contamination OCD usually focuses on the persistent fear of being exposed to germs and toxins.
Symptoms may involve:
- persistent worry about germs or sickness
- intrusive thoughts about feeling dirty or unclean (physically or mentally)
- ongoing concern about exposure to blood, toxic substances, viruses, or other sources of contamination
- intense avoidance of possible sources of contamination, real or perceived
- constant urges to get rid of items that could be contaminated or dirty (even if they aren’t)
- recurrent cleaning rituals
- frequent cleaning or washing rituals, such as handwashing or scrubbing
Symmetry and ordering
Symmetry OCD may involve:
- intense urge for items or belongings to be aligned in a certain way
- extreme need for symmetry or organization around you
- need for symmetry in your body, clothing, or actions (e.g., if you scratch your left knee, you also must scratch your right knee)
- repetitive efforts to arrange your belongings or other items in certain ways until they feel “just right”
- severe distress when items aren’t completely symmetric or aligned
- need to repeat counting rituals, such as counting to a specific number a certain number of times
- persistent magical thinking, or believing something bad will happen if you don’t arrange or organize things in the right way
Taboo thoughts
Taboo OCD may center around different themes.
For example:
- Scrupulosity OCD focuses on religious or moral thoughts. In some instances, people refer to scrupulosity OCD with obsessions but no compulsions as pure O.
- Harm OCD centers on fears of harming others or yourself, or it could also involve unwanted images of violence and aggression.
- Sexual OCD may involve distressing thoughts, images, or urges regarding sexual activity.
Common symptoms of taboo OCD vary per theme and between people, but may involve:
- intense fear of harming others, intentionally or unintentionally
- magical thinking around the fear your thoughts may cause a natural disaster or accident
- guilt, shame, and other distress about your obsessions
- persistent questioning of your sexual orientation, desires, or sexual interests
- persistent worry that you’ll act on your intrusive thoughts or that having them makes you a bad person
- intense concern about behaving in a way you consider blasphemous or wrong
- urges to avoid or hide things you feel you could use as a weapon
- a need to seek reassurance that you won’t act on intrusive thoughts
- frequent reviewing of daily activities to make sure you haven’t hurt anyone, whether mentally or physically retracing your steps
As with other types of OCD, taboo OCD involves unwanted thoughts and images, and a need to engage in rituals to minimize the distress you feel for having those thoughts and images.
Taboo OCD doesn’t mean you want to hurt someone or that you need to engage in certain behaviors. On the contrary, it is fueled by fear and guilt that you do so, because that is not what you really want to do.
Hoarding OCD
Hoarding OCD may sometimes be a component of harm or contamination OCD. Symptoms of this OCD subtype may involve:
- persistent worry that throwing something away could bring harm to you or someone else
- need to collect a certain number of items to protect yourself or someone else from harm
- extreme fear of throwing away an important or essential item by accident (such as mail with sensitive or needed information)
- urges to buy multiples of the same item, even when you don’t need that many
- difficulty throwing away things because touching them could cause contamination
- feeling incomplete if you can’t find a possession or accidentally lost or threw it away
- intense needs to check or review your possessions
Hoarding in the context of OCD differs from hoarding disorder, a separate mental health condition. The main difference between the two is the severe distress involved with hoarding-related OCD.
If you have OCD, you don’t want all of the things you collect, but you might feel compelled to save them because of your obsessions.
Read about the brain differences in people with OCD.
The voice actor explained the couple enjoyed a meal at Papi’s, a renowned steakhouse on the famous Las Vegas Strip, which he later described as one of the “best dinners” the two had. But things took a turn for the worse when they got back to the hotel.
“It was too much. And [Terry] was tipsy. I did not know that, and in the middle of the night, she got up and, I don’t know where she was headed, but she headed into the wall,” he told hosts Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos.
Unfortunately for Terry, the wall didn’t break her fall–it broke her cheek.
“And she fell and hit the wainscoting. She hit that as she went down,” he shared. “She slipped, went down, hit that on her eye, then fell on the floor and broke her cheek.”
The Toronto-born actor and comedian went on, saying that while he was asleep for her slip-and-fall accident, he was awoken by the loud bang of her fall and Terry calling out for help.
Immediately after being injured, the TV personality said his wife didn’t know where she was. Thankfully, now, “She is doing well,” he said.
The AGT star went on to share a picture of the aftermath and relay a sarcastic comment Terry had been replying with when asked about her injuries.
“[When people asked] ‘What happened?’ she said, ‘Vegas!'”
“She’s recovered now,” he added. However, it appears Mandel is still a little scarred from the incident as he continued to describe the full detail of her cuts, which were deep enough so that he could “see her skull.”
“Nothing bleeds like the head,” Ripa replied.
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