Search results
Jun 9, 2021 · Howie Mandel Opens Up About His 'Painful' Struggle with Anxiety and OCD. "If I'm not laughing, then I'm crying. And I still haven't been that open about how dark and ugly it really gets,"...
- 5 min
- Aili Nahas
The 54-year-old "Deal Or No Deal" host suffers from obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD -- a debilitating anxiety disorder that produces inescapable repetitive thoughts. To read the full story...
- 9 min
- 4.6M
- ABC News
People also ask
Does Howie Mandel have obsessive compulsive disorder?
What does Howie Mandel do in her free time?
Did Howie Mandel have mental health issues?
Does 'America's Got Talent' judge Howie Mandel have OCD?
Oct 12, 2023 · Howie Mandel opens up about his OCD diagnosis and life with treatment to TODAY.com. He was diagnosed with OCD in his 40s and his wife, Terry, has helped him.
- Chrissy Callahan
- Overview
- Howie Mandel’s OCD went undiagnosed for decades
- Why is OCD so stigmatized?
- ERP therapy for OCD: How does it work?
- Takeaway
•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 shares his journey with OCD in hopes of helping others find help.
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.
OCD is defined by uncontrollable and recurring thoughts or obsessions and repetitive behaviors (compulsions).
Mandel’s obsessions negatively affected his wife and kids to the point where he made them engage in cleanliness activities, such as:
•washing their hands repeatedly
•putting on gloves
•avoiding touching their phones
•disinfecting everything in the house
While an OCD diagnosis gave Mandel some relief and hope that there were treatments and methods to manage his condition, he said initially he felt embarrassed and ashamed.
“I didn’t want to tell anybody that I had a mental health problem. I thought that was a sign of weakness. It was embarrassing, so as I sit here and talk to you today this is 180 degrees from where I was in my 40s,” he said.
Much of his initial hesitation to be open about OCD is due to stigma around mental health conditions, particularly OCD.
While Simpson said the stigma is far less in younger generations than in older generations, she believes it still exists.
“What I notice today is that people sometimes still discuss mental health conditions, such as OCD, in a joking manner,” said Simpson. “Just like you would go to a doctor for any physical health condition, it is critical to seek medical attention for any mental health concerns and to treat these conditions with seriousness.”
Society has moved forward in reducing stigma, but Mandel said it still remains, including in the medical field.
Mandel teamed up with the virtual platform NOCD to help connect people living with OCD with resources.
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.
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.
- Cathy Cassata
Jun 9, 2021 · In this exclusive interview with Howie Mandel and Jackie Shultz, the father-daughter duo open up about their new comedy podcast, Howie Mandel Does Stuff, their ongoing struggles with...
- 21 min
- 205K
- People
Nov 3, 2022 · Updated: Dec. 14, 2022. Courtesy Howie Mandel, NOCD Partner. Howie Mandel reveals to The Healthy @Reader's Digest how struggling with mental health can be "debilitating." After being diagnosed with OCD as an adult, he's pushing for a more open conversation. Obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, can be crippling.
Jun 9, 2021 · Howie Mandel opened up about his “painful” experience with obsessive compulsive disorder and anxiety. The pandemic was especially triggering for his intrusive fear of germs and illness. The...
