10 Famous People With OCD & What You Can Learn From Them

What Is OCD?

Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental health condition that affects roughly 2-3% of people in the United States.¹ People with OCD often experience intense anxiety, although OCD is no longer classified as an anxiety disorder. OCD typically follows a cyclical pattern of having intrusive thoughts, known as obsessions and completing repetitive behaviors, known as compulsions, in response to these obsessions.

OCD symptoms can develop at multiple points throughout life. The two most common periods where OCD symptoms occur are between 8-12 years old and late adolescence to early adulthood.² Family history of OCD and exposure to trauma or stressful events are risk factors for this disorder.³

OCD is characterized by:

• Obsessions: Obsessions are recurring, unwanted, intrusive thoughts that cause high distress for the individual experiencing them.
• Compulsions: Compulsions are repetitive behaviors that someone with OCD feels compelled to perform, often in response to an obsession. These behaviors can take multiple forms, such as mental compulsions or observable behaviors.

How OCD Can Increase Success

Although OCD can lead to increased distress and anxiety, there are also traits of OCD that may be helpful and viewed as strengths. People with OCD may have good organization skills, attention to detail, and empathy. These skills can be beneficial in various job settings, especially when people learn to manage the anxiety of OCD.

Here are common OCD strengths that can increase success:

• Good organizational skills: Some individuals with OCD, particularly symmetry OCD, may need to arrange items in a specific way. This can be used as a strength in the form of organizational skills.
• Attention to detail: Many people with OCD are detail-oriented, which can be useful in various settings and workplaces.
• Imagination and creativity: OCD can create and imagine various scenarios producing distress. However, harnessing this creativity and channeling it into something productive can use this as a strength.
• Empathy for others: Because of the struggles and anxiety that often accompany OCD, this can create more profound empathy for others who have had similar experiences.
• Determination: Compulsions are often described as a drive to perform certain behaviors. This same drive and determination to do other tasks can be seen as a strength.
• Persistence: Directing the drive that propels someone with OCD to perform compulsive behaviors into a meaningful goal can help them continue to work toward that goal, even when faced with adversities.

10 Famous People With OCD

A great example of using OCD as a strength can come from looking at famous people who have OCD and have been able to overcome their symptoms or use them as a strength. Living with OCD can have its challenges, but the individuals below have spoken out about OCD and their advice for living with it.

Here are ten celebrities with OCD:

1. David Beckham

Soccer superstar David Beckham has opened up about living with OCD and its impact on his life. He reports struggling with specific cleaning rituals and having to arrange and organize items in a specific way. He has stated, “I’ve got this obsessive-compulsive disorder where I have to have everything in a straight line or everything has to be in pairs.”⁴

Beckham has reported that he will share more about this in an upcoming Netflix documentary, including its impact on his family life. He shares how it affects him at home, stating, “The fact that when everyone’s in bed I then go around, clean the candles, turn the lights on to the right setting, make sure everywhere is tidy.”⁵

2. Howie Mandel

Comedian and actor Howie Mandel has been an advocate for helping others further understand OCD and what it’s really like for those living with it. He has worked with NOCD, an online platform helping to educate others about OCD and help provide therapy for individuals with OCD. In his partnership with them, he shares about the debilitating nature of the disorder to show others what it is truly like.⁶

Mandel shares about living with “repetitive and intrusive thoughts and fixations often brought on by my debilitating fear of germs.”⁷ He shares his advice for others who believe they may have OCD, stating, “You are not alone. Seek support and help from professionals. So many people are misdiagnosed, so take the important steps to get help and find community and treatment so you can thrive and live!”⁷

3. Leonardo DiCaprio

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio has shared about his struggles with OCD throughout his life. He shares that he initially struggled with OCD at age 11, which worsened when he moved to LA at age 18.⁸ He has disclosed having repeating compulsions, such as walking on cracks in the sidewalk a specific way, walking in and out of doorways, and knocking on wood before entering a room a certain number of times.^8,9

DiCaprio shares that his symptoms worsened while portraying another famous individual with OCD, Howard Hughes, in the movie The Aviator. Although he wanted to portray this role to show the impacts of living with OCD, he reports his symptoms increased, stating, “I was trying to be the character. It became real bothersome, even after the filming.”¹⁰ Fortunately, once he was able to return to treating his OCD, he was able to manage his symptoms.⁹

4. Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes experienced severe symptoms of contamination OCD. After his death, a psychological autopsy was completed to investigate his mental health before his passing.¹¹ This revealed that Hughes feared germs throughout childhood that continued to increase in adulthood.

Some measures he took to prevent contamination included detailed rituals and manuals he provided to his staff on food preparation and serving, hand washing, and more. For example, he wrote a manual on opening cans by removing the label, scrubbing the can, and pouring the contents without touching the can into the bowl.¹¹ This is just one example of the rituals he had his staff perform to prevent contamination.

5. Cameron Diaz

Actress Cameron Diaz has shared her fear of germs and compulsions such as repetitive hand washing, avoiding touching door handles in public places and cleaning door knobs in her home so much that the paint has worn off.¹² Although she has shared about the debilitating nature of this in the past, she has recently shared about how she has “made her peace” with it now.¹²

6. Justin Timberlake

Singer Justin Timberlake has disclosed living with both OCD and ADHD, both of which have made life challenging for him at times. He reports having OCD since childhood and has shared about the intrusive thoughts and compulsions that come with this disorder, such as hand-washing rituals and arranging items a specific way.¹³ Despite these symptoms, Timberlake has succeeded in acting and singing.

7. Camila Cabello

Singer Camila Cabello has been open about her struggles with OCD and how much of an impact it has had on her. She reported having relentless “obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors” that caused her to experience physical symptoms, such as headaches and difficulty sleeping.¹⁴ She shares about the “internal war” within herself as well as how she was able to overcome it.

Cabello shares that she has managed these symptoms with therapy, medication, and breathing techniques.¹⁴ She shares the importance of getting help and breaking the stigma of doing so, stating, “Social media can make us feel like we should be as perfect as everybody else seems to be. Far from being a sign of weakness, owning our struggles and taking the steps to heal is powerful.”¹⁴

8. Daniel Radcliffe

Actor Daniel Radcliffe has shared about OCD symptoms as young as five. He reports compulsive behaviors, such as repeating things he says to himself under his breath. Regarding his advice for anyone else experiencing OCD, he states, “I would encourage everyone to undergo therapy. It doesn’t mean you’re insane or weak.”¹⁵

9. Jessica Alba

Actress Jessica Alba has opened up about living with OCD and where she feels it derived from. She shares that as a child, she struggled with ongoing medical issues that left her out of control. This, in turn, led to a need for control that came in the form of her OCD symptoms. Alba has opened up about having checking compulsions and repetitive hand-washing behaviors.^13,16

10. Billy Bob Thornton

Actor Billy Bob Thornton has shared in the past about his struggles with OCD and the origin of these symptoms in childhood. He shares that his OCD symptoms developed from childhood trauma from being abused by his father.¹⁷ Thornton has reported symptoms of counting OCD, stating that his symptoms focus on mathematics and numbers.^12,17

He describes, “Certain numbers represent certain people. And I can’t use that number in certain circumstances. And then I have to use it in another circumstance.”¹⁷ Thornton has shared about channeling these struggles into his work by using them to portray characters and even writing a song about his repetitive counting behaviors, titled “Always Countin.”¹²

How to Be Successful With OCD

Like the famous people listed above, others can also succeed with OCD. An important first step in the process is seeking treatment for OCD so that it does not interfere with daily life tasks. Once OCD is properly treated, using the strengths that can come from it can lead to success both personally and professionally.

Treatment options for OCD include:

• Exposure and response prevention (ERP): This therapeutic approach is considered the gold standard exposure therapy for OCD. It involves completing exposures that provoke the feared obsessive thought without engaging in compulsive behaviors during the exposure. This ultimately helps break the link between obsessions and compulsions and reduces distress.
• Medications: The most common medications for OCD are known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), also called antidepressants. Some medications helpful for OCD are Luvox, Prozac, and Paxil.
• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT explores the connection between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. CBT for OCD attempts explicitly to break the link between obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors that are used to reduce distressing feelings caused by these thoughts.
• Mindfulness-based CBT: Mindfulness-based CBT teaches individuals to notice intrusive thoughts and let them come and go without judgment or the need to act on them. By taking a more observational stance on these obsessive thoughts, the drive to work on compulsions in response to these thoughts can decrease.
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): The ACT approach encourages psychological flexibility and looking at ways to respond to the distress caused by obsessions other than compulsions. ACT emphasizes letting an obsessive thought pass and choosing a different response aside from a compulsion.
• EMDR: The EMDR for OCD therapeutic approach can be helpful if OCD symptoms are thought to be rooted in past traumas. EMDR works to desensitize and reprocess prior traumatic events that contribute to present-day distress, therefore reducing symptoms of OCD.

When to Seek Professional Support

As some of the celebrities above have mentioned, getting treatment for OCD is an important step. Seeking treatment can help you use OCD as a strength rather than it being what is holding you back. Searching an online therapist directory for an OCD specialist is a great place to start looking for a professional who is the right fit for you. Using an online therapy platform can also be helpful for those who want to seek treatment from home.

In My Experience

Although OCD comes with its fair share of struggles, there are ways to harness the strengths that come with OCD as well. In my opinion, and the opinion of some of the above celebrities, getting help is a vital first step. Learning new ways to cope with the distress accompanying OCD can allow you to use the strengths you may have because of it.