Diagnosing a Celebrity with OCD - Essay Example

ognizes that the obsessional thoughts, impulses or images are a product of his or her own mind.” Compulsions are defined as repetitive behaviors and “the behaviors are mental acts aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing some dreaded even or behavior.” These thoughts are not necessarily connected to a realistic situation (BiologicalUnhappiness.com). Someone that has obsessive compulsive behaviors can have an intense anxiety if they do not find ways to reduce their fears. Often, these people perform rituals in order to provide temporary relief to these sensations by doing something to eliminate the strife caused.

This disorder is more prevalent than originally thought and most people who have trouble with OCD will experience symptoms by the time they are 30 years old. There are no clear causes of OCD though some researches have linked it with head injuries, infections or even brain abnormalities. Though 20 percent of people with OCD have tics, there is no clear link to that of Tourette syndrome which is characterized by nervous tics and outbursts (Vorvick, Benger-Merrill and Zieve). Some of the most common practices of obsessive compulsive disorder include repetitive behaviors.

This could be a repeated checking of locks, doors, light switches, or electronics. The person with OCD may also feel the need to wash their hands constantly or clean their clothes. They also may try to keep their own personal items in very careful order and are very strict about it. The person may also have repetitive mental processes such as counting or even praying (Miller). While analyzing celebrity Howie Mandel, anyone who has ever watched the “Deal or No Deal” television show notice that he does not touch guests that appear on the game show.

If someone hugs him, he looks as though he is surprised and needs to escape and does not offer a return of a hug. Instead, Mandel fist bumps with his guests. There seems to be an intense fear in his eyes when guests approach him. It seems as though he must have some sort of obsessive compulsive disorder or fear of something. The reason that Mandel reacts the way that he does on the television game show is that he has a severe fear of germs. The actor-comedian Mandel has not only written a book about his psychological disorder which is classified as obsessive compulsive disorder, but he also has attention deficit disorder as well.

He was first diagnosed with these disorders as an adult. Though Mandel believes that he might have grown up with these issues, there was too much of a stigma surrounding mental health disorders to ever seek help. He just thought he was a quirky person rather than different (Vox.) Mandel's major fear of germs has been extremely debilitating to him. Now that he is in his fifties, he had only joked about his obsessive compulsive disorder and fear of germs. It was not until he wrote his book that he began to open up about the psychological disorder that plagues his life every day.

While four million adults who suffer from obsessive compuls