Disturbing Truth About Celebrities That Struggled With OCD |⭐ OSSA

NARRATOR: Howie Mandel is battling a crippling disorder.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder nearly cost him his career

and made him shave his hair.

HOWIE MANDEL: OCD are these intrusive thoughts that keep coming in

so much that you have no control, and you can't stop.

Those thoughts are so strong that it stops your life.

NARRATOR: For Howie, his fear of germs has been a living nightmare,

not just for him but for his loved ones as well.

HOWIE MANDEL: In my mind, this is a Petri dish.

Otherwise, I would spend a day as I have in the past

in my life in a men's room,

rubbing and scrubbing and scalding.

NARRATOR: His phobia nearly made him an absent father.

It was so bad he couldn't bear touching his own children's hands.

HOWIE MANDEL'S WIFE: The kids, when they're crawling on the floor,

everything, it was so hard for him.

NARRATOR: When his kids were growing up,

he had a second house built in their backyard.

Mandel would go here to escape the germs of his own family.

He managed to keep his obsession hidden from colleagues and fans.

His way of greeting his audience with a fist bump became his trademark.

Until one day,

when he spilled his secret to Howard Stern by accident.

HOWIE MANDEL: I was incredibly embarrassed,

and I thought I had humiliated my family.

I thought that this is going to be the end of my career because

people are going to know that I do have mental health issues.

NARRATOR: After this shocking revelation,

the comedian shared how OCD nearly ended his career.

HOWIE MANDEL: There were many times when I wanted to back out.

I'm not somebody who sits down with strangers as I sit here.

NARRATOR: He even wrote a book called

Here's the Deal, Don't Touch Me,

which set him free from his fears and

inspired millions of people who also battle OCD.

Yet Howie's fight is far from over.

He is still in therapy and on medication for the anxiety

that goes along with this disorder.

Therapies also would save Charlize Theron

from becoming her own worst enemy.

For this actress,

it's not germs but messy cabinets that steal her sleep.

"I will lie in my bed and not be able to sleep

because I'll say to myself,

I think I saw something in that cabinet

that just shouldn't be there."

Charlize faced the hardest challenge ever

when she became a mom.

She was used to a neat and tidy house,

yet motherhood made her life chaotic.

Whenever her kids leave the house in a mess,

it causes her agony.

CHARLIZE THERON: There's a lot of times

where I'm walking through my house

thinking I'm going senile

because I have a little OCD thing,

and I'm, like, where is this glare coming from?

NARRATOR: Charlize got her life back together

with the help of a therapist.

Her children also lightened her load.

CHARLIZE THERON: I've gotten a little bit better.

My kids definitely helped me be less anxious

about a lot of that stuff.

NARRATOR: Her condition could have harmed her career,

but instead, it gave her an edge.

She channeled her OCD into many of her biggest roles,

like in Atomic Blonde, Mad Max, and Monster.

David Beckham's OCD took another shape.

He says he needs to have everything in a straight line,

or everything has to be in pairs.

He's literally obsessed with symmetry.

When David walks to the fridge,

simply getting a drink can quickly become an ordeal.

His drink labels must be lined up in a certain way.

DAVID BECKHAM: If there's two bottles of water and two bottles of Coke

and two bottles of Sprite,

if there's an extra can,

then I'd take it out and put it in the cupboard and hide it.

NARRATOR: David's disorder made him buy three fridges,

one for drinks, one for salads,

and one for other food.

Of course, all three perfectly organized.

Beckham also admitted that he's addicted to

rearranging hotel rooms to make everything perfect.

Like other OCD sufferers,

David didn't want his diagnosis to influence his career,

so he only opened up about it later.

His Manchester United teammates

used this information to annoy him.

They reordered his clothes and other stuff in hotel rooms,

and it drove him mad.

Although Beckham wished and tried

to stop his obsessive behavior, he couldn't.

Of course, his habits also complicate the lives of his family,

but with their love and support,

David leads a pretty normal life.

Mandel, Theron, and Beckham

are all living their own brand of nightmare,

but all three of them had the courage to break the silence.

So don't forget, whatever battle you're in, you're not alone.

Face your fears. Speak your truth.