10 Celebrities Who Have Been Diagnosed With OCD

Find out what these stars had to say about their diagnosis…

Amanda Seyfried has been dealing with OCD for much of her life that has manifested as health anxiety. While she says the “compulsive thoughts and fears” have diminished a lot as she’s gotten older, she still takes a low dosage of a medication to help her cope with her symptoms. While discussing her struggle with OCD, Amanda said she believed that mental health “should be taken as seriously as anything else” even though it’s something you can’t see.

“I’m on Lexapro, and I’ll never get off of it. I’ve been on it since I was 19, so 11 years. I’m on the lowest dose. I don’t see the point of getting off of it. Whether it’s placebo or not, I don’t want to risk it. And what are you fighting against? Just the stigma of using a tool?” Amanda shared with Allure.

She continued, “A mental illness is a thing that people cast in a different category [from other illnesses], but I don’t think it is. It should be taken as seriously as anything else. You don’t see the mental illness: It’s not a mass; it’s not a cyst. But it’s there. Why do you need to prove it? If you can treat it, you treat it.”

For years, David Beckham has dealt with symptoms of OCD that manifest in a need for cleanliness and for his possessions to be organized in a very specific way. While he admits it can be tiring, he says he feels compelled to follow through in order to ease his mind.

“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. I hate coming down in the morning, and there’s cups and plates and, you know, bowls. I clip the candle wax, I clean the glass, that’s my pet hate, the smoke around the inside of a candle… I know, it’s weird,” he shared in his Beckham documentary.

Camila Cabello has long been open about her struggles with mental health, once sharing that as a teenager, she used to wake up with “a super-accelerated heartbeat and really negative, intrusive, compulsive thoughts” from her “out of control” OCD. Since then, she’s been able to seek help and has read books that help her understand that her intrusive thoughts aren’t real. Now, she says she’s even able to laugh about it.

“OCD is weird. I laugh about it now,” she told Cosmopolitan UK. “Everybody has different ways of handling stress. And, for me, if I get really stressed about something, I’ll start to have the same thought over and over again, and no matter how many times I get to the resolution, I feel like something bad is about to happen if I don't keep thinking about it."

She continued, “When I found out, and [learned] how to step back from it, it made me feel so much better. I feel so much more in control of it now. To the point where I’m just like, ‘Aha! OK, this is just my OCD.’ I’ll ask my mom a question for the fourth time and she’ll be like, ‘That’s OCD. You’ve got to let it go.’”

For Howie Mandel, he’s been dealing with OCD all his life, writing in his memoir Here's the Deal: Don’t Touch Me that he believes it all may have stemmed from a childhood incident with insects. Since then, his OCD symptoms have manifested as a fear of germs -- but he wasn’t actually diagnosed until he was in his 40s.

Reflecting on his mental health struggles, Howie admits that life is sometimes like “living in a nightmare” and he can easily fall into a “dark depression” but he tries to “anchor” himself with the help of his family and his career. He says comedy “saved” him and his “coping skill is finding the funny.”

“There isn’t a waking moment of my life when ‘we could die’ doesn’t come into my psyche. But the solace I would get would be the fact that everybody around me was okay. It’s good to latch onto,” he told People.

He continued, “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. I’m most comfortable onstage. And when I don't have anything to do, I turn inward -- and that’s not good…My life’s mission is to remove the stigma. I’m broken, but this is my reality. I know there’s going to be darkness again -- and I cherish every moment of light.”

Charlize Theron has OCD but she says she tries to use it to her advantage. Although she admits it can be a little bit stressful when her children leave a trail of glitter around the house, she also uses her obsessive nature to really focus on her career.

“I’m definitely obsessive. I’m on a job right now, and I’m obsessive about the martial arts I’m learning. I get up at 4 a.m. to do it. I lie in bed at night thinking about the different hand positions,” she told Marie Claire in 2019.

She continued, “Obsessing is good for me. I’m very focused on the stuff that I really care about, but I do struggle with a bit of OCD. So I have to organize things that I can see: closets, drawers. That has to do with when I feel that things I can’t see are out of control.”

Lili Reinhart has long been open about her mental health struggle as she was in elementary school when she was diagnosed with OCD. Lili, who also deals with body dysmorphia, opened up about her struggle on social media while speaking out about what she perceives as the glorification of extreme thinness in Hollywood. Lili posted on X (previously Twitter) that she had recently been hyper fixated on the size of her arms which she believes was her body dysmorphia being amplified by OCD.

“My body dysmorphia has been going crazy because I feel like my arms need to be half the size they are currently?  We’ve glamorized these skinny arms that, for most of us, can only be achieved if you’re a literal adolescent,” Lili wrote.

She added, “I truly wonder how anyone survives or gets through this life without having severe BD. Maybe it's a cruel amplified version in combination with my OCD, but damn. The amount of time I’ve wasted thinking about my arms in the last few months is insane.”

Back in 2010, Megan Fox opened up about her OCD diagnosis, sharing that she struggled with “dirt” and shared public spaces like restrooms and restaurants. She told Allure that she couldn’t use cutlery that she knew other people had once used, explaining that she couldn’t help but think about all the bacteria. But after welcoming her first child, Megan shared that her OCD symptoms had gotten significantly better.

“I think Brian [Austin Green] was waiting to see what I would do [during the birth], because, you know, when they come out they are covered in all kinds of stuff. I took him right on my chest and, from that moment, nothing he does freaks me out. I don’t want to give him a complex. [The anxiety] has been significantly better since he was born. I would say, like, 80% better. Which is nice,” she told Marie Claire.

It wasn’t until Jessie J was 36 that she was officially diagnosed with OCD and ADHD. On social media, she explained that she began truly noticing her symptoms after welcoming her son in 2023 but had always felt “a little different” throughout her life. While she says the diagnosis has made her rethink many aspects of her life -- from how she works to how she loves others -- she says she feels it can be a “superpower as long as you look at it from the right perspective.”

“It’s empowered me and honestly sometimes has overwhelmed me all at the same time,” she wrote. “If there is one thing social media has given me, it’s the chance to relate, connect and heal with strangers that have kind hearts and are going through a similar thing. I have always been honest in the journey I’m going through in life.”

She later added, “It has made me love myself even more. I’m hugging 11 year old me. Who would clean her trainers with a toothbrush when she was stressed and to this day has lived with a 1000 lists to not feel like life will crumble 😂 Here’s to getting to know yourself even more through life. And loving yourself all the way. Nothing in life defines us, but it helps us grow and become a more wholesome version of ourselves.”

Will Poulter has struggled with his mental health his entire life and was diagnosed with OCD when he was a young teenager. He recalls having “intrusive thoughts” as a child and hearing a voice in his head saying “if I didn’t walk on certain paving stones on the way up to my mum and dad’s house, something terrible was going to happen to them.” He thankfully was able to start working with a therapist who has helped him deal with the disorder.

“I was really lucky. I got access to therapy in my early teens. I was probably 14 when I first started experiencing obsessive-compulsive thoughts and the ruminations, and intrusive thoughts,” he said on Fearne Cotton’s Happy Place podcast. “Until it was diagnosed and until I received that therapy, I just thought I was totally alone with this condition, or not even condition at that time, this way of thinking, with this defunct brain. I was so scared. And that, I think, is the scariest thing about any mental health issues, and you can never underestimate how alone someone can feel in their state.”

Lena Dunham admits she spent her childhood being scared of the world, laying awake at night obsessing over things like diseases, unsafe foods, and dying. When she was around nine, she read an article in a magazine about a woman with OCD and finally connected with someone, receiving her own diagnosis shortly after. Her family helped her seek therapy and she learned to meditate to cope with her symptoms. While she still deals with OCD, she says she’s grateful her parents stepped in when they did.

“I feel so lucky that my parents were people who were comfortable with therapy, with medication and conversations about anxiety. I would tell my younger self that there’s no shame in asking a teacher for help, telling a friend that you’re uncomfortable and that it’s just the same as falling down and scraping your knee,” she shared with the Child Mind Institute.

She continued, “[I also want my younger self] to understand that I’m not alone. There are so many other kids like me who are suffering this way and the greatest thing I can do for them and myself is to be honest.”