By Mark Gray
7:35pm PDT, Oct 14, 2023
_
"America's Got Talent" and "Deal or No Deal" star Howie Mandel is known for preferring fist bumps to handshakes due to his struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
"I can't tell you how many people come up to me and go, 'Oh, yeah, I'm a little OCD, too. I like everything in order. If my room is not clean, I'm just not happy. I've got a little OCD.' … You can't have a little OCD," he recently told TODAY.com.
The comedian went on to detail how OCD nearly cost him his marriage, prompting his wife to give him an "ultimatum."
Keep reading for details…
MORE: Follow Wonderwall on MSN for more fun celebrity & entertainment photo galleries and content
_
Howie Mandel knew he wanted things to be a certain way — clean! But he didn't exactly want to talk about it. He now knows that was a mistake. These days, the comedian wants people who suffer from OCD to feel open to discussing their situation with a professional.
"I wouldn't go see a therapist. I wouldn't go see a psychiatrist. I would not talk about the word 'mental health' at all," he said. "I'd have my children and my wife spray everything down and not touch things. I wouldn't take things that they were handed. I would remove some of their toys that I saw touch the ground. I was making their life miserable."
MORE: Follow Wonderwall on MSN for more fun celebrity & entertainment photo galleries and content
_
Howie Mandel shares three adult children with his wife of 43 years, Terry. Over time, the family began to struggle with his OCD.
"My wife just gave me an ultimatum. She goes, 'I can't do this anymore and I can't have the children do it anymore. And if you don't get help, that's it,'" Howie said. "So it was an ultimatum that made me ultimately go to therapy, and I got diagnosed (with OCD)."
MORE: Follow Wonderwall on MSN for more fun celebrity & entertainment photo galleries and content
_
Howie Mandel found it "comforting" to receive an official diagnosis for OCD.
"I was embarrassed that I had this problem, and when you have a mental health problem, there is a stigma," he said.
Although Howie has come a long way since then, he still can't bring himself to shake hands with people.
"I still don't shake hands because of my fear of a trigger. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I know that I could shake your hand and nothing is going to happen. I just don't want to be triggered, so that's why I don't shake hands," he said.
_
People often downplay OCD, which Howie Mandel thinks is a mistake because "intrusive thoughts" can be debilitating.
"I've been really successful. I have a beautiful family, and I love what I do. But inside my head, it is a war zone, and it's a war worth fighting, and I continue to fight it," he said. "The inability to control your brain with these obsessive thoughts and the compulsion to fight them is far more prevalent in somebody with OCD. (Other) people have weird thoughts that go through their head and then it goes away."
