On his new podcast What’s One More, actor Alec Baldwin opened up about struggling with OCD. “It’s through empathy, understanding and being kinder to one another, that we can finally remove the stigma and change the narrative.”
In a new interview on the podcast he shares with his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, Alec shared his struggle with OCD, or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He chatted with Howie Mandel, who also has OCD, about the disorder and said he hopes to “finally remove the stigma” around it.
While OCD might seem like a fun thing to say about anal behavior, there are a lot of people struggling with it.
The 30 Rock actor revealed on the podcast that his symptoms increased over the years. Alec Baldwin told the America’s Got Talent judge about his OCD struggle:
“OCD is something I personally struggle with. I’m grateful to Howie for opening up at a time when few people were talking about this publicly, and there was even more of a stigma about OCD and mental health than there is today. It’s through empathy, understanding and being kinder to one another, that we can finally remove the stigma and change the narrative.”
“Is germaphobia the only way that that OCD was expressed, and what was the beginnings of when you started to track that and sense that? Because I’m going through this myself now. I am, like really seriously.”
Howie said that, for him, it often manifests in doing repeated chores, like repeatedly washing his hands or constantly checking that doors are locked.
Hilaria also added that OCD has become a “very personal” issue for her and Alec. She added “we’ve been learning a lot about OCD over the past few years.”
“We’re still very new to the journey of understanding what OCD is. But we’re learning that by being open about our challenges, we find a community where we realize we are not so alone, and we can be a part of paving the way for more people to seek help.”
A lot of times, Baldwin got a bad rep with the fans, because of his fear of people touching him. Now that he’s opening up about it, it might give people a chance to reflect on how our actions affect others. And how, sometimes, their actions aren’t even related to something we’ve done, but their own personal struggle.
Alec also recently opened up about dealing with Lyme diseases’ effects even after 20 years.
“I think twice that I had it, I got bit twice and I probably had it four times over five years where it came back at the exact same time,” he explained. Each time, he says he was bedridden with cold sweats, joint pain, soreness, and exhaustion.
