The life of Hugh Turner, an obsessive compulsive disorder sufferer fixated with the number 12. Most provisions in his home are bought by the dozen - even socks and trainers - and he has been hospitalised several times after taking tablets in batches of 12. Simple everyday tasks become major hurdles, but he maintains good humour, despite concerns that his son is also displaying symptoms
This programme is on again Thursday on ITV2 8pm
How can somebody live with that illness for 40 years???
Raised some serious questions in my mind about mental illness and how it has been handled in the past!
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A friend also suffered from ocd which came about at a time in her life when her last child married and left home and then she had a hysterectomy almost straight after. The doctors reckoned that it all was just too much. She was hospitalized - hers was a cleanliness thing. She refused to eat her dinner one night as one of her other daughters had breathed on it. She also made her hands sore from overwashing.
I think it is more common than we really realise.
Roobarb - I think you're right about it being more common than we realize.....
I only watched the last 3/4 (Mrs G saw teh whole thing) but the one question I felt was not answered was why the wife or children had not sought proper advice and help before?
I was amazed at the wifes ability to laugh it off as it must be very, very difficult to live with somebody like that full time.
Hi Shambs, like you I think my daughter suffered a mild form of this during the period that she was doing her GCSE's. She'd refuse to eat whilst out shopping etc unless she'd washed her hands and if she went on the bus and held onto the pole whilst getting off she'd insist on finding a washroom to clean off the germs!
She's a bit better now but is still a little like that.
So I chant, quietly of course, the same reg number for c.2 miles! LOL!
I think that as you say we all suffer from it and it just takes some really stressful situation, eg Wolfy's daughter and her GCSEs, to really let it get out of control.
I've seen programmes on tv before where a young lady had to follow a certain ritual before she left the house - touched this thing three times, that thing twice etc etc etc. If she did something wrong, no matter how far into the ritual she was, she had to start again.
Must be very distressing at times.
I was also surprised how the chap in the prog last night seemed to be OK for a very short time then change back to being seriously stressed again. When he went up the tower, I have some sympathy here as I went up the CN tower a couple of years ago and didn't walk across the glass floor like he did up the Blackpool tower, but he seemed to sort himself out when he got to the top of it.
Then when he returned home he was poorly again. Very strange.
Psychiatry has come full circle, and we're now back at the stage of paying to watch the funny lunatics as the gentry used to do in 19th Century Bedlam.
Been lurking
Didn't see prog but what you describe is something I often see with Mrs - most recently when we were in London.
She effectively says she has a "Mind" and a "Brain". The Mind is the bit that does the thinking - the Brain is the bit that controls her body. The problem with the Mind is it gets over stimulated (ie she gets fixated with something) so the Brain can't operate properly. In extremis The "Brain" can overide the "Mind" and shut it down - whilst retaining motor skills. When the danger is past the Mind just starts rabbiting away again, and thats when Sensory Overload kicks in.
I suspect this guy was experiencing the same sort of thing. The bit of his Brain that effectively controlled his motor centre could overide the obsessive fixation whilst it felt there was a threat to his well being (ie being on top of a tall building). But as soon as he was "safe" the obsessive bit of his "Mind" started jabbering away again. So he got poorly again.
1. Not come into the dinning room if somebody is sitting in 'his' chair. He will not come back later and will miss that meal
2. Walks round the dinning room twice before sitting.
3. Only drinks out of a certain glass.
4. Sit in his car until a particular space ('his' space) comes available. He will not get out of his car and will wait until someone passes then asks them to find out who is parked in 'his' space and ask them to move.
These are only a few of the things he does and he calls them "Musts". He has had a few disciplinarily charges for being late etc but will not seek any help. He was telling us that it is getting worse but just laughs at himself for being daft.
Prefer the big foglamps meself - but there you go.....
I always check the sink plugs are out and the taps are off.
There was a guy who had it, and was worried he'd confess to a murder he hadn't committed, so he held water in his mouth so he couldn't speak. The water kept turning rotten and his teeth fell out in the end.