I love Howie Mandel and always have loved his inherent spirit of goofiness. Of course, most people know him these days as a primetime game show host and current judge on “America’s Got Talent,” but Howie’s been around since the 1970s in his continuing capacity as a stand-up comedian. While I’ve always followed his career, I admit to losing track of him at some point and then being delighted to rediscover him (during my college days) in the late 1990s when Howie stepped in as a guest host on “Regis and Kathie Lee.” Soon afterward, Howie got his own daytime talk show, and he filmed an episode specifically geared towards revealing his OCD. The poor guy! I still remember the look on his face when they called in a specialist to unveil all of the germs lurking on Howie’s desk. Indeed, it was a quasi-magical moment for me, for I realized that Howie and I had that horrible affliction in common.

Since then, Howie’s written a book about his OCD battle, and also talked (perhaps a bit too much) during a Letterman interview about his illness as well. Of course, Dave asked Howie the practical question; that is, what of medication? Naturally, Howie revealed that he was taking medication, but most people with OCD will realize that meds (usually Luvox and/or Xanax is prescribed) just don’t work. In fact, nothing works, and there’s no such thing as just “getting over it.” While there are behaviorial strategies that can help a patient endure some semblance of “normal” behavior, the disease is always present and nagging in the back of one’s mind. It’s a truly miserable, prison-iike existence, and I suspect that Howie suffers immensely (at all moments) but still has to make a living, so he’s developed some strategies involved with hotel rooms and air travel. If I could afford this sort of thing, it’s the way I’d do it too. Well, other than the head-shaving part.

Are you worried about bedbugs in hotel rooms?
When those outbreaks happen and it hits the news I garner comfort in going, ‘Uh uh now the world is coming over to my side.’ I love that everybody’s paranoid and taking precautions. I’ve been sleeping in a cocoon and not touching the comforters as it was so I’ve been safe. I check really closely. I travel with a magnifying glass, a black light. I don’t touch their sheets. I take mine, everything is sealed in plastic. I take towels and make a path. I’m a professional neurotic.

Wow.
It’s not wow, it’s How.

Do you still do stand-up?
200 days a year.

I’m fascinated by that, because you have a serious problem with germs and yet you continue to put yourself in stressful environments like hotel rooms.
This side of the Mississippi I fly back on the same night. If I’m in the northeast I have my own place up in Toronto where I stay. That’s not to say I don’t stay in hotels but I’m very particular on where I stay and how I stay. For the most part I live on a plane and I’ll fly privately because of my phobia with germs.

I think it’s important for me to be out there, outside of New York and Los Angeles. I really keep my finger on the pulse on what is tickling the fancy of the public. It’s either to do it when you’re in Iowa or when you’re in L.A. think and wonder if people in Iowa would like that.

Do you shave your head for cleanliness?
I did it originally for a movie, not one I was in, I was going to watch one and I didn’t want to block people’s view with my curly jewfro. No, I did it for a part in a movie but it felt so clean and now I have more of my face to wash.

Can you relate to Howard Hughes?
Sadly I do, he functioned and did well in life and it scares me as depicted in the DiCaprio movie, he’s in a room at the end naked and peeing in bottles. I’ve said this many times before I’m really not that far from him. I live on the edge and I can see without the therapy and medicine how that’s not so far fetched. That’s almost terrifying. I can hug, I can’t shake hands. I can’t get past the hands. I know it makes no sense.

[From Popeater]

See, Howie knows (just like everyone else with true OCD) that these thoughts are not rational, yet he cannot stop himself from thinking them. No amount of therapy or medication will ever make it go away, but he’s still out there performing on an almost nightly basis. So while the OCD truly runs his life (unlike people who are merely concerned about catching the swine flu or organizing their library “just so”), Howie’s living with his condition in the best way possible. That’s certainly commendable, but I’m sure it also helps that his wife has stuck by him all these years. She must be a real trooper, for God only knows how she’s put up with all of the madness; I’ve lost a few boyfriends myself over the years just because they can’t put up with the OCD stuff.

Here’s a few pictures of Howie out in public (with his long-suffering wife and doing his “fist bump” handshake with Simon Cowell) before he undoubtedly ran home for a Silkwood shower. Stay strong, Howie.

Photos courtesy of WENN and Fame

Rumer Willis was scheduled to go on David Letterman to promote her new horror film Sorority Row last night. She showed up and posed outside the CBS studios in a cute little while cap sleeve v-neck dress with cut out detail around the shoulders. I like Rumer despite some of the kind of clueless things she’s said lately and was hoping to see her interview last night. Rumer’s appearance was pushed back to tonight though, because comic Howie Mandel went on for so long about his OCD and anxiety that there just wasn’t time for her. There were a couple of segments featuring dogs diving into a pool set up outside the studio too.

Mandel was visibly nervous but was still incredibly funny and candid when he talked about his lifelong battle with obsessive compulsive disorder. The 53 year-old Canadian comic and “Deal or No Deal” host has a new book coming out this November called Here’s The Deal, Don’t Touch Me, some advance details of which we covered a couple of months ago. His interview ran for eight minutes and was a kind of funny but bittersweet glimpse into what he goes through every day dealing with severe anxiety and OCD.

Howie: I don’t know if people know that I have OCD and I’m a germaphobe and this whole swine flu thing – I don’t shake hands, I haven’t shaken a hand in like five years. I do this – [shows hand extended in a fist to give fist bump]

Dave: How is it so much different?
If we had done that, then I would have to wash my hands before having potato chips

I’ve been in therapy for a long time. I’ve had it as long as I can remember. I have a younger brother, and we used to fight, and the way he would win is to hold up the lid to the laundry hamper… I’m getting help.

Dave: I do know a little bit about [this] and people say if it kind of starts to interfere with your life, then maybe it’s time to seek medication.
And what makes you believe I’m not on that?..

So you are medicated?
If people are just tuning in now, that doesn’t sound so good… You’re gonna get Tom Cruise all pissed off at me.

So you have taken some medication? And you find that not satisfactory.
I’m still doing this [shows fist bump]

I’ll be honest with you, I’m a mess, but I’m ok. I’m functioning.

Remember the movie The Aviator with Leonardo DiCaprio? Remember at the end, Howard Hughes in the room naked, just urinating into a bottle? I’m this far [shows index finger and thumb about an inch apart] away from that.

Does it stay about the same or has it gotten worse. [since the 70s]
It ebbs and flows.

What causes it to get worse?
Interviews.

[Transcribed from Howie Mandel's appearance on the Late Show, aired 8/31/09]

After Howie’s interview they had another one of those dog diving segments and during a commercial break they showed footage of Mandel in his dressing room eating potato chips, his fingers extended so he was touching the chips as little as possible. It was a kind of sad look into his world and you can tell that although he puts a lot of humor into everything he’s dead serious about having his life ruled by OCD and not being far from a break down.

At the end of the show, before the scheduled band went on, Dave announced that Rumor would have to stop by the next night. “Rumer Willis, who is a lovely woman and a fine actress in her own right and one of the daughters of our friend Bruce Willis was to be on the program, but we’ve run out of time.”

When Paul Shaffer asked how that happened, Dave answered “Someone was talking too much about a disorder he’s having trouble with in life. So she was nice enough to find room in her busy schedule to be on the show tomorrow.” Nice Dave, way to blame the guest for going over. It’s not like that’s the first time you’ve had to deal with that in the 16 years your show has been on the air. Do you think Dave would have rearranged the show if the next guest was a bigger name than Rumer? Surely they could have cut that second dog diving segment.

Howie Mandel is shown on 8/5/09. Rumer Willis is shown on 8/31/09 outside The Late Show and outside her hotel in NY. Credit: WENN.com

Howie Mandel has written a book about his long struggle with ADD and OCD. For many years – most of his life in fact – his obsessions and compulsions ruined his life, adding all sorts of misery to his existence – and that of his wife Terry. It sounds like Howie was basically living in a prison due to all his fears and anxieties. In fact Terry said their lives revolved around Howie’s issues – which he’s finally been able to conquer. For the most part.

Howie Mandel’s lifelong battle with mental disorders nearly cost him his marriage. The “Deal or No Deal” star talks frankly about this struggles with attention-deficit and obsessive-compulsive disorders in a new book, “Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me.”

“Howie’s account of his issues is brave, hilarious and heartbreaking,” a source familiar with the project, due out in November, told The Enquirer. “But he also makes it clear that the road was also a nightmare for his wife Terry, the love of his life. For years, everything revolved around Howie’s fears and obsessions.”

Howie, 53, writes that he was a germaphobe that would banish Terry to a hermetically sealed room if she had a cold and would often walk around their home wearing a surgical mask and gloves. “At times he couldn’t be touched,” said the source. “He was driving Terry crazy.” But with time and therapy, Terry ultimately helped Howie emerge from his isolation. Today he’s no longer even on medication, according to the source.

Although Howie is still a “germ freak” with a peculiar habit – he hasn’t shaken hands with anyone since 2001 – he and Terry have learned to work through the issues together. “In his own way, Howie is an amazing guy. He continues to do stand-up comedy and concert dates every year and has become a big advocate for kids and mental health issues, added the source.

[From the National Enquirer, August 3, 2009, print ed.]

I have a friend who took a trip to Bangkok to see a sick relative and developed a slow but sure case of OCD as a result. She always traced it back to that incident (which involved a severe bacterial infection) and hearing so much about MRSA. Being around her was a nightmare – you’re always walking on eggshells. It’s impossible for someone without OCD to keep up with all the rules so you don’t freak the person out.

That said, thanks to swine flu I’ve also developed a semi-case of OCD. I hold my breath whenever someone sneezes around me – or just if someone stands too close. The other day I was on the bus and this guy sitting next to me sneezed. He didn’t make any attempt to cover his mouth or sneeze into the crook of his arm. In fact he turned in my direction. I made a very loud, obviously disgusted sound and moved my hand (which he’d just sneezed on), along with the rest of my body. I clearly offended the crap out of him, but I didn’t care since a) he made no attempts to protect my health in the slightest, doing the most minimal courtesy and b) I’m pretty sure he gave me pork flu.

See that’s the thing with OCD – once it becomes severe, you become oblivious to the feelings of those around you. Nothing is as important as staying away from germs, or whatever your particular obsession is. I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Terry. The thing about banishing her to a hermetically sealed room is so extreme, and frankly so sad. Can’t you imagine having a terrible cold, and all you want is for the person you love to make you chicken soup and put a cold compress on your head? Instead Terri’s locked away in a vault until she can be decontaminated. And I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to live as Howie, with OCD that extreme. Just the thought of living like that makes me feel anxious.

It sounds like Howie’s managed to reach a reasonable level of mental health. He’ll probably never be completely rid of his OCD, but people can be around him and he can be around people. Sure he doesn’t want to shake their hands, but given all the germs and whatnot… I just consider that good mental health. But we’ve already discussed my issue.

Here’s Howie Mandel (with his wife Terry) getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September. Images thanks to WENN.com .