Seinfeld Most Definitely Has OCD!

I'd been thinking about this episode (The Strike) again recently and had been meaning to talk about it for about the last 5 years. It's probably the 'most-like' my condition that I have seen that has ever been put on film. 

OK so The Aviator is an excellent film starring Leonardo Di Caprio showcasing the wonderful and extremely painful like of entrepreneur Howard Hughes.... but it's nothing like my life. yes there's a guy starting to stammer and have repeated unwanted thoughts, ticks and saying stuff he couldn't help ending up with a morbid fear of germs... so much so he essentially hermetically seals himself up from the world. truly terrible and truly understandable by anyone with OCD... but.... like I say nothing like I have. Although I will say after watching it, I did one night start repeating a phrase. I just couldn't help myself. I had been drinking and not sleeping very well and staying at a friends house as I was breaking up with my terrible girlfriend. I was still very hungover and I had been watching Black Hawk Down earlier in the evening. Even though it's 20 years ago, that much I remember. (And I also remember that I had been watching the Aviator that week). Then I awoke and started saying this phrase and could just not stop myself saying it. It was excruciating and I must have done it a few hundred times til it started waring off. I have never done it since. I wasn't sure if my subconscious created one of the horrible scenes in The Aviator when Howard started repeating a phrase over and over. Awful. 

Another slight digression : I used to have one embarrassing tick, where I used to either say 'Wellow' or 'Boyzone' especially when I was tired. Very odd and very weird and to this day I will occasionally say 'Wellow' when I'm dropping off to sleep but luckily my 'Boyzone' days are beyond me. 

OK so that's quite a few digressions but I wanted to say, I rarely see anything on film that resembles my life.... and then I re-saw 'The Strike' an episode by Seinfeld and I suddenly saw it for what it really was. 

Now if you don't know what it's about, basically Jerry dates a character called Gwen (Karen Fineman) and she is often referred to as 'Two-face' by fans. The episode revolved around the fact that Jerry struggles with Gwens face depending on the lighting. One minute she appears quite beautiful and then in terrible lighting she looks a lot less attractive and it does his head in! Jerry starts insisting that she only comes to Monk's Coffee shop as it's there where she looks attractive. So far so mad, but I remember crying my eyes out because my ex-wife was wearing a scarf or a hat or something and it made her look really weird to me.Well more than that I was genuinely frightened and scared of her face. My poor ex-wife, what she had to put up with! I've had the same experience with many of my girlfriends which I've spoken about at length on my blog. I remember my girlfriend used to have a coat that used to break me out in sweats I hated it so much. Sometimes it's really difficult to definite exactly what it is as well - sort of just an indefinable feeling of yuck! Anyway its an episode worth checking out ...

Check out the bit about 1:05 in. Jerry is very happy to see her and they talk about getting some take out food. Skip to about 5 seconds later and Jerry looks back and the lighting has changed and now Jerry is back to being totally freaked out. It's actually incredible as this is the most accurate presentation of the ROCD condition that I have ever committed to film! It's often said that Jerry suffers from OCD, mainly because of his attention to details and cleanliness but I think this shows it even more. The only thing slightly wrong with this episode is that Whatley (Brian Cranston) also seems to see her in a bad way at the start when he grimaces as well, so that kind of takes it out of the realm of OCD but apart from that its spot on for visual ROCD which is what I have. 

So I don't know whether Jerry Seinfeld himself has it or not but it's quite interesting when you start searching for other performers who suffer from OCD. Leonardo Di Caprio himself does and it was said that it made him a lot worse doing the film The Aviator. Daniel Radcliffe and Harrison Ford are another 2. I suspect Hollywood is absolutely jam packed full of people with OCD! Its definitely worth checking out Girl Interrupted that I remember has someone who has OCD...I'd be interested to know of any other films that address OCD in any way shape or form so please do get in touch to let me and everyone else know! With over 15,000 reads now, we are not alone!