for him, his ocd is particularly painful. he s overwhelmed by intrusive thoughts that his family will come to harm. she s gorgeous! whatever you do, don t fall backwards. why are you doing these compulsions, deon? what will happen? it s an overbearing feeling of that something bad will happen to a loved one. for example, today, danielle s gone swimming with school. if i don t do these neutralising behaviours, these habits, then she ll drown. he s compelled to carry out a series of rituals to prevent such thoughts coming true. i have a counting pattern of five and four. being there were five people in my originalfamily dad, mum, brother, sister, and me. and then now four, being, dawn, me, dominic and danielle. so these checking patterns have to be done in a five and four pattern. and then, if anything goes wrong, i then have to do that five and four thing, five and four times, being nine times nine. deon says that his rituals became so time consuming, it was taking up to 9
now for over 30 years. so performing on stage and screen is part of the course. but it is a journey i ve done with a constant, unwelcome companion. i love myjob, i love being an actor, but it s a real struggle because i suffer from a condition called ocd, obsessive compulsive disorder. for me, that means i can obsess about anything, from a stain on a page of paper to the fear i ll injure myself from simply sitting down. it s not exactly helpful when you re trying to do yourjob. there are tens of thousands battling ocd in wales alone. i m off to meet some of them, to see how it is taking over their lives, and how they re fighting back. deon gorle lives with his family near carmarthen. he s had ocd for most of his life. for him, his ocd is particularly painful. he s overwhelmed by intrusive thoughts that his family will come to harm. she s gorgeous! whatever you do, don t fall backwards. why are you doing these compulsions, deon? what will happen? it s an overbearing feeling th