Name: Howie Mandel on Managing His OCD
Uploaded: 2023-04-19T17:55:57.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Howie Mandel on Managing His OCD' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-19. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Howie Mandel on Managing His OCD' from PowerfulJRE on Comedy Buff. Published 2023-04-19. Transcript available.

The Joe Rogan Experience
I don't think these are happy people, all the people you mentioned.
I don't know that they were happy. I don't know that.
I'm not happy, so, you know, and I'm this goofy...
But you seem happy. I know.
You seem happy when you're around people.
That's why it's confusing. That's the scariest thing.
Yeah, I'm... nobody's more confused than me.
And right now, as I talk to you, I'm incredibly medicated.
And I am.
Where do they get you on?
I'm not talking about what I'm on, because people...
It may not be good for you, and I don't want people to take...
Well, that's very admirable of you.
Yeah, but I do... I get help. I'm surrounded by people.
The dichotomy between how I feel and what I do is huge.
You know, I'm a fucking mess.
And, you know, I deal with depression and anxiety.
It's unfortunate because you're such a nice guy.
Every encounter I've ever had with you has been so pleasant, so fun, and so
nice.
I always walk away going, "Howie is like the nicest fucking guy."
Thank you.
I always feel that way.
Thank you.
So, when I hear about a person like you that doesn't feel well, that gets
depressed, I'm like,
"God damn it, when he's around people, he seems so happy."
I'll tell you why.
Because, like, in this moment, I'm talking to you.
So, I'm in this moment, you know, listening to you, responding to you.
Right now, you're happy.
I'm distracted.
You know?
So, I am.
Because the worst thing for me is quiet time, you know?
Oh, I see.
I don't like night time.
I don't like when I get into my own head.
That's why I like stand-up comedy.
Because in those moments, you're just in that moment.
Because you have to be.
You know, I could, if I veered off into the darkness that is me and not
listening to a word you're saying and not trying to respond, I'm just trying to,
you know, I feel like I'm balancing on this little ledge all the time.
And these words and these interactions hold me, are my cable that hold me on
this side of it without falling off.
Wow.
Wow.
That's heavy.
It is heavy.
You know, it's like OCD has become a vernacular for a joke.
I can't tell you how many times a day somebody comes up to me and they go, you
know, I'm a little OCD-ish.
I want all my stuff lined up.
I like to stay clean too.
That's not OCD.
Right.
That's, they've used that as a word for being fastidious or neat.
OCD-
Slightly compulsive.
It's not obsessive compulsive.
Well, the obsession is the part that when you are obsessed with a thought and
you can't get a thought out of your head, no matter how dark it is, or you can't
get a ritual out of your head and you can't move on.
You think about Howard Hughes was probably one of the brightest, most
productive engineering, you know, marvels of our time and so many in technology
and artistry and everything.
And his last few years, he was in the fetal position naked in his room, pissing
into a bottle.
Right.
And I tell people at any given moment when you're with me, I can't tell you, I'm
not that far from that.
So I'm always just trying to toe the line and be on this side of that door, you
know.
Have you done anything else that helps other than meditation?
Have you tried other than medication?
Have you tried meditation?
I've tried it.
I've tried meditation and I do meditation.
Yeah.
I've tried meditate.
I've tried everything outside of the, uh, and I'm not opposed to it.
Um, the psychedelics and mushrooms and things like that.
I don't know if anybody would recommend that to you.
Well, here's the, here's the problem for me in order to do that.
You'd have to get off your medication.
Right.
And to get off my, I don't know that I could survive that bridge from my
medication to doing that.
So the medication is for me, my, my lifeline.
So you would have to be like very, very closely supervised during that entire
time.
I wouldn't, I wouldn't know how anyone would approach something like that.
Cause I think you're, you're dealing with a very specific kind of case.
And most of the people that advocate for psychedelics do not advocate, advocate
it for people that are really struggling.
Like mentally, just to keep it together right now, you know, and to get off the
medication, which is helping you keep it together.
It probably doesn't seem wise, but there's ways you can do it without drugs.
There's like holotropic breathing.
There's some people who practice.
I, I have never experienced this.
So this is me talking out of my ass, but I have direct connections to people
that have done Kundalini yoga.
There's a specific style of Kundalini yoga, specific way that you can achieve
these bizarre states, altered states that similar, they're similar to like
mushrooms or a DMT experience.
They're similar to psychedelics.
According to people that I know that have actually done the psychedelics and
have gotten obsessed with Kundalini and they say they can get to that place on
their own.
Which is really fascinating.
If you know somebody then give me a card before I leave here today.
I do not know anybody.
Well, I know some martial artists that have done it, but they don't teach it.
But I do know that there's a great place in LA that teaches Kundalini yoga.
Well, if anybody's listening to this and you're, I'll read the comments if you
have any recommendations.
Yeah.
I, again, this is not, I don't have personal experience with this.
So I'm just relaying other people's anecdotes and it seems interesting.
Um, but regular yoga for me, I really like a lot.
I run.
Running is great.
But running, I use it as a meditation.
Sure.
I just, I don't even listen to music.
I just listen to the, my, I do it on a treadmill and I just listen to my feet
hitting the treadmill and my breath.
And I'll do that for an hour.
That's amazing.
Every day.
That's fantastic.
It's better for my physical health, but it's also better for my mental health.
So to me, that's kind of a medication, uh, medication.
It is a medication.
Yeah, it is a medication.
And a meditation.
And, uh, just staying crazy busy is, uh, is my other form of, uh, I'm really
busy.
That's good though.
Yeah.
It seems like everything you're doing, you enjoy.
So even though you're busy, you're busy doing fun stuff.
I, I think most of the time, but I have like a, this, uh, this, uh, overlay of
terrible
terror to think whatever I'm doing is going to end.
Whatever I'm doing will get me in trouble.
You know, like the, the truth of the matter is when I found standup, standup
was the most
freeing thing in the world.
It was the one place where unlike, you know, acting, I didn't have to recite
any lines.
I didn't have to hit any marks.
You could do anything.
And that's why I've been such an advocate for you and all the people that we
talked about
earlier because they seem to be incredibly free.