6 Athletes with OCD: How They Manage Their Condition and Excel in Sports

Professional athletes are sometimes put on a pedestal and held to a higher standard than the rest of society. The thing is athletes are human just like everyone else. And, because they are regular people (even the rich ones) underneath, they are prone to the same stressors, illnesses, disabilities, and challenges as you and me. Mental illness does not discriminate, regardless of who you are, where you come from, or what profession you have.

So, although, when most people think of professional athletes, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is probably the last thing that comes to mind, the truth is it is possible that your favorite soccer player or track runner is struggling with this condition. OCD is an anxiety condition that is characterized by intrusive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors, like rituals or routines. So, if you think about it, most athletes tend to engage in rituals and routines that help them be the best in their leagues.

Is it really that unconscionable that an athlete may be struggling with “just right” or “perfectionist” OCD? If you ask any professional athlete if they want to be the best in their league, they will likely say, “YES!” And, if you ask them how many hours they spend training, they are likely to say A LOT! Moreover, if you ask them if they tend to obsess over every little thing when it comes to their performances, they’re likely to say, “ABSOLUTELY!”

So, in this framework, it makes sense that many athletes secretly struggle with OCD. Perhaps, what you think is sheer will, passion, precision, focus, or ambition is really a sign of OCD. Maybe, behind closed doors, the athlete that is always “on point,” has become obsessed with winning to the point that the only way to ease their stress and anxiety is to win – at all costs.

The good news is OCD is common and highly treatable with therapy (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT), medication (i.e., SSRI antidepressants), natural remedies (i.e., mindfulness meditation, CBD, or crystal therapy), and/or Impulse Therapy, an online OCD recovery treatment program. With the right treatment, tools, and resources, athletes can manage their conditions and excel in sports! In this article, you will learn how 6 athletes managed their conditions while excelling in sports!

What Athletes Have OCD?

Listed below are 6 athletes who were able to manage their condition and excel in sports:

Ginny Fuchs

Virginia “Ginny” Fuchs is a 2020 Tokyo flyweight boxing Olympic contender who has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Fuchs was diagnosed with OCD while receiving inpatient treatment for anorexia. Over the next two decades, OCD became the focal point of her life, an unrelenting uphill battle for control of her life, health, and well-being. Fuchs, who is now a staunch advocate for OCD sufferers, struggles with contamination OCD or the fear of being infected or “contaminated” by germs, bacteria, etc.

Fuchs’ OCD is characterized by compulsive handwashing patterns that persist until she feels “clean.” She may spend 30 minutes or more cleaning – her hands, countertops, bathroom, or house until she feels like everything is pristine. She has a habit of focusing on one spot for hours until she is surrounded by cleaning products and paper towels or her skin is raw from scrubbing it.

She also engages in other “ritualistic” behaviors like repeatedly washing and bleaching her shoes, and using a new toothbrush almost every time she brushes her teeth. Fuch’s OCD struggles coexist with her desire to become a top-tier boxer. It is this desire that helps her get up and put one foot in front of the other each day. Instead of getting lost in a cycle of OCD, Fuchs transforms this energy into being the best athlete she can be in the boxing ring.

Fuchs’ drive and passion to be the best boxer helps to control her OCD symptoms. But, she still struggles with OCD every single day. Fuchs hid her conditions from her teammates, coaches, friends, and parents until she couldn’t. Eventually, her friends and loved ones figured out that she was dealing with something heavy. That is when she told them the truth – she suffers from OCD.

It was a fear of being judged, labeled, shunned, and/or criticized that prevented her from sharing her OCD diagnosis with others. But, once Fuchs shared what she was experiencing with others, she began to regain control of her symptoms – and her life. And, while COVID made things worse for some OCD sufferers, for Fuchs, it actually made things better for her. More specifically, COVID provided Fuchs with reassurance that her environment was “clean” and “sterile.” Because of the intense cleaning methods, masks, and social distancing measures enacted during COVID, Fuchs felt safe enough to venture out to stores without an unrelenting fear of being contaminated.

However, COVID also forced her to quarantine with friends at their homes and at Airbnb, which were out of her normally “clean” and “sterile” environment, which was a struggle. To keep her stress and anxiety at bay, Fuchs developed new obsessions and compulsions that she found unhealthy and unproductive. She began having more and more obsessions and compulsions, which hurt her mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially.

Fuchs admits that some days she feels like she has a grip on her symptoms and some days she feels like she is losing the battle. Stress flares her OCD. During an OCD flare, Fuchs is unable to eat or sleep. Insomnia becomes her constant nighttime companion. She is also unable to control her thoughts to the point where she becomes sick from worrying about getting sick.

Boxing is what helps Fuchs go on – it keeps her moving forward instead of getting caught up in a never-ending cycle of obsessions and compulsions. It is boxing that brings Fuchs back to reality when OCD threatens to consume her. Boxing reminds Fuchs that with the right OCD help, she can have the life she wants – high-level competitions, traveling and so much more.

Talking about her experiences with OCD, educating others on what OCD is and is not, leaning on friends, family, her coaches, and teammates, and seeing an OCD therapist are all things that help Fuchs maintain her mental health, keep her OCD symptoms in-check, and keep moving forward.

Callie (Roper) Williams

Callie (Roper) Williams is a distance runner, who received an “All-American” honorable mention from Rice University. She is also someone who has struggled with OCD for most of her life. Williams who was a high school student at the time wore a yellow Nike sports bra and two bobby pins in her hair when she won her first cross-country state championship. After which, every time she had a track match, she wore the same yellow Nike sports bra and two bobby pins in her hair.

Williams meticulously wore the same attire, complete with bobby pins in her hair, each time she had a race because she believed if she forgot a bobby pin or placed them in the wrong place, or if she wore a different sports bra, she would lose the race. By the time Williams entered her last year in high school track, she was afraid to tie her “racing flats” (lightweight athletic shoes) before important races.

She believed that the laces had to be tied “perfectly” or “just right” or she would lose the race. Her coach would often catch her tying and re-tying the laces over and over again. However, after the 4th or 5th time of her retying the laces, he would jump in out of impatience and frustration and tie them himself. William’s OCD symptoms worsened when it was time to compete in important or “high-stakes” races.

It was not until Williams received OCD treatment, specifically exposure-response and prevention (ERP) therapy that she was finally able to get her OCD symptoms under control. It was also then that her passion and love for running returned. Before OCD had made this love turn sour. But receiving OCD therapy helped to quiet the “noise” in her mind so she could focus on doing what she loves to do – running and competing. As a result, she was able to qualify for a spot in the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.

Williams no longer had uncontrollable urges to engage in compulsive behaviors before important races, rather, she was finally able to spend her time preparing and being excited with a healthy dose of angst about being able to do what she does best. Upon graduating from Rice University, Williams became an OCD clinician at the McLean Houston OCD Program. She believes that evidence-based OCD treatments and raising OCD awareness are ways to combat the negative effects of OCD.

David Beckham

In a 2006 interview with ITV1, David Beckham, a world-renowned English soccer player, (footballer) talked about struggling with OCD. Beckham’s OCD symptoms involve placing items in a straight line or in pairs. For instance, if there are too many soda cans (in his mind) in the refrigerator, he will place additional ones somewhere else, for instance, in a kitchen cabinet. Moreover, if Beckham enters a hotel room and pamphlets are scattered around the room, he feels compelled to stack them up or put them in a drawer. If he does not do that, he is unable to relax.

According to his wife, Victoria, Beckham becomes anxious when things do not match, for instance, they have three refrigerators, and each one is coordinated. One refrigerator contains just food, another one just salads, and a third one only beverages. As for beverages, if they have 3 sodas instead of an even number of 2 or 4, then he will throw away one or grab another one to make it even.

Beckham’s OCD symptoms extend to his extensive tattoo collection. Almost every inch of Beckham’s body is covered in tattoos. He admits that he is obsessed with the pain that comes from the tattoo needle pricks, which is why he keeps returning. The only way to make his anxiety go away is to get a tattoo. He has tried to stop or reduce his OCD symptoms but to no avail.

Beckam acknowledges that he struggles with OCD (based on the symptoms), however, there is no indication that he has been “officially” diagnosed or treated for it. According to Beckham participating in sports was a great distraction for his OCD thoughts and behaviors, however, now that he is retired, the distracting factor comes from spending quality time with his kids – taking them to school and picking them up, playing rugby with them, and most of all, playing Legos with him. Legos help clear his mind, so he can focus on something other than his obsessive thoughts and urges.

Millie Farrow

Millie Farrow is an English striker who has struggled with anxiety and OCD throughout her professional career as a soccer player or “English footballer.” She began having OCD symptoms at the age of 14, but because her dream was to become a professional soccer player one day, she only shared her concerns with her parents, who were just in the dark about what was happening to her as she was. Things came to a head when she became afraid to shake her opponents’ hands before games.

This fear gripped her so badly that she would avoid them at all costs. The intrusive thoughts threatened to overtake her mind. It was not long before she started to experience shame and guilt for having these thoughts and fears. She could not understand why this was happening to her and she was afraid of what others would think about her if they knew what was really going on with her.

She was not only afraid to open up to her teammates about her struggles but also to her coaches out of fear that she would be asked to leave the team. Farrow also began to have a hard time paying attention in class due to the non-stop intrusive thoughts and fears. This caused her grades to drop. It was then that she made an appointment with her doctor, who referred her to a therapist for anxiety and OCD. 

Farrow hid her OCD symptoms because she was afraid of being judged. But because she hid her OCD diagnosis, it affected her later in life. She attended therapy but it was off and on. Farrow admits that she probably saw 4-5 different therapists because she moved a lot with her career. She was unable to form a trusting therapist/client relationship because of this. Hiding her condition from others also caused Farrow’s training to suffer.

Farrow would often become too engrossed in her intrusive thoughts and fears to pay attention to the various plays. OCD was constantly interrupting her on and off the field. She became fixated on cleanliness and cringed when people did not wash their hands. As a result, Farrow started wearing gloves when around other people and away from home. After games, when Farrow was expected to shake hands with her opponents, she would run to the sidelines to apply sanitizer to her hands. It got to the point where she no longer enjoyed playing soccer.

What helped Farrow was talking about her experiences with OCD. It released her from her OCD prison. She even wrote a book about her OCD struggles called, “Brave Enough Not To Quit.” In the book, she talks about how opening up and getting OCD therapy helped her regain her focus and love of soccer. In the book, she also talks about how she thought she could kick OCD alone, but she could not. She needed help and once she received that help her life significantly improved.

Sam Dankin

Sam Dankin is a New Zealand Olympic track cyclist. In 2020, Dankin attended his first World Championships for track cycling and participated in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. In 2018, Dankin began experiencing what would later be characterized as OCD symptoms. At the time, he was 22 years old. It happened all of a sudden. He woke up one day and everything was different.

More specifically, he became laser-focused on one thought – a thought that kept replaying in his mind. At first, the thought only replayed in his mind for about 60 minutes, but after a while, the thought would replay for hours. It kept getting worse and worse for Dankin. Eventually, this single thought consumed 16 hours of Dankin’s day, rendering him unable to sleep and leading to chronic insomnia. It also affected his ability to perform in competitions. He worried about the intrusive thoughts, but still had a job to do so he put all of his energy into “perfecting” his craft.

For Dankin, training and competing in races were distractions to keep him from obsessing over things, like how many hours he trained or did not train on a particular day. That is when he turned to Mr. Google. He was desperate to understand what was happening to him. The answer would come from an unlikely place – a Reddit forum! He was finally able to connect with people who were experiencing the same thing.

The things that helped Dankin get back on track were getting help for his OCD, and sharing his OCD story with others. OCD therapies like cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) helped a lot with Dankin’s intrusive thoughts, along with other tools like group therapy and journaling or writing things down. However, the thing that meant the most to Dankin was the support he received from others – that is what helped him get back on track and return to the career he loved.

Clint Malarchuk

Clint Malarchuk is a retired NHL goalie who has publically battled with OCD. He played professionally from 1981-1992 and has since coached as a goal-tending Columbus Blue Jackets coach. Although Malarchuk was hospitalized for anxiety at the age of 12 years old, he was not “officially” diagnosed with OCD until 1991 – at the age of 29. But even at the age of 12, Malarchuk engaged in ritualistic behaviors like excessive checking, an extreme fear of germs and contamination, constant praying, etc.

Due to his fear of contamination, he avoided touching things, especially door knobs, and cleaned excessively. He was also very emotional – worrying about everything. Malarchuk also struggled with depression, alcoholism, prescription drug abuse, and suicidal ideation in relation to his OCD and other mental health conditions. Malarchuk attributes his ability to excel in his career, spanning 10 seasons with Quebec, Washington, and Buffalo, while struggling to control his intrusive thoughts, to his love, passion, and devotion to hockey.

Malarchuk was also able to excel in sports by focusing on the sport. Ironically, being “single-minded” is a positive skill in his field, however, this skill actually worsened his OCD – even though it was celebrated by the outside world. Malarchuk had no time to think about his condition because he was laser-focused on being the best goalie. Still, his OCD symptoms tended to worsen on the day before a game, likely due to a spike in his stress and anxiety levels. The pressure of winning was heavy, so he would obsess over it.

In some instances, a goalie is given a private room, which was a relief to Malarchuk because it gave him an opportunity to carry out rituals and routines (i.e., excessive praying, pacing, hollering, and acting out) away from prying eyes and ears. Eventually, he began obsessing over almost everything. He couldn’t turn off his thoughts. He would fixate on one little thing that he saw in a movie, on a commercial, in life, etc. Nothing would reassure him. He couldn’t sleep, eat, or do anything. OCD was taking over his life.

The only way to stop the intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviors was to self-medicate with drugs and alcohol, which eventually led to an alcohol and drug addiction. Once Malarchuk hit rock bottom (attempting suicide) and found a therapist he was able to receive intensive therapy, start on anti-anxiety meds and antidepressants, and wean off the drugs and alcohol. However, it took years and lots of trial and error to get his OCD symptoms under control.

References

• Russell, L. (2022). David Beckham health: ‘I can’t stop’ star on his battle with OCD – recommended treatments. Express. Retrieved from https://www.express.co.uk/life-style/health/1621961/david-beckham-health-obsessive-compulsive-disorder-symptoms-treatment
• Robb-Dover, K. (2020). Does David Beckham really have OCD? FHE Health. Retrieved from https://fherehab.com/learning/david-beckham-ocd
• Sanders, E. (2006). David Beckham OBE, OCD. BBC. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/ouch/2006/04/david_beckham_obe_ocd.html
• Sanders, E. (2023). Millie Farrow on her struggle with OCD and serious injuries. BBC sports. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/64386272
• Mental Health Foundation. (2021). An Olympic athlete living with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Retrieved from https://mentalhealth.org.nz/stories/story/an-olympic-athlete-living-with-obsessive-compulsive-disorder
• Raza, S. (2017). Clint Malarchuk interviewed. Huffpost. Retrieved from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/clint-malarchuk-interview_b_9987136