Lena Dunham battled obsessive compulsive disorder
Lena Dunham has opened up about her battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety.
The Girls creator and star, who was diagnosed with OCD as a young girl, reveals she came up with strange rituals after becoming obsessed with the number eight.
She tells Rolling Stone magazine, "I'd count eight times... I'd
look on both sides of me eight times, I'd make sure nobody was
following me down the street, I touched different parts of my bed
before I went to sleep, I'd imagine a murder, and I'd imagine that
murder eight times."
Dunham now takes anti-anxiety medications to help with her
condition, but she admits the anti-depressants she took as a teen
often had unpleasant side effects.
She says, "(I felt) drugged like a big horse. I was so exhausted
all the time, night sweats. I was pretty fat in high school if I
look at it, because it just slows down your metabolism. My mom
would always be like, 'I think you're having a lot of side
effects.' And I'd be like, 'You just want me to be skinny!'"