Lena Dunham underwent therapy as a child
Lena Dunham began seeing a therapist at the age of nine to tackle symptoms of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
The Girls actress reveals her battle with the anxiety disorder in an excerpt from her new memoir Not That Kind of Girl which was published in The New Yorker this week (beg25Aug14).
Dunham admits she was "afraid of everything" while growing up and
lived in fear of catching a life-threatening illness. She adds,
"The germophobia morphs into hypochondria morphs into sexual
anxiety morphs into the pain and angst that accompany entry into
middle school."
Her parents, who both had therapists of their own, sent her to
sessions at the age of nine and she later discovered the reason
behind her anxiety.
Dunham writes, "Sitting with my mother in the beauty salon one
afternoon, I come across an article about obsessive-compulsive
disorder. A woman describes her life, so burdened with obsessions
that she has to lick art in museums and crawl on the sidewalk. Her
symptoms aren't much worse than mine: the magazine's description of
her most horrible day parallels my average one. I tear the article
out and bring it to (my therapist), whose face crumples
sympathetically, as though the moment she'd been dreading had
finally arrived..."
The actress/director goes on to explain she has learned to cope
with her condition over the years, but adds, "My O.C.D. isn't
completely gone, but maybe it never will be. Maybe it's part of who
I am, part of what I have to manage, the challenge of my life."
Hannah, Dunham's character in Girls, also suffers from the
disorder. The memoir will be released on 30 September (14).