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As a child, Michelle Mone could often be found tidying the family kitchen while her friends played outside. Not, she says, because it was dirty but because her mother had not organised the shelves as she thought they ought to be.
‘She’d freak me out,’ says Michelle. ‘She would have soup tins in different cupboards instead of them being all together. It would upset me and I had to do something about it. Mum would love it and say, “Michelle’s organising the kitchen!”
'It makes me who I am': Michelle Mone, founder of lingerie brand Ultimo, has suffered from OCD most of her life
‘Another thing that would panic me would be if she was wasn’t able to find a jumper. I have to know where everything is. Even today, my friends beg me to tidy their cupboards but it’s just normal for me to have everything in order.’
Order is a way of life for Michelle. The dynamic entrepreneur, founder of the Ultimo lingerie brand, is one of about three per cent of the UK population who suffer with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).
The mental health condition is characterised by obsessive thoughts that are only relieved by compulsive repetitive rituals that include washing, cleaning and checking.
David Beckham famously claimed to have OCD, which manifested in a need to have everything around him in straight lines or in pairs.
Symptoms of the disorder can range from mild to debilitating – many sufferers describe unwanted thoughts, such as becoming fixated by the worry that they may do unspeakable harm to themselves or others, and the anxiety caused by this can be overwhelming.
Broken marriage: Michelle divorced ex Michael after she discovered that he had an affair with one of her bra designers at Ultimo - she later bought him out of the company
Yet, astonishingly, Michelle is somewhat proud of the positive things OCD have given her. ‘I can cope with anything in life,’ she says.
‘I have coped with chaos and it’s me that people come running to if there is an issue. But I cannot function if I have a messy wardrobe. I say to people, “Organise your drawers before you face the world.”
‘Do I want to stop it? No. I can cope with a hell of a lot more in business because of OCD. I know where things are, I work faster, and I can take on a lot more.
OCD - THE CAUSES AND THE CURES
DO I HAVE OCD?
Symptoms vary. Some people spend less than an hour engaged in obsessive-compulsive behaviour – for others it may consume their whole day.
The ocdaction.org.uk online survey should help determine if you should visit your GP.
TRIGGERS
OCD may run in families and is linked to certain inherited genes that affect the brain’s development. The typical onset for OCD is between the ages of six and 15 for males, and 20 and 29 for women.
Up to four per cent of women develop OCD during pregnancy or after giving birth. Brain-imaging studies have shown that those with OCD have abnormalities in some parts of the brain including increased activity and blood flow, plus a lack of serotonin.
This chemical transmits information from one brain cell to another, and regulates anxiety, mood, memory and sleep. Medication that increases serotonin levels has proven effective in treating OCD.
HOW CAN I STOP?
Treatment is likely to involve behavioural therapy to help reduce anxiety.
Disruption of daily function is described as functional impairment. OCD that causes mild impairment is usually treated with cognitive behavioural therapy – managing problems by changing the way you think and behave.
If you have OCD that causes moderate functional impairment, you may be offered antidepressants.
Symptoms vary. Some people spend less than an hour engaged in obsessive-compulsive behaviour – for others it may consume their whole day.
The ocdaction.org.uk online survey should help determine if you should visit your GP.
TRIGGERS
OCD may run in families and is linked to certain inherited genes that affect the brain’s development. The typical onset for OCD is between the ages of six and 15 for males, and 20 and 29 for women.
Up to four per cent of women develop OCD during pregnancy or after giving birth. Brain-imaging studies have shown that those with OCD have abnormalities in some parts of the brain including increased activity and blood flow, plus a lack of serotonin.
This chemical transmits information from one brain cell to another, and regulates anxiety, mood, memory and sleep. Medication that increases serotonin levels has proven effective in treating OCD.
HOW CAN I STOP?
Treatment is likely to involve behavioural therapy to help reduce anxiety.
Disruption of daily function is described as functional impairment. OCD that causes mild impairment is usually treated with cognitive behavioural therapy – managing problems by changing the way you think and behave.
If you have OCD that causes moderate functional impairment, you may be offered antidepressants.
The ‘everything’ Michelle is referring to is her ‘year of hell’, in which her painful divorce was finalised.
Her ex-husband Michael, who was also her business partner, worked alongside her until his affair with a young designer in 2011.
Michelle, 42, subsequently bought him out of Ultimo, and this month she did the same with their other business, TrimSecrets, a herbal supplement that she has taken herself for the past four years and which, along with a serious workout regime, has helped her lose 7st.
Despite her lifelong obsessions with sorting and extreme tidiness – and Michelle recognising her behaviour was unusual – she was diagnosed with OCD only in her 30s.
She was making a TV programme at the time, and psychologists working on the same show noticed how she would repeatedly reorganise a room before she felt able to sit down.
They suggested to her that she was suffering from OCD and Michelle recognised the symptoms, though she has never sought professional help.
She has, however, worked tirelessly to control her symptoms, which crept into her work life when she started Ultimo in 1996.
Back then she felt the need to tidy the desks of other staff when they were not around but realised this obsession could not continue.
‘I have got better in the office,’ admits Michelle. ‘I’m now more aware of how I affect people and that you just can’t do that with their own space.
‘But I do insist that all A4 files that are left out must have the subject typed out in the same font and the same size. There must be no handwriting as it looks disgusting.’
Signs of OCD were more apparent in her former family home in Thorntonhall, near Glasgow – a house that had four dishwashers.
‘It sounds excessive as not everyone has a dishwasher, but we had the space and when we entertained friends for dinner I could not bear the idea of seeing dirty dishes in the sink as it would really upset me.
'Having those four dishwashers made me feel good.’
Mother-of-three Michelle has just spent ten months overseeing the refurbishment of her new home, a Victorian townhouse, using the furniture supplier of The Dorchester where she stays when in London.
‘It was a full-time job in itself even though I had a team working on it. I oversaw all the plans and every last detail. Everything had to be right,’ she says emphatically.
Glamour queen: Michelle thanks her OCD for helping her get her life back together
‘The handles have to be a certain way, the lights have to be in line.
‘The obsessions have become worse as I’ve got older. For example, I can have just got off a flight from China but if I walk into the kitchen and see the salt left out, so there is a mess, I then have to check every cupboard and go from room to room checking that everything is in order.
‘I have to make sure each pillow is lined up. I have to check that my wardrobe is organised. I have the same hangers and need to see them lined up as I like them. Only then would I be able to sleep peacefully.
‘If I go into my son Declan’s bedroom, I may say to him, “You do realise the pillow zips are up the wrong way?” and when he’s not around, I fix it all.
He says, “Mum, I don’t think you realise how tidy we are as a family!” ’
Mummy's little helper: Michelle, pictured age four, used to re-organise her mother's kitchen as a child
While Michelle and her relatives are used to her rituals, should an unsuspecting shop assistant ever hand over a crumpled bank note in change to Michelle, she will simply ask for another.
‘I have done that before now in Starbucks,’ she says. ‘How dare they give me something so crunched up and disgusting? I can’t bear it. All the notes in my purse are neat and must be lined up with the heads facing the right way and in order of fives, tens and twenties.’
Michelle’s way of doing things has also already proved a stumbling block in a relationship.
‘I have been single for a year but I was seeing a guy in Dubai,’ she confesses.
‘He didn’t like me fussing and told me to leave his pillows alone. I can’t understand how a guy would want to deal with a messy woman who leaves her make-up everywhere and has a messy wardrobe. If I was a guy I would throw her out.’
Besides her tidying rituals, Michelle’s habits extend to eating. ‘If I eat breakfast I have a white omelette with chilli and ham. And if I find a good restaurant I keep going back there. I don’t want to be disappointed by going somewhere else that I don’t know will be as good.’
Cognitive behavioural therapist Anna Albright explains what is going on in the mind of an OCD sufferer: ‘There are two components. The obsessional aspect is where a person churns the same thoughts over and over.
'This is an intrusive thought which they feel uncomfortable about.’
For example, there being germs everywhere. ‘This causes the psychological discomfort so they then go through a series of compulsive rituals to neutralise that discomfort, such as washing hands or lining up pencils.’
The exact causes of OCD are unknown although genetics are thought to be involved. A person with OCD is four times as likely to have a family member with the same condition. It is also thought to be related to other illnesses such as Tourette’s syndrome.
Yet unlike so many sufferers who feel embarrassment and try to hide the condition, Michelle’s professional success – she was awarded an OBE in 2010 – has given her a confidence to confront every aspect of her personality.
She says: ‘I haven’t inherited it from anyone and there is no sign of it in my children. But OCD defines who I am as a person.
‘I don’t think it’s an illness. I would say it’s what makes me perform so well and makes me unique.
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