Jenna Ortega says her obsessive-compulsive disorder showed up at 7, in the way she made her bed, opened a drawer and brushed her hair. The 24-year-old actress remembers waking before her siblings so she could follow a morning routine with exact rules for ordinary tasks.
She says she’s living with “pretty intense” OCD.
“I had to open the bedsheet a certain way, and open the drawer one way, and brush my hair in a slow-paced way,” she said. “There’s a lot of different trains rolling in my brain at the same time.”
Ortega described rituals she uses to ease anxiety, including saying “take care” a certain number of times each day, holding her breath and counting to 71. She tries to approach OCD as a game and says those routines help relieve some of the pressure.
Acting gives the Wednesday and Klara and the Sun star a break from those demands. She explained that when the cameras are rolling, she has to breathe, adding, “That’s another reason why I like my job.”