Ian Puleston-Davies has battled obsessive-compulsive disorder since childhood.
Ian Puleston-Davies has OCD
The 65-year-old actor - who is best known for playing builder Owen Armstrong on 'Coronation Street' from 2010 until 2015 - has recalled struggling with the mental health condition as a seven-year-old but wasn't diagnosed until he was 35 as it wasn’t really talked about during his youth.
He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “I do remember from a young age being bothered by annoying rituals I did and silent fears I had.
“No one would have known about OCD back then. I’m pretty sure not even many in the medical profession. It was my very best secret. I wasn’t going to anyone about these ‘habits’ I had. Not even my parents.
Ian - who has daughter Maggie, 16, and son Charlie, 12, with his partner Sue MacPherson - detailed some of the symptoms he gets like “catastrophizing” and worries about being “poisoned”.
He said: “Catastrophizing that I could be poisoned by touching a tea stain can be a common thought.
“My thoughts are mainly to do with contamination or fear of harm to myself or to others. If I spot a stain, my unwanted thought will tell me it’s toxic and dangerous, that if I or my children touch it, something awful will happen.
“I can often go back 10 or 20 times to examine the stain."
The 'Bolan's Shoes' director also recalled how his 'Corrie' castmates like Antony Cotton (Sean Tully) and Mikey North (Gary Windass) would support him on set if he panicked during a scene and mused that it would be "great" to make a comeback to the cobbles at some point.
He said: “I remember Antony Cotton, who plays Sean, who would be behind the bar in the Rovers Return, was very good before a scene, saying, ‘I’ve checked the glasses, Ian. There are no chips.’
“He was always very good at reassuring me there were no stains on any of the glasses before he served me a pint.
"We had a lot of scenes on pretend building sites. If dust got in my eye I’d think I scratched my retina and Mikey would look to check. Owen went to Aberdeen so he could get homesick for Weatherfield. It would be great to be back with my mates."
Tagged in Beverley Callard