Brandon Clutter
STAFF WRITER
It’s the day of the all important football playoff game. Parking will be a disaster, so most people will park a mile away from the stadium, and just walk so they don’t have to deal with traffic.
One man gets out of his car, and starts walking to the game. About half a mile away though, and a voice goes off in his head: What if you left your car and didn’t pull the parking brake on?
He goes back, sees the parking brake is indeed on, and starts walking back. He keeps checking the car, going back and forth while walking to the stadium.
Jeff Bell is at the 49er’s playoff game, and he keeps walk- ing back to his car because he has obsessive compulsive disorder, and misses the entire first quarter because of it.
Bell, a radio news anchor and nationally acclaimed author, made an appearance at Las Positas College to talk about OCD.
Bell has OCD himself, and goes on extensive tours around the United States as a keynote speaker for mental healthcare.
On March 18, Bell talked to a group of LPC students and faculty about the disorder, how he went through having it throughout his life and what he had to do to deal with it. As an inspirational speaker, throughout the states and at LPC, Bell talked about what can be done to deal with OCD, and what someone with the disorder goes through with it.
“I want to talk about OCD, but I want to use it as a back- drop for a bigger picture, for an outreach to helping other
people,” Bell said.
Bell talked a lot about the experiences he had growing
up with OCD, the different memories he had where he had the bouts of compulsiveness.
Memories that ranged from a boy his age yelling his name out of a car, and not knowing who the kid was, to the going to 49er playoff game and constantly going back to his car to check if he put the parking brake up.
“You know when you have a song stuck in your head?” Bell said to the audience. “That song plays in your head on a loop, and OCD is just like that, except that it is a 100 times louder, and it seems to always start with ‘what if?’”
Bell makes regular appearances at LPC, and other schools and places throughout the U.S. He has written a couple of books about OCD, and his bouts with OCD.
Bell also makes keynote speeches about OCD for mental healthcare groups, and can be found on his radio show for KCBS, and talking still about OCD around the U.S.
Jeff Bell presents a keynote speech about obsessive compulsive disorder at Las Positas College in Livermore, Calif. on March 18.
