Additional Success Stories

Obsessive compulsive disorder (commonly referred to as OCD) is where a person has obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. Ashley suffered with extreme OCD symptoms for 18 years, practising numerous rituals such as tapping, biting and stamping her feet, debilitating her everyday life.

Real Housewife of Beverly Hills star Sutton Stracke’s father took his own life in 2002. Sutton has struggled to come to terms with his loss ever since. Sutton feels both a deep sadness and a profound guilt due to her father’s passing, and unfortunately hasn’t been able to move on with her life ever since.

Dermatillomania is a compulsion skin picking condition. Charlotte has suffered since giving birth due from a surprise pregnancy. Charlotte is now covered in scars.

SAD is an extreme fear of speaking to, or being around people and social situations. Karen has such a severe social anxiety she is terrified of anyone other than her husband David. She even fears spending time with her family and has grandchildren she has never seen.

Contamination OCD is a common OCD when someone obsesses over spreading germs. Jo has lived with a germ and cleaning OCD for 16 years. Jo hasn't let anyone into her home for 5 years. Jo's three children have never had friends in the house. Once the children have left the house, they have to change their clothes and bath.

Tricholtilomania is a mental health condition where the sufferer has a compulsion to pull out their hair, eyelashes and / or eyebrows. 32-year old Danni battles the condition everyday, feeling like she gets a high every time she pulls out one of her hairs and eats the root.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a mental health condition where someone irrationally worries about flaws in their appearance. Since she was a child, Pussycat Doll member Carmit Bachar has struggled looking in the mirror due to her cleft palate, claiming that she sees “a monster in the mirror”.

Generalized anxiety disorder is a medical term that The Speakmans believe is a “sweeping statement”. Like The Vamps’ Connor Ball, those diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder are left with a sense of dread and feeling broken, given they don’t know the root cause of their anxiety.

Many people across the world struggle with their self-esteem and confidence, due to having been judged in the past about the way they look. On Loose Women, The Speakmans offer tips and advice to the Loose Women team on how to boost self-esteem and body confidence.

Pica is an eating disorder that causes sufferers to eat objects or items that aren’t typically considered food and which hold no nutritional value. In the case of Emma Snowden, her pica manifests in chewing sponges. She began chewing and secretly eating sponges ever since the passing of her Grandma.

Trichotillomania is currently defined as an impulse control disorder, and is a compulsion to pull out one’s own hair, eyebrows and/or eyelashes. Dermatillomania is a skin picking disorder. Tash suffers with both disorders. The Speakmans say these disorders always start from a ‘good idea’ which then becomes habitual, leading to (but not always being aware of) self-harm.

Looking for love online can sometimes be fraught with danger. Di was happily married for 30 years until her husband sadly passed away, leaving her stricken with grief. Di then met fellow widower 'Kevin' online who ultimately didn't exist. He built up a rapport of trust with her and then started asking Di for money, conning her out of her life savings.

Misophonia is a mental health disorder that causes sufferers to become sound-sensitive to specific items or foods. Famous New Zealand journalist Dan Wootton gets triggered by people eating apples around him — despite Dan being able to eat apples himself — with the crunch of someone biting an apple compelling him to leave the space that he’s in.

Bigamy is the crime of marrying a person, while already being legally married to someone else. Eve discovered that her husband was leading a double life, which left her feeling betrayed, upset and depressed.

Eva hit a personal all-time low on her journey with menopause. Eva joins Philip Schofield and Holly Willoughby alongside Nik, talking about the emotional struggles they felt, and how Eva managed to get her menopausal symptoms under control.

Grief affects us all in different ways. In 1983, Ruth met the love of her life (Don) which lasted 30 years. Due to his Type 2 diabetes, Don sadly passed away. Ruth feels guilt and believes she’ll never be happy again, adamant that she could have helped save her husband on the night of his death.

Many superstitions can have a detrimentally negative impact on one’s life, especially when they’re practised often. Irrational beliefs such as seeing magpies, knocking on wood and walking on three pavements can cause people to feel anxious and panic.

A sufferer of paruresis finds it extremely difficult to urinate in public places. It’s believed to be the second most common social phobia, just behind a fear of public speaking. Mark Screeton has shy bladder syndrome, always choosing a cubicle in public toilets due to his heightened feelings of anxiety.

Domestic abuse, or in the case of Lyn, intimate partner violence, is a pattern of behavior in a relationship (after a certain amount of time) that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner, by violently physical and psychological acts.

The Speakmans believe that psychological life traumas are often the cause for weight gain, with traumatic events compelling people to turn to food as a comfort. The Speakmans invite a group of overweight people to ‘Inch Loss Island’, where Nik & Eva investigate the root cause of each individual’s weight gain issues.

Misophonia is a condition that causes someone to be perturbed by selective sounds in everyday life, making them angry or uncomfortable. Paul Curran gets extremely irritated by the sound of his closest friends and family eating around him and saying certain phonetic letters in the alphabet (such as ‘s’ sounds).

Trichotillomania, also known as trich, is an obsession to pull out hairs anywhere on ones body. Charlotte’s tricotillomania and dermatillomania is so severe that it renders her incapable to live life to the full with her young daughter.

Living with low confidence and low self-esteem can harm one’s mental health and lead to anxiety symptoms. Celebrity actor Warwick Davis states that many of those with dwarfism will have suffered anxiety due to low confidence and low self-esteem throughout their lives.

Grief is a natural response to loss. Jane’s son Gavin died whilst on duty in the army, and she has been paralyzed by grief ever since his passing. Jane believes that by acknowledging and accepting her son's death — instead of moving on with her life — she instead will become even more depressed and hit rock-bottom.

Anorexia is generally considered to be a condition which can only be managed, not successfully treated. The Speakmans disagree with that view. Sophie has battled with anorexia since the age of 10, with her family having spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on potential solutions to cure Sophie’s anorexia.

Food addiction is a mental health issue in which a person becomes addicted to food, especially fatty foods, sugary foods or processed junk foods. On The Alan Titchmarsh show, The Speakmans help a group of people overcome their various food addictions.

Early food addiction research suggests that sugary foods like chocolate are more addictive than less processed foods. Rachel Evans eats chocolate to excess every day; she admitted that she successfully gave up smoking after 10 years, however she finds the idea of giving up chocolate absolutely impossible.

The Speakmans believe until someone who overeats or eats the wrong food deals with the root cause (a psychological life trauma) of why they began these eating behaviors, their diet will unfortunately have a tendency to fail. Sisters Emma and Holly from Chesterfield are both worried that their lifestyles are increasingly causing them to put on additional weight.

Compulsive hoarding disorder is a condition where someone is compelled to acquire and hold onto an excessive amount of items, feeling totally incapable to part with any of their things. Marilyn has been hoarding items for 25 years, creating an unimaginable amount of clutter in her home.

Insomnia is a sleep disorder that causes someone to find it extremely difficult to sleep, or maintain sleep to feel refreshed. The Speakmans meet Dr. Arun Ghosh as he explores their therapy with insomniac journalist Jordan Paramour, who has sleeping tablet and alcohol dependency issues.

In March 2000, Anita Williamson suffered an unimaginable loss when her 3-year old son was killed by a dustbin lorry. Anita says she now just exists, but has no quality of life, and has lost all the memories of her son.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition where sufferers battle with their own irrational thoughts and fears, which in turn create compulsions, repetitive behaviors or rituals, such as turning electrics on and off repetitively in the case of Claire.

Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is a mental health condition where someone irrationally worries about flaws in their appearance. Since she was a child, Pussycat Doll member Carmit Bachar has struggled looking in the mirror due to her cleft palate, claiming that she sees “a monster in the mirror”.