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Dr. Oz Goes to OCD Camp

By Dr. Mehmet Oz
The Oprah Winfrey Show  |  May 30, 2008
April sips her soda.

Dr. Grayson's patients must face one last challenge before Day 1 is done...dinnertime. Even though their hands are filthy, everyone is encouraged to refrain from washing or bathing before sitting down to eat the ultimate finger food—pizza.

"For the average person, after doing what we just saw, that would make you a little uncomfortable," Dr. Oz says. "If it's an OCD person, you're tortured."

April has the most difficult time keeping her food and drink down. For years, she says she's had trouble eating because she's always afraid that her food is poisoned. When she sees the pizza boxes in the dining hall, she says she wants to run out of the room. "I thought I was going to die," she says.

Finally, she confronts her fear head-on by swallowing some soda someone else poured. The first drink is difficult, but for April, the worst is yet to come. "It's not over yet because it's in me," she says. "Now the fear is coming of what's going to happen now."

After a few panicked moments, April manages to keep her drink down, but she isn't the only one struggling. Dr. Oz says Kate barely touches her pizza. She admits her diet usually consists of nothing but ice cream and coffee. "I believe that the coffee and ice cream are safe foods that don't have contamination a lot of the time," she says.

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