Actress Tuppence Middleton has told how she opens and closes the door eight times before leaving the house, takes pH๏τos of all her electrical appliances on a daily basis and has a fear of supermarket-self checkouts.

Explaining her daily rituals, The Downton Abbey star, 37, said her obsessive Compulsive Disorder habits leave her unable to sleep and battling with demons every day.

In an extract from her new book Scorpions, which is on sale from February 27, she said: ‘My mind is full of scorpions. Devious, nimble little beasts that have occupied my head for the best part of 30 years.

‘A cerebral itch, impossible to scratch. They wield their own special power over my brain, shaping the architecture and rhythm of my thoughts.

‘I know these creatures well, but they know me better. I am their dutiful puppet, stuck inside an endless loop of sleepless nights and watchful days. 

‘They answer to another name, this nest of scorpions: obsessive compulsive disorder.’

Actress Tuppence Middleton has told how she opens and closes the door eight times before leaving the house, takes pH๏τos of all her electrical appliances on a daily basis and has a fear of supermarket-self checkouts (Seen in 2023)

Explaining her daily rituals, The Downton Abbey star, 37, said her obsessive Compulsive Disorder habits leave her unable to sleep and battling with demons every day (Seen in the show in 2022)

Tuppence said she regularly turns up late to work events because of her OCD but blames her lack of punctuality on transport delays.

She said that when loved ones are sick, or if a plan is changed last minute with a friend, she finds herself unable to cope and will then no longer turn up.

‘It is leaving the house that presents me with the biggest challenge.

‘In the midst of my obsessive thought cycles, I might send a quick message to my agent/friend/family member to say I am running late. Transport issues, I’ll say. Then I start my counting to eight routine again.

‘Close and lock the front door. Pull at the door’s handle for a count of 8, to make sure it is firmly closed. Push against the door for a count of 8, to make sure it can’t be pushed open. Pull the door for a count of 8. Push the door for a count of 8. Pull the door for a count of 8. Push the door for a count of 8. Pull the door for a count of 8. Push the door for a count of 8. Continue until I am satisfied it is closed.

‘I have begun to rely on a fairly simple coping mechanism: taking pH๏τographs.

‘I have an online pH๏τo album that is forever in a state of full capacity due to the excess of mundane domestic pH๏τography I insist on housing there.

‘I take and keep pH๏τographs of doors, ovens, locks, fridges, windows, lamps, candles and plug sockets, with the sole purpose of calming my anxious future mind.

In an extract from her new book Scorpions, which is on sale from February 27, she said: ‘My mind is full of scorpions’ (Seen in 2023)

Tuppence said she regularly turns up late to work events because of her OCD but blames her lack of punctuality on transport delays (Seen on Downton Abbey)

She said that when loved ones are sick, or if a plan is changed last minute with a friend, she finds herself unable to cope and will then no longer turn up (Seen in 2022)

‘I have more pH๏τographs of doors on my phone than I have of my friends.’

Speaking candidly in her new book, Tuppence also revealed she has emetophobia – the fear of being sick.

The actress admitted that a stylist on a theatre production refused to work with her any longer because she quizzed her so extensively over her admission that she’d vomited the night before.

And also derailing her own book club ‘by drafting a militant set of ground rules and insisting upon impossible levels of commitment from the members’.

Working to try and find ways to cope, she said her panic attacks forced her to go and see a doctor who referred her for a course of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

But it didn’t quite work.

‘I arrived utterly convinced that before the course was finished I would be forced to place both hands on the inside of a toilet bowl and made to lick them clean in order to expose myself to a level of bacteria so high that I would become violently sick and in turn address my fear of vomiting,’ she said.

Speaking candidly in her new book, Tuppence also revealed she has emetophobia – the fear of being sick (Seen in Fisherman’s Friends’

‘None of this subsequently happened, of course, due to the fact that, first, exposure therapy was never mentioned in our sessions and, second, because I did everything in my power to convince my therapist from day one that I was recovering at a rate of knots.’

Speaking candidly with The Guardian in 2021, Tuppence, from Bristol, said the condition is often made fun of’ and ᴀssociated with obsessive cleaning and tidying, but that it’s different for everyone.

Her ‘structured routines’ include mental counting and tapping different objects, such as light switches.

‘You make bargains with yourself – if I don’t do this, something bad is going to happen to someone I love, which is quite a common thing,’ she said.

TUPPENCE’S OCD RULES 

Problem: Shaking hands

Solution: Always ensure both hands are ‘accidentally’ full or eradicate any need for the shake by pre-empting a greeting with an enthusiastic close-range wave.

Problem: Unfamiliar toilets

Solution: Touch all handles, taps and surfaces only with a hand covered by an item of clothing (a sleeve/a scarf/the hem of a dress). If possible, send a friend in first and ask for a review.

Problem: Hospitals/doctors’ surgeries

Solution: Arrive half a minute before the appointment time to reduce contaminated airtime, and sit as far as possible from other people. Do not use bathrooms as they are guaranteed to have been used by other people who are sick in a variety of different ways, otherwise they would not be at the hospital/doctor…

Problem: Children’s parties

Solution: Avoid entirely unless the party is celebrating your own child. Don’t risk the finger buffet.

Problem: Sharing drinks

Solution: Not under any circumstances. Long-term partner excepted based upon ongoing health observation.

Problem: Supermarket self-checkouts

Solution: ᴀssess health of the checkout operator. If healthy, go to them instead; if peaky, press options onscreen with least used knuckle (eg fourth finger, right hand), never fingertip.

Problem: Card machine keypads

Solution: Contactless, always, or least used knuckle, in the event of failure.