The Aviator - Progression of Howard Hughes' OCD

I was feeling so embarrassed seeing him repeating things and his illness was debilitating, at the start I though he was a genius for being a perfectionist but then later in the movie realized he is a genius with an OCD.... however I too have some degree of mental illness, I have been seeing women (just meeting them socially, not dated them) since more than a 12 yrs but still never dated or married coz they dont feel right, those anxious thoughts are so debilitating even after meeting ocd psychologist for treatment still I could not get married yet... now a days I forget spellings, lose focus easily, its hard to make decisions even minor ones in the grocery or to decide the color, buying clothes etc. I could totally relate with Leo's character especially when he auditioned a girl to become his Girlfriend, he asked her do you have any scars or bumps on your body, asked her to remove the lipstick etc to make sure she looks as is... this movie was a genius...

That's so sad.

I had OCD, it was severely debilitating, locking myself in my room for days on end only leaving to get food and water. My more severe compulsions were mental but often experienced more physical ones when I was younger. I’m now OCD free, I’ll go months forgetting I had it at all. I cannot swear by “Exposure response prevention” enough. I urge anyone suffering, to buy a book that specialises in ocd recovery and undergo ERP with everything you got. Recovery has got to become a priority for you to make it happen. It’s difficult, but the more difficulty you find yourself in with ERP, the more you’ll get out of it, and you can know your on the right path.

I have the added bonus of a shit upbringing around drunks and druggies as a 5 year old.
I set my goals too high, now I'm grown and just do my trade.

I have intrusive thoughts (not nearly as bad as a few years ago) but I’m also a germaphobe for sure. Though I’ve also managed to minimize that symptom as well. I don’t actually know if I have OCD, but having had intrusive thoughts for years that affected my mental health it’s probably safe to say I have a minor case at least. I don’t trust therapy and never brought up the symptoms to my therapist when I was younger. Too embarrassing.

It comes in waves. Stress makes it worse

FUCKIN HELL, I'M DIAGNOSED WITH OCD TOO BUT ONLY SYMPTOM I SHARE WITH HIM IS INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS NOTHING ELSE NOT A SINGLE ONE, LOL.

To suffer from ocd is like being jailed in an invisible prison.

Maybe Leo's finest work

always felt like i’m going to end up like this

Leo gave one of the greatest performances.

it missing last scene of the movie,scene where he is repeating sentence

'Wave of the future'

Yeah that reapeating yourself thing, That's not OCD...

Heartbreaking disease. Terrific actor.

I am just like Leo. I have severe OCD.

That feeling of being trapped, just wanting to move on once you're done, but OCD keeps you there and torments you. It tries to fix things with compulsions despite it never even being a real solution to the constant anxiety... just eating away at your energy.. and just when you think you can ease your mind from it, its there, hidden in every little thing you do. it plants itself in every motion and every action, trying to soothe you but failing every time. It will try to compensates for its failure to soothe until it overwhelms you and your entire life revolves around it until it dies down, and you wait until it rears its terrified head around the corner and envelopes you again and again... a never ending cycle of torment and anxiety

How Leo never won an Oscar for his spectacular performance in this movie absolutely baffles & bewilders me, as he basically became Howard Hughes. Amazing! Mesmerizing! And one of the top ten greatest & most powerfully immersive acting jobs of the past two decades. Leo is transcendent!

I wish people would start saying they are clinically diagnosed with OCD instead of I'm OCD. There is so much misinformation about Obsessive Compulsive Disorders in the media (e.g. Tic Tok). that has people self diagnosing themselves. I is disheartening for clinically diagnosed people who spent the money and time to get a real diagnoses and sad for the people who self diagnose and do not get the help they so need and deserve.

My OCD isn't as bad but at times I found myself repeating things, perfectection in my organizing at work like certain things even at work like binders need to be even, masks, gloves, hand sanitizer needs to be aligned perfectly.

You know as a pilot who (secretly because the FAA is shit when it comes to mental health) has OCD, I originally saw this and thought it was a bit overplayed. I personally have pure OCD more in my head and it manifests itself more mentally than physically, as with all mental illnesses its a spectrum and comes out in various ways, which is why I still feel comfortable flying, and why I was a bit ignorant about it. Watching it recently with my girlfriend who has severe OCD, and her saying "oh I've been there before", "oh yeah that's totally happened to me", really made me change my mind about how good the portrayal is.

Though as a pilot the flying is kind of crap in this movie ngl, half of the time they are talking in random jargon for jargons sake that doesn't make sense in the real world. Like I don't know a single radial engine that has "reverse thrust", and every time they call a yoke "the wheel" it throws me through a loop, call it the stick or something to what actual pilots would call it.

Leo had been a kid for far too long, this was a great movie but I had a hard time taking him seriously as HH--he still looks like a child here. I'm glad that he's progressed into a fine actor.

I think having also an OCD is good you can prevent contacting most disease.

be sure to visit doctors. This is a terrible disease and it will take decades of your life if you do not treat it.

He's not nearly sweaty enough. As soon as you get stuck in a loop you start sweating like crazy from the anxiety, especially in your back.

I honestly do not count Howard Hughes as having OCD. More like an extremely high functioning autistic man. I work for those types in their homes, and yes they are brilliant but they can be upended at when things aren't 100% exactly done in sequence.

This is the best performance I've seen by an actor that neither looks nor sounds like the actual man he is portraying. DiCaprio may not have made a convincing HOWARD HUGHES, but he definitely made a hell of a convincing Texas millionaire aviator with OCD and germ phobia BASED on Mr. Hughes. Oscar-worthy performance.

I dont have this but I remember when I was younger I had to go up the stairs with exactly 7 steps and walk 5 more steps to get to my bedroom, turn the knob with my right hand and take 2 steps to lay down in bed otherwise my whole family would die. Went on for a few months but thankfully it stopped. Cant imagine people who go through this, my heart goes out to you.

Legend has it Howard is still waiting for the blueprints!

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Man, Data sure perfected the art of acting human!

This is not a movie about planes, this is a movie about OCD. Planes are just the background.

This is the most accurate portrayal of OCD I've seen in a fictional movie. The sad thing is, Howard Hughes had the money and power to indulge in his compulsions, and things got WAY out of hand. The movie could only show a glimpse into the actual "reality" of Hughe's behavior. It was actually got much worse. Today he hopefully would have used his resources to get help.

My cousin and best friend was diagnosed with OCD just a couple months ago at 17 because she had such serious contamination and repetitive rituals. She would get stuck in washing cycles and couldn’t get out of bed until my aunt wiped every surface in her room down with clorox wipes. She’s doing much better now, and her hands are finally healing. This movie was seriously upsetting since my mental health is very poor, but god did Leo do a fantastic job.

Yeah it fucking sucks

I was suffered Ocd, now Im free Ocd symptoms...I cure with decode emotions....for real!!!

Hughes was completely alone with his mental illness, at that time nobody even knew what ocd was. He was a wealthy man so he could have had the best treatment and carry on a normal life without the constant torment in his head until the time of his death.

this makes me want to cry. i have ocd too... its such a hard way to live

OCD, depersonalization, germ phobia, hair pulling, paranoia, etc, all come from high amounts of anxiety. It starts as normal anxiety and then progresses into hell.

Masterpiece of acting. How he didn’t get an Oscar for it just shows that it’s all about bs politics

That show me all the blueprints thing we lynchian

I would hate to live with this lmao

Howard Hughes definitely had serious issues with OCD and mental illness from the start. But both Panam and government officials going after him, especially psychologically, pushed him to this degenerative state, which he never truly recovered from.

director of photography - the great robert richardson

He is just like me🥹

its honestly sad to watch the progression of his OCD. it was basically debilitating. he simply couldn't do anything otherwise.

LEO YOUR PORTRAYAL OF HOWARD HUGHES AND HIS OCD IS EPIC, WE BOW DOWN TO YOU AS THE MOST GENIUSE METHOD ACTOR THAT GOD EVER CREATED ☦️