Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by intrusive, recurrent thoughts or impulses (obsession) and repetitive behaviors (compulsion). The disorder can interfere with the person’s ability to function socially, occupationally or educationally and cause significant distress and depression. There are four types of OCD: obsessions that are aggressive, sexual, religious or harm-related with checking compulsions, obsessions about symmetry that are accompanied by arranging or repeating compulsions, obsessions of contamination are associated with cleaning compulsions and obsessions symptoms of hoarding. These 5 amazing and inspiring geniuses are thought to have been suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was an inventor, electrical engineer and mechanical engineer. Dubbed by many as “the man who invented the 20th Century”, Tesla’s inventions include the induction motor, rotary transformers, Tesla’s coil, bladeless turbines for water, steam and gas, arc light systems, devices for lightning protection, systems for wireless communication and radio frequency oscillators. Tesla started showing pronounced symptoms of OCD around 1917. He became obsessed with the number three: he walked around a block three times before entering a building, demanded three folded cloth napkins beside his plate at every meal and always stayed in a hotel room with a number divisible by three (he lived the last ten years of his life in suite 3327 on the 33rd floor of the New Yorker Hotel). He considered jewelry revolting and especially hated pearl earrings.

Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) was a Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet and engineer considered alongside Leonardo da Vinci the archetypal Renaissance man. His most well known works are probably the sculptures Pietà and David and the Sistine Chapel ceiling painted by him between 1508 and 1512. He was the first Western artist whose biography was published while he was alive and he influenced the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance, Mannerism. Michelangelo was not a social person, had a very short temper, often treated others with arrogance and was constantly dissatisfied with himself. It is thought he suffered from depression, bipolar manic-depressive illness and OCD. It is well known he would isolate himself for long periods of time to work and often ignored his surroundings. His apprentice Ascanio Condivi claimed Michelangelo often slept fully clothed and wearing his boots.

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784) was a poet, essayist, lexicographer, literary critic, biographer and editor. He was often referred to as Dr. Johnson and has been described as “the most distinguished man of letters in English history” and “the only great critic of English literature”. He wrote the “Dictionary of the English Language” that before the completion of the Oxford English Dictionary 150 years later was the most complete and used British dictionary. James Boswell wrote a biography of Dr. Johnson entitled “Life of Samuel Johnson” that offers an insight into his health problems. It is believed that Johnson displayed symptoms of Tourette syndrome and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He had elaborate rituals for crossing the thresholds of doorways and always counted the steps when walking up and down the stairway.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven (16 December 1770 – 26 March 1827) was a composer and pianist and without a doubt one of the most influential composers of all time. Beethoven’s works changed and refined the rules of classical period composition. Moonlight Sonata, The Pathetique Sonata and Fur Elise are his most well known piano works and among his symphonies the Fifth and Ninth are the most famous and inspired many composers such as Johannes Brahms, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Hector Berlioz and Gustav Mahler. Beethoven started losing his hearing around 1796, but it did not prevent him from composing music. It has been speculated the cause of his deafness was either syphilis, auto-immune disorder, typhus, lead poisoning or even his habit of immersing his head in cold water to stay awake. It is thought he also suffered from OCD and bipolar disorder. He was often was often irascible and he had so much contempt for social ranks and rules of court etiquette that the Archduke Rudolph, his friend and pupil decreed that these rules not apply to Beethoven.

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein (pronounced 14 March 1879 – 18 April 1955) was a theoretical physicist, philosopher and author considered one of the most influential scientists of all time. He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics, received honorary doctorate degrees in science, medicine and philosophy from many universities and published more than 300 scientific and over 150 non-scientific works. His more important works in the scientific field include “Special Theory of Relativity”, “Relativity”, “General Theory of Relativity”, “Investigations on Theory of Brownian Movement” and “The Evolution of Physics”. Einstein was posthumously diagnosed with an array of conditions, including OCD. Einstein became a model for depictions of mad scientists and absent-minded professors and among his most well known quotes associated with his OCD is “It is impossible to get out of a problem by using the same kind of thinking that it took to get into it”.