Death in Paradise’s Ben Miller reveals struggle with ‘unmanageable and unpredictable’ health condition
DEATH in Paradise’s Ben Miller has revealed his struggle with an ‘unmanageable and unpredictable’ health condition.
The 58-year-old actor played the BBC drama’s first ever detective from 2011 to 2014 before being killed off.
Since then, he has starred in a wealth of TV shows and films including Bridgerton, Professor T and Paddington 2.
But despite his hugely successful career, Ben has battled a health condition off-camera for many years.
Speaking about it, Ben said: “I did struggle a lot with OCD, particularly in my twenties, and I’m very lucky in that it’s all very manageable now.
“But there were times where it was unmanageable, as it is for Professor T, so I know how that feels and I know how I dealt with it.”
Professor T is an ITV crime series which first aired in 2021 and sees Ben play Professor Jasper Tempest, a genius University of Cambridge criminologist with obsessive compulsive disorder.
The show has featured moments were the professor imagines himself without OCD, and Ben – having dealt with the condition in real life – thinks they depict what it’s like very well.
He told the Express: “I’ve found these sequences – where in the Professor’s imagination he doesn’t have OCD and he’s free of all those behaviours – are a great way to show what’s going on inside.
“Seeing somebody lining up items on a desk looks pretty innocuous but inside, that person can be a lot more complicated.”
OCD is a mental health condition characterised by uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (obsessions) and behaviours (compulsions).
Ben recounted his own symptoms, saying: “I was very OCD about doorways and doors. For me, it was a way of mitigating and controlling my anxieties.
“I thought if I touched an object a certain number of times, then bad things won’t happen. Of course it doesn’t work – I constantly had to amplify my behaviours to try and reduce my anxiety.
“Mine was quite a mathematical one. I have quite a mathematical mind and sometimes that goes a little bit into overdrive.”
“There comes a point where the OCD behaviours themselves make the anxiety worse and you enter into a positive feedback loop; it gets out of control.
“There were crisis points when I decided to seek professional help.”
What is Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health problem. It has two main parts that are connected, obsessions and compulsions.
Obsessions are unwelcome thoughts, feelings, images, urges, worries or doubts that keep coming into your mind.
They may feel stuck in your mind, no matter what you do. You may worry what they mean or why they won’t go away, and feel very distressed by them.
Compulsions are repetitive things that you do to reduce the distress or uncertainty caused by obsessions.
Compulsions can be things you do physically, like repeatedly checking a door is locked. Or they can be things you do in your head, like repeating a specific word to yourself. Or they may involve others, such as asking people for reassurance.
Treatment can involve talking therapies such as Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with Exposure and response prevention (ERP).
You may be offered the following medications for OCD, either on their own or alongside talking therapy:
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) – this is a type of antidepressant. Research has shown that it can also help to treat OCD.
- Clomipramine – this is a tricyclic antidepressant. You may be offered this if you try an SSRI but it doesn’t help.
If you think you might have OCD, visit your GP, and you can find further information at mind.org.uk/
His OCD often goes hand in hand with his anxiety, and at times that has lead to panic attacks for the actor.
Ben said: “I don’t know what triggers it for me. It can happen any time of day or night and it can literally happen during a conversation it doesn’t seem to follow any pattern.
“I’ve never woken up in the morning and thought: ‘I’m going to have a panic attack today.’ I always seem to be surprised by them.”