Welcome to episode 108 with Shaun Flores, a model, actor, and OCD advocate.
He is also a 2 x TED speaker where he talked about ‘The Straight Jacket of Masculinity’ and ‘The Failures of Multiculturism’.
Shaun began to experience OCD seemingly out of nowhere when he woke up from a dream and was convinced that he had become gay overnight.
While obsessively searching for evidence that this wasn’t the case, these thoughts transformed in to harm OCD and he began to fear that he would hurt someone close to him.
These thoughts terrified him in to a breakdown and not long after that Suicide OCD began to terrorise him.
From there he began therapy and has been able to rebuild himself and get a better understanding of what OCD is and how to live with it as part of his life.
He is now dedicated to supporting others by unapologetically telling his story to raise awareness around his illness, particularly in the BAME community, where there are additional barriers around getting support with mental illness.
In this episode we chat Shaun’s story from his first experiences of OCD to his breakdown and how he was able to get though it and out the other side.
We chat about the particular type of therapy that Shaun uses as part of his recovery and how that works for him and we chat about the nature of his intrusive thoughts.
We chat about the layers of stigma around mental health in relation to masculinity, race and culture and we chat about shame, owning your story and taking back control.
Shaun has an incredible story that is both inspiring and challenging and it was a pleasure to spend some time in his company!
Watch his TED Talks here: shaun flores | Search Results | TED
And connect with him on social media @theshaunflores
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Thanks for listening!