Kimberley Nixon, who appeared on the Channel 4 comedy alongside Jack Whitehall, took to TikTok to speak about her experience with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Fresh Meat star Kimberley Nixon has shared the ‘truly horrifying’ symptoms she experienced during an ‘exhausting’ mental health episode.

The Welsh actress, who appeared on the Channel 4 comedy alongside Jack Whitehall, took to TikTok to share her experience living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).

Kimberley, who also starred in Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, said it was “never not scary” to discuss, but said she received “so many messages from people who think it’s just them”.

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In the video, which has been viewed more than 634,000 times, the mum said: “I have OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder.

“I’ve had two major episodes in my life, once in my third year of drama school, just before I turned 21, and the second when I had a traumatic birth with my little boy.”

She said the latter triggered an episode which lasted two-and-a-half years, adding: “I still deal with it every day.

“Perinatal health awareness month is coming up and I just wanted to say out loud that it’s ok, you’re not a bad mum, you’re not well, that’s all it is.

“Your brain is glitching and it’s more normal and common than you could possibly think – one in five people will have some kind of mental health condition during or after pregnancy and I want to take the stigma out of it.”

Kimberley continued: “My symptoms largely revolved around truly horrifying distressing thoughts about harm coming to my baby, possibly me causing harm to my baby, I would then do punishing compulsions all day, every day, for going on three years to make sure those terrible things didn’t happen, which is as exhausting as it sounds.

“I finally got the right treatment, the right medication and I’m better. I’m doing great.

“I’ve just wrapped on a big job, which I can’t wait for you to see.

“But I just wanted to say it out loud that I had a mental health condition, I have a mental health disorder, but I’m better and I’m not just surviving, I’m thriving.

“I’m doing a job that I love, I have a wonderful bond with my little boy, I’m really lucky to have the friends and family that I do and there was a time not too long ago, when I didn’t think I could have any of that.”

According to the NHS OCD affects people differently, but usually causes a particular pattern of thoughts and behaviours.

It has main elements – obsessions, where an unwanted, intrusive and often distressing thought, image or urge repeatedly enters the person’s mind; emotions, where the obsession causes a feeling of intense anxiety or distress; and compulsions, which sees the person driven to perform repetitive behaviours or mental acts as a result of the anxiety and distress caused by the obsession.

Common obsessions that affect people with OCD include the fear harming yourself or others, either deliberately or by mistake.

Some also have a fear of contamination by disease, infection or an unpleasant substance, while others have a need for symmetry or orderliness.

The NHS said common types of compulsive behaviour in people with OCD included cleaning and hand washing, checking, counting, ordering and arranging, hoarding and asking for reassurance.

Some also repeated words in their head, thought “neutralising” thoughts to counter the obsessive thoughts and avoided places and situations that could trigger obsessive thoughts.

Those who think they may have OCD were encouraged to get help as it was “unlikely to get better on its own”.

There were two main ways to get help, according to the NHS, this included making a direct referral to an NHS talking therapies service or see a GP to see if they could prescribe suitable medicine or make a referral to a local talking therapies service if necessary.