Comedian Howie Mandel, whom many know from his judging duties on AGT, recently opened up about what he went through during the COVID pandemic. However, his issues apparently did not come from actually having the illness. Mandel, 70, candidly discussed his crisis on the Joy 101 podcast hosted by Hoda Kotb. He acknowledged that he "almost died" at that time due to self-medicating. A germaphobe, Mandel also deals with OCD and anxiety. All those issues together, plus a raging COVID pandemic, were an awful lot for him to grapple with.
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Mandel shared with Kotb, "I'm sober right now, but during the pandemic I couldn't sleep because part of my rumination is ... I'm a germaphobe, and a pandemic? I live, like, I'm in a pandemic anyhow. When there's a real one, it was hard for me to handle. It was hard for a lot of people, but I wasn't strong enough to handle it."
"It Was Really Bad"
In an effort to survive during COVID, Howie Mandel said that he began drinking, smoking, and taking marijuana-infused gummies. He mused, "There were times when my wife couldn't wake me up or she thought she was going to take me to the hospital. There's no middle ground with me. I don't smoke or I haven't had a beer, anything, I can't do anything in moderation. It wasn't healthy and it wasn't good. It's not an excuse, but it was really bad."
Mandel's wife evidently urged him to seek help for his problems. He noted. "My wife just went, 'I can't do this, this is really tiring, go talk to somebody.' The ultimatum was, 'Try to find some help, because I can't do this anymore.' She's a hero because she put up with it and sent me to therapy."
He's in a Much Better Place Now
Fortunately, Howie Mandel did get professional help. It sounds like he is on a much more even keel now. "I'm medicated and I have a lot of therapy. I have such a fear of those lows, because they're incredibly painful and hard to navigate, so my life consists of trying to balance up here and manage the medication."
