The rituals, the repetition.

They define obsessive compulsive disorder.

“Putting on clothes was a nightmare,” 20-year-old Liz McIngvale said.

Like everyone else, McIngvale put her pants on one leg at a time. But she repeated it 42 times — on each leg.

“It really got to the point where it not only took over my life, but it took over everything I did,” she said.

The teen no longer wanted to live.

“I can remember getting the guns and just telling my mom, ‘please just do it,’” she said.

Her father is Gallery Furniture owner Jim McIngvale, also known as Mattress Mack.

Doctors told him the OCD was so severe treatment wasn’t an option.

“I’m always a seller, so I wasn’t buying the fact there was no hope for her,” he said.

Their journey led them to the Menninger Clinic, where behavior therapy has made life liveable again.

“We help the person with OCD actually practice what they’re afraid of doing,” Dr. Joyce Richardson said.

Facing the fear reduces the anxiety which prompts the repetitious behavior.

“Your body is programmed so if you are very frightened of something, that fear will eventually burn itself out on its own,” Dr. Richardson said.

KHOU

Liz McIngvale is now in college and runs an OCD support group.

“It seems like overnight my life was robbed,” Liz said.

The McIngvales have gone public with their story.

They want health insurance companies to pay as much for the treatment of mental illness as they do for physical problems.

“We’re convinced the brain is like another organs like the heart, liver or lungs, and it’s ok to have mental illness like it’s OK to have a cold, cough or cancer,” Jim McIngvale said.

Liz McIngvale is now in college and runs an OCD support group. She also created a foundation to raise funds for research and treatment. 

“I think I do have peace of mind in the sense that I know I’m the best I can be right now,” she said.

Even though she still struggles with OCD every day.