AFL star raises awareness for little-known form of OCD

After losing her mother to suicide during Covid, Crows forward Hannah Munyard has found strength in speaking out about mental health stigma.

AFLW star Hannah Munyard has opened up about her late mother’s battle with a little-known obsessive compulsive disorder amid a push to challenge stereotypes about the condition.

For years, the Adelaide player, 24, has struggled to talk candidly about the mental health issues that led to her mother Teresea’s suicide in 2020.

But she now wants to tell as many people as she can to spark life-saving conversations.

She said her mum Teresea had lived with a subtype of OCD called scrupulosity, which is marked by intrusive fears around religion or morality.

Adelaide Crows AFLW star Hannah Munyard (C) with her late mum Teresea (R) and dad Gelnn in 2020. Picture: Supplied

OCD affects about one in 40 Australians but experts say public understanding still lags, with awareness hindered by clichés about compulsive checking and tidiness.

Munyard said while she was still learning about the condition, it manifested in negative thoughts for her mother and was compounded by depression.

Hannah Munyard of the Crows. Picture: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

“It’s not the common OCD that you hear about, and initially, when she was first diagnosed about 10 years ago, there wasn’t a lot of help out there,” Munyard said.

“She had to speak to a psychologist overseas over Zoom.”

Tragically, Teresea took her own life at just 50 after a long and largely silent battle.

Munyard, who is opening up as part of News Corp’s Can We Talk? awareness campaign, in partnership with Medibank, said she doesn’t want the stigma around mental illness to claim any more lives.

“Even saying out loud that I lost my mother to suicide has been a big process for me,” she said.

“Mum suppressed her mental health issues and feelings for a long time, and we didn’t talk about it outside the family.

“But I’ve learned that strength is speaking up.

“It’s an illness and it’s not something to be ashamed about.”

OCD Clinic Sydney psychologist Mitchell Howarth said the cases of scrupulosity he had treated included a preoccupation with honesty, excessive confessing and repetitive religious rituals.

But he said feelings of shame and a lack of awareness remained barriers to people getting the help they needed.

“Most people think that OCD is just hand washing and over checking things and that’s maybe 20 or 30 per cent of it,” he said.

“I describe OCD as a tree - the trunk of that tree is perfectionism, and the branches on that tree are all the different types of OCD, from overdoing religious practices to over-checking, fear of hurting people, fear of being unclean, etc.

“It’s not religion that’s causing it, for example. It’s about perfectionism.”

UNSW Sydney adjunct lecturer, clinical psychologist Dr David Cooper, said it took an average of nine years to get diagnosed with OCD after symptoms emerged.

He described OCD as one of the most disabling mental health conditions, stressing the importance of early intervention and access to trained clinicians.

Dr Cooper is part of the OCD Bounce research collective which has developed resources and a national directory of specialists who treat OCD.

“It’s different to treating an anxiety disorder, we use a very specific cognitive behaviour therapy called exposure and response prevention which can help the majority of people get back to functioning and reduce distress,” he said.

Adelaide crows player Hannah Munyard. friend Hannah. A purple hoodie to raise funds and awareness for mental health to honour Hannah's mum. Picture: Instagram

Meanwhile, Munyard is on a mission to honour her mum’s legacy.

She bravely shared about her family’s experience at an Adelaide school on R U OK? Day this year, encouraging students to talk openly about their mental health and seek help.

“I wanted to share about asking questions that aren’t scary, but can help give people an opportunity to speak about what’s going on with them,” she said.

“It could be ‘What was the worst part of your day today?’, or ‘What’s going on for you right now in your life?’”

She said her own wellbeing had been impacted by grief, injury, the pressures of elite football and coming out to her family.

During the low times, she turned to journaling, music, painting and sport, and leaned on friends and family.

“The most important thing to me is having hope and finding something every day that gives you a reason to live,” she said.

Originally published as AFL star raises awareness for little-known form of OCD