This week, licensed clinical social workers took on 90 Day Fiancé, and Catie Norboe responded. Experts at the OCD Institute of Texas shared a TikTok video. They reacted to Catie’s on-air claim. She said her habit of kissing others while drunk comes from OCD-related intrusive thoughts.
“Yeah, that’s not how it works,” one expert said in the clip, titled “Reality Check with OCD Institute Texas.” Another added, “That definitely gives the wrong impression of what OCD actually is. You don’t engage in those behaviors; you’re terrified of them.”
Dr. Liz McIngvale, a featured specialist, highlighted a clear difference between Catie’s description on the show and the real workings of OCD. “She’s doing those behaviors” while in a good mood, McIngvale said, calling that “the opposite of OCD. OCD causes individuals to do behaviors that they don’t like, they don’t enjoy, they don’t find pleasure in them. They do them simply to get rid of the thought.”
She added a broader point aimed at viewers, not just Catie. “Not all intrusive thoughts are OCD. Sometimes, intrusive thoughts are enjoyable, and you act on them, but it doesn’t mean they’re OCD. OCD is unwanted intrusive thoughts that we don’t like, we don’t enjoy. We do behaviors so that we don’t act on them.”
OCDI Texas later deleted the video from TikTok.
Catie’s Two-Part Response
Catie responded on Instagram Wednesday with a two-part statement. However, she mistakenly directed some frustration at NOCD, which is not the organization that posted the clip.
Her core argument: the experts built their assessment on “highly edited” reality TV footage, not her actual life.
“Yes, there are actions that I’m not proud of,” she said. “I don’t like watching myself back drunk, that was bad, but I do have OCD.” She called the public commentary “really gross,” arguing that TLC filmed far more material about her OCD than viewers ever saw.
“I actually have OCD. I’ve struggled with it for years,” she said. “The making out with people is how the show chose to portray it. I’ve wasted years of my life doing compulsions and not being able to focus on the moment. My compulsions usually are just, like, mind loops. My compulsions aren’t just me making out with people. They’re just mind loops that I have to do to neutralize a thought.”
That distinction is worth sitting with. Catie’s description of mental loops to neutralize unwanted thoughts matches how experts define real OCD compulsions. It is a very different picture than the kissing storyline the show built around her. It’s hard for outsiders to know if the gap comes from editing, her struggle to explain a tough condition, or both, just from a TV clip.
A Glimpse Into Her Harder Days
Catie offered a specific example from 2020 to illustrate what her OCD actually looks like away from cameras.
“I don’t like talking about my OCD thoughts because they’re stressful and horrible, but I probably did on the show. They just may not have shown it in a way that accurately portrays them,” she said, describing herself as “unfunctional” during the pandemic. “I was like, ‘I need to prove that I didn’t harm this person, or else I can’t focus on anything.’ Like, I’d spend hours in the bathroom trying to do that.”
She closed her statement by pointing out what critics were actually working from. “They just know what production put together.”
Josh Calls The Video “Unethical”
Catie’s fiancé, Josh Atkins, joined the pushback, and he did not hold back on the organization behind the original clip.
“I think that’s just kind of below the belt and I think it’s punching down and I just f**king hate that,” Josh said. “You might think that they’re speaking generalities and so it’s okay, they’re just trying to educate, and that’s a fine aim. I totally get on board with that. That’s not what they’re doing. They’re just jumping on the bandwagon and trying to get some social media clout.”
Josh argued that if the organization genuinely wanted to educate the public, they had better options than diagnosing a stranger from a clip. They could have contacted Catie, invited her into the conversation, or conducted an actual evaluation. Instead, he said, they chose to “delegitimize Catie entirely.”
He also took issue with their delivery, saying the experts appeared to be “sneering” and “laughing” and “looked very unserious” while discussing her. He ended by inviting any institution interested in “actually” doing thoughtful commentary on OCD to reach out to him directly.
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Josh is a simp.