As a child, Jennette McCurdy had more on her plate than most should. From having to serve as the family's breadwinner to maintaining a thin physique, there was a lot she had to worry about thanks to the lessons instilled by her mother. While these tasks were certainly toxic, they were achievable. Yet at one point, Jennette took on a burden that was downright impossible: keeping a cancer-stricken Debra McCurdy alive.
She told Alison Stewart on the "All Of It" podcast, "I had OCD as a child and I also grew up Mormon. I thought my OCD was the Holy Ghost speaking to me. And I thought that the Holy Ghost was helping me to keep my mom alive and if I didn't continue with my, what I know now as OCD rituals, my mom would die, was my kid logic there."
Even as a teenager, Jennette thought she was responsible for her mom's illness. At this age, it was because she still thought her rituals were failing, and also because Debra bluntly told her daughter that she caused the cancer. Jennette, who at that point still took her mom's words as mostly the truth, said, "It was a very layered, warped way of thinking."
