Ep. 31 | The Boogeyman Under the Bed: Charlie Winton on OCD, ADHD, and Building a Business From Lived Experience

A startup founder who used to mask his OCD as IBS now runs a mental health company - and has spent six years learning to slow down without losing himself.This week Ania talks with Charlie Winton, founder and CEO of OK Positive, a Scotland-based startup using technology to support preventative mental health. Charlie built the business out of his own experience with severe OCD and panic attacks - and he's refreshingly honest about what that's actually like to live with, day to day.The conversation moves through Charlie's ADHD and OCD profile (the "A to B" rushing, the overwhelm of too many choices, the three-question test his wife taught him for sorting intrusive thoughts from real ones), how he learned to read his own warning signs before they become a spiral, and why he thinks "success" is mostly a moving goalpost that's better replaced with small, weekly wins. He also gets into the cost of masking, what it taught him to "helicopter out" of his own life and check in with his values, and why slowing down - something that used to feel like wasted time - turned out to be where most of his actual enjoyment lives.Expect candid talk about mental health stigma, founder culture, the surprising upside of an OCD-trained nervous system, and at least two terrible-but-accurate analogies (cheat meals, mountains made of moles).In this episode:02:00 — Introducing Charlie and OK Positive03:00 — Why he stopped trying to separate himself from his business06:00 — The two moments that shaped him: a mental health crisis at work, and meeting his wife08:00 — Realising he had OCD, and what 21-year-old Charlie didn't understand yet13:00 — The three questions his wife taught him for intrusive thoughts17:00 — Spheres of control and influence - and why energy spent outside them is energy wasted20:00 — Personality profiling, masking with friends and family, and pretending OCD was IBS28:00 — Being misunderstood as "bossy" or "demanding" when it's really an ADHD attention pattern37:00 — Learning to slow down without losing his edge45:00 — Redefining success as small wins instead of moving goalposts51:00 — The ongoing, non-linear work of feeling okay with who you are59:00 — His daily practice: logging how he feels every morning, like a resting heart rate for his mental health1:02:00 — Quick-fire round: food quirks, recovery time, Lord of the Rings, and the one thing he'd change in the worldA few lines that stuck with us:"Mental health is like the boogeyman. When you're a kid and there's a boogeyman under the bed, and your parents explain it's a leaky pipe making a noise - it's not scary anymore.""It's not a weakness to do it differently to me.""The stress that you put on yourself is far worse than the actual stress."More about Charlie:Charlie Winton is the  Founder of OK Positive (OK+), a digital mental health platform built on evidence-based practices such as ACT, CBT, and resilience training. After years spent in recruitment and financial technology and drawing on his own lived experience of mental health challenges like OCD Charlie realised the need for a more accessible, preventative approach to emotional wellbeing.Since its inception, OK+ has grown to serve thousands across corporate, education, and charitable sectors, embodying Charlie’s deeply held belief that openness and vulnerability help dismantle mental health stigma. He has been running the organisation for six years and been involved in all aspects of starting and growing a business from investment, sales, operations, recruitment and networking.LinkedIn (search Charlie Winton) | [email protected] | okpositive.co.ukConnect with Ania:aniahulsman.com - book a 30-minute unmasked chemistry call if this episode sparked something