THE AVIATOR star Alec Baldwin has diagnosed himself as having obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), because he happily risks missing flights so he can neatly align objects in his apartment.

The Hollywood actor first noticed the problem when his passion for order began to spill over into other areas of his life.

He says, "I have self-diagnosed OCD. I think if you have OCD, it's one thing if you are compulsive about things but there's no real cost to you. Like, if you're home on some leisurely evening and you sit there and want all the borders of everything to match neatly, the books, and you kind of go, 'This cup should really go here.'

"But (you have a problem) if there's a limo waiting for you downstairs and you have to get to JFK (airport) in the next 45 minutes and you feel like these flowers should go this way. And the doorman in my building is downstairs going, 'The car is here!' When you have to be somewhere there's like some (problem).

"The thing is, you always feel the need to do it, mostly when there's something at stake. Like, I will literally be leaving my apartment in New York and I've got to go to the airport. The worst possible time is when the bell rings loudest. A voice will say to me, 'Move the snowglobe to the right three inches.'"