OCD, and the true story of a life lost in thought
“Do you ever get the urge to, like, do things?”
Once they had wiped the spat out biscuit crumbs from their cardigans, they asked me to expand…
“Well, for instance, sometimes when you are on a platform waiting for a train, do you ever feel like you might jump in front of it? Even though you really don’t want to?”
Visibly relieved that my answer was of the pseudo-suicidal vein and not some other vein, a couple started to nod their heads:
“Yeah, yeah! I get what you mean; like sometimes you can be standing on a bridge and some feeling will work its way up your legs and you start to panic that you might jump!”
“Yeah! I get that! Or sometimes I look at the cat and really worry I might punch it square in the face! I love that face, but sometimes I think I really will punch it…”
That’s exactly it. And not one of us has ever jumped in front of a train, or off a bridge or hit a cat. Nor are any of us likely to (I seriously hope not anyway!).
And, unless you are like the one person from the group who, not having had such feelings, looked at the rest of us with a mixture of fear and repulsion, you have probably had such thoughts yourself.
At the start of this book, David Adam tells us that:
“an average person can have four thousand thoughts a day, and not all of them are useful or rational.“
The bridge jumping/cat punching thoughts my friends and I discussed could be grouped in with those Adam describes as:
“…those occasional, random and unprompted ideas that seem to emerge from nowhere and stun because they are vile, immoral, disgusting, sickening – and just plain weird.”
It is how these thoughts manifest and how we are able to deal with them that is at the root of this book. Adam had certain thoughts, but unlike most of us, these thoughts didn’t go away, they turned into obsessive-compulsive disorder.
As Adam writes “OCD is the fourth most common mental disorder after the big three – depression, substance abuse and anxiety.” However it is a complex condition that is often misunderstood.
This book went a long way to open my mind to the condition and those that suffer from it. Adam documents his own experience throughout, with unflinching honesty. This is an incredibly interesting and readable book, considering the subject matter. I would even go so far as to call it “entertaining” which seems an odd way to describe it, but Adam’s use of humor and mind-boggling anecdotes make it a really accessible read.
This is a brilliantly crafted and researched book from someone who knows all too well what he (and my group of friends) are talking about. This is for anyone affected by the condition, or anyone interested in psychology as a whole.
I would also recommend picking it up if you are one of those people who cutely refer to themselves as “a little bit OCD…”
