The Man Who Couldn't Stop by David Adam

"I have CDO. It's like OCD but I have to have the letters in alphabetical order". This joke, and the stereotypes about people cleaning without end or washing their hands every five minutes, were some of the only things I knew about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, until I read David Adam's enlightening The Man Who Couldn't Stop.

The first revelation about OCD is that though many people with OCD may feel the need to clean, or wash their hands often, or need things to be in specific places, for a lot of them it has nothing to do with an obsession with germs or with order. Rather, the obsessive thoughts they have can be about anything negative or divergent, the compulsion being something that can guarantee that situation won't happen, or that they won't carry out that action. 

Some of these obsessive thoughts are ones that almost everyone can recognise in themselves, the urge to jump onto the tracks at a train station, or to throw your keys over the bridge into the Thames, the latter a daily quandary for myself. In this way, Adam admits that people can be 'a little OCD'. However, the stories of real struggle that he outlines are the ways in which OCD can devastate people's lives, their thoughts forcing them to spend hours each day engaging in repetitive actions to prevent thought from becoming reality.

What is particularly troubling is that, like with most mental illness, there is management, but no 'cure' in the conventional sense. Adam quite rightly argues that there is nothing wrong with his brain, that he does not need to be 'cured' of his OCD, but the drugs and therapy that help himself and others maintain content and manageable lives require funding and research, both of which are on the decline. 

When we join Adam at the start of his journey with OCD, he is trapped in a swimming pool changing room by his intrusive thoughts. He explains with honesty and often with wit how he has overcome these challenges over his years with OCD, but also acknowledges that the journey is ongoing. This book speaks with clarity and conviction about an often misunderstood mental illness, and illustrates the ways in which people can help and be helped.

Robyn