Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Against Medical Advice

James Patterson, Hal Friedman · 323 pages

Cory Friedman woke up one morning when he was five years old with the uncontrollable urge to twitch his neck. From that day forward his life became a hell of irrepressible tics and involuntary utterances, and Cory embarked on an excruciating journey from specialist to specialist to discover the cause of his disease. Soon it became unclear what tics were symptoms of his disease and what were side

Just Checking: Scenes From the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive

Emily Colas · 165 pages

"This raw, darkly comic series of astonishing vignettes is Emily Colas' achingly honest chronicle of her twisted journey through the obsessive-compulsive disorder that came to dominate her world. In the beginning it was germs and food - to her mind, anything from ground-up hypodermic needles to disease-tainted blood could be on her restaurant plate. By the time she faced the fact that she was real

Mad Girl

Bryony Gordon · 320 pages

Here's the Deal: Don't Touch Me

Howie Mandel, Josh Young · 220 pages

A frank, funny, no-holds-barred memoir, "Here's the Deal" reveals Mandel's ongoing struggle with OCD and ADHD--and tells how it has shaped his life and career. As heartfelt as it is hilarious, this is the story of one man's effort to draw comic inspiration out of his most vulnerable places.--From publisher description.

The Man Who Couldn't Stop

David Adam · 324 pages

**An intimate look at the power of intrusive thoughts, how our brains can turn against us, and living with obsessive compulsive disorder** Have you ever had a strange urge to jump from a tall building or steer your car into oncoming traffic? You are not alone. In this captivating fusion of science, history, and personal memoir, David Adam explores the weird thoughts that exist within every mind

Passing for Normal

Amy Wilensky · 224 pages

The provocative memoir of a young woman's struggle to come to terms with a life plagued by irrational behavior. I am crazy. But maybe I am not. For most of her life, this thought haunted author Wilensky as she watched her body do things she couldn't control, repeatedly twitching and contorting into awkward positions. Her mind lurched and veered in ways she didn't understand: She felt that she must

Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things

Jenny Lawson

"In Furiously Happy, #1 New York Times bestselling author Jenny Lawson explores her lifelong battle with mental illness. A hysterical, ridiculous book about crippling depression and anxiety? That sounds like a terrible idea. But terrible ideas are what Jenny does best.As Jenny says: "Some people might think that being 'furiously happy' is just an excuse to be stupid and irresponsible and invite a

Devil in the Details: Scenes from an Obsessive Girlhood

Jennifer Traig · 272 pages

In the bestselling tradition of "Running with Scissors" and "A Girl Named Zippy," Jennifer Traig tells an unforgettable story of youthful obsession.

The Boy Who Couldn't Stop Washing: The Experience and Treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Judith L. Rapoport · 261 pages

Up to six million Americans are afflicted with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), a serious, emotionally crippling disease. Cleaning, counting, washing, checking, avoiding—these are just some of the rituals that sufferers are powerless to stop. Now an expert on OCD reveals breakthroughs in diagnosis, successful new behaviorist therapies, drug treatments, and more.

Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying

Abby Sher · 311 pages

The memoir of a young woman whose life was shaped by obsessive-compulsive disorder and her fiercest obsession--prayer--describes how a major life event compelled her to redefine the terms of her illness and her faith.

Weekends at Bellevue: Nine Years on the Night Shift at the Psych E.R.

Julie Holland · 310 pages

Documents a psychiatrist's employment at New York City's Bellevue Hospital while sharing the life lessons she learned from her patients and colleagues, describing some of the more remarkable cases of her career and their influences on her family life.

Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She's "Learned"

Lena Dunham · 287 pages

"If I could take what I've learned and make one menial job easier for you, or prevent you from having the kind of sex where you feel you must keep your sneakers on in case you want to run away during the act, then every misstep of mine was worthwhile. I'm already predicting my future shame at thinking I had anything to offer you, but also my future glory in having stopped you from trying an expens

Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety

Daniel B. Smith · 212 pages

In "Monkey Mind," Daniel Smith brilliantly articulates what it is like to live with anxiety, defanging the disease with humor, traveling through its demonic layers, evocatively expressing both its painful internal coherence and its absurdities.

Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So

Mark Vonnegut · 203 pages

More than thirty years after the publication of his acclaimed memoir The Eden Express, Mark Vonnegut continues his remarkable story in this searingly funny, iconoclastic account of coping with mental illness, finding his calling as a pediatrician, and learning that willpower isn't nearly enough. Here is the world after Mark was released from a mental hospital to find his family forever altered. Af

I'm Perfect, You're Doomed: Tales from a Jehovah's Witness Upbringing

Kyria Abrahams · 339 pages

Haldol and Hyacinths: A Bipolar Life

Melody Moezzi · 288 pages

"With candor and humor, a manic-depressive Iranian-American Muslim woman chronicles her experiences with both clinical and cultural bipolarity. Melody Moezzi was born to Persian parents at the height of the Islamic Revolution and raised amid a vibrant, loving, and gossipy Iranian diaspora in the American heartland. When at eighteen, she began battling a severe physical illness, her community stepp

Changing My Mind

Margaret Trudeau · 382 pages

"In this deeply moving memoir, Margaret Trudeau speaks with candour and insight about the illness that silently shaped her life -- a life lived often in turbulence and in the public's fascination. Plagued since childhood by extreme moods, Margaret was ill-prepared for the high-profile role into which she was cast at age twenty-two, as Canada's youngest first lady. Captivated by her high spirits, y

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed

Lori Gottlieb · 432 pages

From a New York Times best-selling author, psychotherapist, and national advice columnist, a hilarious, thought-provoking, and surprising new book that takes us behind the scenes of a therapist’s world—where her patients are looking for answers (and so is she). One day, Lori Gottlieb is a therapist who helps patients in her Los Angeles practice. The next, a crisis causes her world to come crash

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's

John Elder Robison · 304 pages

Ever since he was small, John Robison had longed to connect with other people, but by the time he was a teenager, his odd habits--an inclination to blurt out non sequiturs, avoid eye contact, dismantle radios, and dig five-foot holes (and stick his younger brother in them)--had earned him the label "social deviant." No guidance came from his mother, who conversed with light fixtures, or his father

So Sad Today: Personal Essays

Melissa Broder · 210 pages

"A darkly funny and brutally honest collection of essays from Melissa Broder who has always struggled with anxiety. In the fall of 2012, she went through a harrowing cycle of panic attacks and dread that wouldn't abate for months. So she began @sosadtoday, an anonymous Twitter feed that allowed her to express her darkest feelings, and which quickly gained a dedicated following. In this collection,

What My Bones Know

Stephanie Foo · 352 pages

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life“Achingly exquisite . . . providing real hope for those who long to heal.”—Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to SomeoneONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The

Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist

Michael J. Fox · 296 pages

There are many words to describe Michael J. Fox: Actor. Husband. Father. Activist. But readers of Always Looking Up will soon add another to the list: Optimist. Michael writes about the hard-won perspective that helped him see challenges as opportunities. Instead of building walls around himself, he developed a personal policy of engagement and discovery: an emotional, psychological, intellectual,

Twilight Children

Torey L. Hayden · 352 pages

For decades, former special education teacher Torey Hayden has been a light in the darkness for severely troubled children, and she has chronicled her determined efforts, triumphs, and breakthroughs in a series of internationally bestselling books, beginning with her powerful and poignant One Child. But it wasn't until she left the classroom that she faced three of her most extraordinary challenge

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward

Mark Lukach · 320 pages

"A heart-wrenching, yet hopeful, memoir of a young marriage that is redefined by mental illness and affirms the power of love. Mark and Giulia's life together began as a storybook romance. The fell in love at eighteen, married at twenty-four, and were living their dream life in San Francisco. When Giulia was twenty-seven, she suffered a terrifying and unexpected psychotic break that landed her in