OCD Love Story. The story of my life minus the love story. I had to wait on this book for almost two weeks because reading it was like stepping inside my head. My OCD is just a thing that is, I don’t really think about it. Always been that way. People that know me kind of just let me do what I need to- even though they don’t always refrain from the mocking- still this book just hit all the bells of understanding.
Bea is in group therapy for her Obsessive Compulsive behavior which includes a slight stalking problem. There she gets to know Beck an adorable young man who suffered a trauma years ago that made him become obsessive about working out and the number eight. Bea doesn’t really think she has a problem. Mostly because it’s really hard for people to understand that in your head if you don’t do certain things or if you can’t control certain outcomes then you know- you have the utter and complete knowledge- something bad is going to happen.
One thing that made me think was both suffer from differing degrees of trauma. I did come to the conclusion if my OCD is caused by some sort of repressed trauma I think I’m fine leaving it repressed at this point. Personally we share the fear of driving which no one I know understands but my God I had to wonder if I ever meet the Corey Ann Haydu at any point in my life. It was creepy reading it. I have to have driving music. I’m constantly afraid I hit something or someone even though everybody tells me I would know if I did. I try to avoid turning and changing lanes. Yeah, I didn’t have to read this book to know sometimes it’s difficult to know me.
But reading it did make me feel better and that maybe I wasn’t so off and maybe I wasn’t so crazy. What better thing for a book to do then make you feel better about yourself?
For me except for the low-grade stalking thing I really understood Bea. These aren’t the most likeable characters throughout the book and I had issues with Bea’s best friend plus they don’t make the wisest decisions (they are kids after all) but I liked them and I wanted them to succeed and get better, if that’s even possible and on that count I thought the ending was sweetly realistic and would actually be interested in popping into the world again.
Recommend: For very personal reasons yes- and if you know anybody that drives you crazy checking locks or washing their hands give this a read and maybe you’ll have a better understanding of why they do it.