I don't talk about my OCD a lot, if ever. Unless you are my husband or an immediate family member you may not even know I have it. You may just think I am "quirky".
I honestly didn't even know I had OCD until 2007 when I was gifted with some synchronicity. I was home working one afternoon; I felt the house was super quiet; my new puppy was even sleeping so I decided to pop on the TV to a show called "The View from the Bay". Like I said, I was working so I was only half listening to the show. Then... this guy was talking about stuff I do. Stuff I had never told anyone about. I was shocked. I stopped everything - watched the show in shock as author Jeff Bell shared his story so openly. As soon as the interview was complete I got on amazon.com and had his book "Rewind Replay Repeat" overnighted to me. And as soon as it arrived I read it cover to cover twice. I even emailed the author.
Long story short - that interview with Jeff changed my life. That book changed my life.
And since then aside from Jeff's second book When in Doubt Make Belief, I haven't found another OCD book that I felt truly gets how my brain works.
'Cause although it has now been 11 years since I was originally diagnosed, I still have challenging days (although NOTHING nearly as horrible as what I went through prior to 2007).
Since subscribing to those daily emails, I have come to know Shala's work and was gifted with a copy of a book she wrote with Jon Hershfield called Everyday Mindfulness for OCD: Tips, Tricks, and Skills for Living Joyfully.
What a brilliant book! For anyone with OCD who has had someone say to you in trying to be helpful things like: "you should meditate", "try exercising", "give yourself a break; take a vacation", "try therapy", etc without understanding what exactly goes through your mind when you have OCD... this book is for you! Jon and Shala get it! They have their own stories. When they address things like meditation, exercise, self compassion and other ideas like playing games they are coming from a place of understanding so they break it down for you from an OCD mind with easy manageable steps and stories you can relate to. And I am going to be honest some of the stories, I said out loud - "why would you do that"? But I know that is my OCD talking wanting to go into the story and tell the person you have to go back and check that. However the fact that I can even catch myself doing that shows that the exercises in the book were working and I was becoming more mindful of my OCD. What I have found so far is the book has helped me be more conscious of my actions; keeping me one step ahead of the OCD. It is also a wonderfully sized book that isn't overwhelming. You can read it at your pace and perhaps try something new with each read. I highly recommend it! I am grateful to have found it! If you are interested in the book:
https://www.amazon.com/Everyday-Mindfulness-OCD-Tricks-Joyfully/dp/1626258929/
And if you'd like to check out Jeff Bell's books:
https://www.amazon.com/Rewind-Replay-Repeat-Obsessive-Compulsive/dp/1592853714/
https://www.amazon.com/When-Doubt-Make-Belief-OCD-Inspired/dp/1577316703/
And I hope like with that episode of The View from the Bay that magically found me one day that this blog post will find those that will benefit.
