The Man Who Couldn't Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought
Author: David Adam
ISBN-10: 1250083184
ISBN-13: 978-1250083180
 
APA Style Citation
Adam, D. (2016). The man who couldn't stop: OCD and the true story of a life lost in thought. New York, NY: Picador.
 
Buy This Book
https://www.amazon.com/Man-Who-Couldnt-Stop-Thought/dp/1250083184/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_img_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=F7EB0H0TX69H38ZENPNE
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Book Description
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) often does not get the attention it deserves. It is the fourth most common mental disorder after the big three of depression, substance abuse, and anxiety. OCD is referred to as a “secret disease” and a “silent epidemic,” but subclincial OCD is everywhere.  The stigma has lessened for some disorders, such as depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar, but there is a way to go for OCD. The book The Man Who Couldn't Stop: OCD and the True Story of a Life Lost in Thought shares the personal journey of the author, David Adam, a science writer from the United Kingdom who informs the reader of the science and history of OCD in hopes of reducing the stigma associated with the disorder.
 
Psychiatrists have made it clear that OCD is not an exaggerated form of everyday worries, but yet the general public often persists in thinking otherwise.  A thorough explanation of the different types of symptoms is provided for the reader. Specific attention is given to intrusive thoughts. Adam goes on to explain the Pure-O form of OCD with no overt compulsions, the just-no-right experience where behaviors come first, and the high-place phenomenon where individuals commonly report wanting to jump from a window or bridge. OCD is not a problem with memory, but rather a loss of confidence that a given behavior has been successfully carried out.  The author weaves his personal story with OCD that peaked in 1991 throughout the book. He would obsess about the ways he could catch AIDS. He describes how it took over his life and how he would call the National AIDS Helpline on a regular basis. Adam also provides the historical background to the diagnosis of OCD, taking it back to patient zero, Mademoiselle F, a French woman from the early 19th century.  He explains models of OCD throughout the text based on the knowledge at that given time.
 
Over twenty separate conditions are linked to OCD, and each of these similar disorders is carefully differentiated from OCD in the book. People with phobias can avoid what causes their anxiety, but those with OCD cannot. Adam differentiates between the commonly confused OCD and OCPD. He explains hoarding and neurological disorders, such as Tourette’s syndrome and Parkinson’s disease, and their connection to OCD. In addition, he investigates connections to impulsive disorders, such as gambling, pyromania, and kleptomania. Differentiations are also provided for trichotillomania, skin-picking, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), body integrity disorder (BII), hypochondriasis, eating disorders (anorexia or bulimia), maladaptive daydreaming, and obsessional jealousy.
 
Another section of the book is dedicated to the types of therapy that have historically been offered to treat OCD. He chronicles classic psychodynamic analysis, with specific attention to Freud’s contribution. Next, the behavioral approach in the 1960s and the era of aversion and thought-stopping therapy are addressed. In the 1990s the cognitive psychologists started to explore OCD and first looked at the connection to religion. While religion does not cause OCD, it provides an outlet for the symptoms. Research also focused on three dysfunctional beliefs important to OCD: Inflated sense of threat and personal responsibility, perfectionism and intolerance of responsibility, and over-importance of thought and the need to control them. These different types of dysfunctional beliefs could explain the range of symptoms.  
 
The first modern cognitive model of OCD was based on how one reacts to thoughts.  With great responsibility, comes great power. The responsibility of parenting can bring many intrusive thoughts. Adam goes on to explore postnatal OCD, which is almost unheard of in comparison to postnatal depression now recognized as a serious problem.  It can take an upsetting form where mothers have powerful urges to throw their baby into a fire, cook them in a microwave, etc. It is important to note that none of this happens outside of the mother’s head, they do not act on their intrusive thoughts.  The author recognizes that a substantial shift in his story happened when he found blood on his six month old’s leg. Immediately he became obsessed with the thought that he had given her AIDS. He had settled for a personal life with OCD, but never wanted to impact his family. He refused to make his daughter an accomplice and wanted his intrusive thoughts to stop with him, so he sought out therapy.
 
Another section focuses on animals and human patterns of behavior and ritual. Various animal examples are provided and the similarities to OCD are explored. Check out the book review Animal Madness:  How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves (https://booksforpsychologyclass.weebly.com/blog/category/disorderstreatment8086727c74/2). Humans like routine, whether it a sports routine, washing in the shower, or taking a path from point A to point B. The link between ritual and OCD fascinates scientists and there is a belief that ritual is useful by performing tasks with less mental effort and therefore saving energy. Other evolutionary explanations are also explained. The differences between anxiety and OCD are carefully teased apart.
 
The author turns back to the causes of OCD. Possible explanations are explored, including genes, early experiences and dysfunctional beliefs, inflated responsibility, parenting styles, and family accommodation of symptoms. Age ranges are provided, as well as risk factors for developing OCD. Rituals are normal for children, but some warning signs are provided. Lots of attention is devoted to the brain’s role in the development of OCD.  Research involving scans are described in detail, specific brain parts and neurotransmitters are identified and explained, even the connection to Pandas- Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections.
 
Treatments are addressed once again. The variety of medications to treat OCD is explained.  Before SSRIs became available in the 1980s and 1990s, patients were treated with clomipramine. The methods of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) are explained. Furthermore, exposure and response prevention have also been found to be successful in treating OCD. The use of systematic desensitization is explained in detail.  In 2012, a comprehensive meta-analysis of CBT for OCD found more people improved with treatment, than chance alone. If you change the mind, then you can change the brain. The lobotomy is explored in detail. The author discusses the historical contributions of Phineas Gage, Egas Moniz, Walter Freeman, and James Watts. While the traditional method is no longer used, psychosurgery has provided a cautious green light to more selective stereotactic surgery, such as a cingulotomy where specific tissue is targeted and lesioned.
 
Politics and prejudice are also addressed. The author believes it is important to raise awareness of what OCD is and what it is not (not just about cleanliness). He explains how individuals have lost their jobs and have been separated from their families when harmless obsessions are reported. The stigma has decreased for many mental illnesses, but OCD has a long way to go. It may be due to many not viewing it as a serious disorder. Hollywood has contributed to this by treating OCD with humor and levity. 
 
In 2013, the new Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) brought attention to OCD. It was reclassified as an OCD spectrum disorder, no longer an anxiety disorder. Connections between OCD and other disorders, such as PTSD or schizophrenia are being further investigated. A short history of the DSM and Emil Kraeplin’s classification system used in Europe is explained to help the reader. Also, a critical look at the current categories approach is explored, and a dimensionality approach is offered in its replacement.
 
The author offers his final thoughts, looking back at his symptoms early in life. Currently, he is doing well, but he knows that he will continue to wrestle with his OCD throughout his life. He wants people to know that the bad news is that it won’t go away by itself. But the good news is that we are finding out more about how to diagnose and treat the condition. Sharing his story and many others helps us understand more about OCD.
 
Other Related Resources
2016 Annual OCD Conference Keynote - David Adam "The Accidental Advocate"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KccklYNpTus
 
https://iocdf.org/blog/2016/07/07/david-adam-to-bring-humor-hope-and-books-to-this-years-ocd-conference/
 
The OCD Stories Podcast- Interview with David Adam
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWXIq_Ir9vA
 
http://theocdstories.com/podcast/david-adam-the-man-who-couldnt-stop/
 
Understanding the OCD Brain part 1: OCD and me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpCOAqxbfpA
 
Addiction.com ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Stop’: A Q&A with David Adam on OCDhttps://www.addiction.com/8869/the-man-who-couldnt-stop-a-qa-with-david-adam-on-ocd/
 
NPR- Why OCD Is 'Miserable': A Science Reporter's Obsession With Contracting HIVhttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/01/12/376438311/why-ocd-is-miserable-a-science-reporters-obsession-with-contracting-hiv
 
New York Times Article
https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/01/books/review/david-adams-the-man-who-couldnt-stop.html
 
Time Article
http://time.com/4890095/obsessive-compulsive-disorder-ocd-joke/
 
The Guardian Article
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/20/the-man-who-couldnt-stop-review-david-adam-ocd-review

 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Charles Darwin
Egas Moniz
Emil Kraeplin- category approach in DSM
Ivan Pavlov
James Watts
Konrad Lorenz
Mademoiselle F. (Patient zero of OCD)
Paul Broca
Phineas Gage
Rat Man- Ernst Lanzer (Freud Case Study)
Rosemary Kennedy
Sigmund Freud
Walter Freeman
Wilder Penfield
William James
 
Altered perception
Amphetamines
Amygdala
Anal personality
Anorexia nervosa
Anxiety hierarchy
DSM
Authoritarian
Autism
Aversion therapy
Basal ganglia
Behavioral psychologists
Bipolar
Blood-brain barrier
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)
Body integrity disorder
Bulimia nervosa
CAT scan
Catastrophizing
Chromosomes
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Cognitive psychologists
Cohort studies
Co-morbidity
Compulsions
Deep brain stimulation
Depression
Dimensionality vs. category approach
Disgust
Distress scale
Dopamine
Dualism
Dysfunctional beliefs
Eating disorders
ECT
Ethics
Evolutionary psychology
Extinction
Factor analysis
Fight-or-flight response
Frontal leucotomy
Genotype maps
Glutamate
Grey vs. white matter ratio
Group therapy
Hippocampus
Hoarding
Homosexuality
Huntington’s disease
Hypochondriasis
Impulse-control disorder
Insanity
Insight
Insulin overdose
Intelligence
Kleptomania
Lesions
Lie detectors
Lithium
Lobotomy
LSD
Memory
Meta-analysis
Motor cortex
MRI
Functional MRI
Nature vs. nurture
Neurologists
Neurosis vs. psychosis
Neurotransmitters
Nucleus accumbens
Obsessions
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
Obsessive compulsive personality disorder (OCPD)
Oxytocin
Parasomnia
Parenting styles
Parkinson’s disease
Pathological gambling
PET scan
Phobias
Phrenology
Postnatal depression
Postnatal OCD
Prefrontal lobotomy
Prozac
Psychiatrists vs. psychologists
Psychoanalytic movement
Psychopath
Psychosurgery
Psychotropic medication
PTSD
Pyromania
Rational vs. irrational
Reuptake
Schizo-obsessive disorder
Schizophrenia
Self-harm
Serotonin
Skin-picking disorder
SSRIs
Stigma
Stream of consciousness
Substance abuse
Suicide
Systematic desensitization
Thalamus
Tourette’s syndrome
Trauma
Trichotillomania
Twin studies
Withdrawal symptoms
Zoloft

​Becoming 
Author: Michelle Obama
ISBN:  9781524763138
 
APA Style Citation
Obama, M. (2018). Becoming. New York, NY: Penguin, Random House.
 
Buy this Book
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079ZYWJJ8/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
 

​Book Description
Becoming describes Michelle Obama`s life from her early years living on the South Side of Chicago to her post First Lady of the United States (FLOTUS)experiences.  Many of the situations presented in Becomingcan easily be integratedinto a psychology class in particular, in the social and cognitive units of the course.
 
Michelle was raisedin the South Shore neighborhood of Chicago just a few miles south of the Loop. Thiswas a neighborhood that was experiencing “white flight.”  As middle-class black families moved into the neighborhood because of the reasonable home prices, the traditionally White, Irish Catholic neighborhood changed into what some described as a “black ghetto.” Included in the book are some pictures of Michelle`s 2nd-gradeclass which is fairly diverse and her 6th-gradeclass in which all but one of the students is black.  As the neighborhood changed, so did the schools and the local schools began to have a reputation for being poor quality inner-city schools that were not educating their students properly.  Good teachers were leaving, and talented teachers did not want to come to South Shore. Obama describes thefeeling of a failing school, she reports that people know it is happening but they often there is nothing they can do to stop it.  
 
Michelle had an advocate in her mother, who went in to protest the lack of teaching in Michelle`s grade school classroom.  She was able to arrange for Michelle to get tested and Michelle was ultimately placed into the talented and gifted program. This change allowed Michelle to have an enriching grade school experience.  Michelle loved learning and as a result,was givenmore and more challenging assignments. For high school, Michelle tested into Morgan Park Academy which was a magnet school about an hour away from Michelle`s home but also one of the best schools in the city where she was challenged by demanding classes and surrounded by other ambitious students from all over the city.  From there, Michelle was accepted to Princeton University to complete her undergraduate degree and then onto Harvard University Law school before landing a job at a successful law firm in Chicago. 
 
Michelle experienced the impact of stereotyping both at home and in her education.  One of her cousins once asked her “why she talked like a white person.”  This comment resonated with Michelle and her feel like she was somehow an outsider even with some members of her own family.  When she attended Princeton, she was one of the few black students on campus and spent much of her time at the black student center to feel like she had a support network with people whom she could identify with.  Because she was often the only black person in class, she felt pressure to work harder and be better as she did not want people to feel that she was attending Princeton for any other reason other than her academic talent.  Stereotype threat can be a strong force, but in this case,Michelle worked harder and focused all of her energy to overcome the belief some people had that perhaps she was not “Princeton material.”  When things were difficult, Michelle demonstratedGRIT and a belief in herself and her abilities and was able to show her true abilities.
 
Michelle also found friends who had the same academic ambitions as herself, andthey helped to motivate her but also to keep her grounded.  She was good friends with Jesse Jackson’s daughter.  Michelle participated in her first political marches and saw the inner working of what occurred behind the scenes for a public political figure. She also saw the sacrifice and the challenges that a life of public service created for the family of the public figure.
 
Michelle met Barack Obama when she was assigned to supervise him while he completed a summer internship at the law firm she was working at.  At first,she was skeptical as she described people`s excitement about this brilliant young intern, she expected him to be arrogant and entitled, what she found instead was that he was confident but kind and personable.  By the end of the summer they were dating, and Barack quickly introduced Michelle to his passion as a community organizer.  While Michelle accompanied him to many meetings, she understood the concerns of neighbors who were watching their communities being taken over by gangs and drug dealers, seeing businesses move out of the area, and home prices plummet.  Michelle had seen the same thing in her ownneighborhood and felt compelled to do something to help.
 
Eventually, she left her law firm to take a job at the City of Chicago working for Valerie Jarrett, they became fast friends, andMichelle became acquainted with the many challenges facing people in different neighborhoods in the city.  She went on to create a mentor program and then to work as a community organizer for the University of Chicago hospital.  By this time Barack had become a state senator, andMichelle was surprised by the expectation from women in D.C. that she drop everything and move to support her husband. She faced judgmentfrom the other Senators’ wives who thought she should be lunchingwith them in Washington while their husbands were legislating.  Michelle was juggling a successful career, two young children and a husband that was often away for work.  She credits the many others around her including friends, family and babysitters who helped to assist her through this demanding time in order for her to remain committed to the passions of her work.  
 
When Barack decided to run for president, Michelle tried to keep her position at the hospital, buteventually,it became too challenging, she did, however, insist on a schedule that would get her home in time to put her children to bed each night.  She also advocated for her ownstaff as her travel became more constant and hectic.  People were quick to judge her involvement in the campaign, her care (or lack thereof) of her children, her clothing choices and her informal and accessible style of speaking.  She believed that if she told her story honestly and worked hard that her best was all she could give.  She was right andher husband, with her help, was elected the 44thpresident of the U.S.
 
During the almost instant transition into public life, Michelle kept her focus on creating a normal life for her children and creating a platform as the firstlady that would focus on a healthy lifestyle.  Michelle had seen in her own Chicago community the lack of fresh food and had herself experienced a dependenceon processed food and takeout for her and the girls asshe tried to navigate each busy day.  Michelle organized the planting of a community garden on the lawn of the White House and advocated for causes she believed in.  She met with state and national leaders but limited her time for formal events to be certain that Malia and Sasha felt supported in their new environment.  She also brought her mother with her to the White House so that when she was traveling, her girls would have their grandmother to support and make the White House feel more like a home. 
 
Becoming begins and ends with Michelle in her post-WhiteHouse home, making herself a cheesy sandwich.  She sits on her back steps relishing the strange quietness of being home alone for the first time in years (despite the secret service located feet away in the garage).  She expresses gratefulness for the time she spent doing the many things she loved and wonders what will be next. 
 
Other Related Resources
 
NPR:  Michelle Obama tells the story of “Becoming” herself
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/09/666093279/michelle-obama-tells-the-story-of-becoming-herself-and-the-struggle-to-hang-on
 
BBC radio:  Eight amazing things we learned from Michelle Obama
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2KRlQwwrfbLmpf08pltxtJz/eight-amazing-things-we-learned-from-michelle-obama
 
Playhouse Square:  Becoming: An Intimate Conversation with Michelle Obama
http://www.playhousesquare.org/events/detail/becoming-an-intimate-conversation-with-michelle-obama
 
BOOKRIOT:  The Most Powerful Quotes from Becoming
https://bookriot.com/2019/02/06/becoming-quotes/
 
Time Magazine review of Becoming
http://time.com/5457854/michelle-obama-becoming-review/
 
 
 
Psychological Figures and Concepts
Belief Perseverance
Discrimination
GRIT
Prejudice
Social Facilitation
Stereotyping
Stereotype Threat