Author Event: The Upside of OCD by Michael Alcée

I attended an author talk and signing at the library with author Michael Alcée, a clinical psychologist and mental health educator who wrote the book The Upside of OCD: Flip the Script to Reclaim Your Life. What drew me to the talk is that I actually have OCD, as do people I love. That was the case for most people in the small group who came to the talk.

It was great to hear the good things about OCD, and the positive qualities people with OCD have, but also a bit about how to heal the bad parts. I resonated with a lot of what was said, and I can’t wait to read the book.

First, Michael talked about the famous people who have or had OCD:

Charles Darwin, naturalist/geologist
Camila Cabello, singer
Howie Mandel, comedian/actor
John Green, young adult author
Mara Wilson, child actor

People with OCD are:

Kind and empathetic. People with OCD have a lot of emotional sensitivity, and it’s said that they have hearts that are 10 times too big. They’re very concerned about others and they’re too hard on themselves. They’re also very intuitive.
They’re extremely imaginitive and they have creative minds. They have “what if” thoughts (negtive) but also “why not” thoughts (positive).

Freud says that people with OCD have a conflict with their id: they’re scared of self interest because it feels selfish.

Also, there’s a genetic part to OCD – a nature part, as well as a nurture part. People with OCD are existentially aware; death and loss is very prominent in their minds.

Michael says that OCD “does your dirty work.” In other words, it manages your boundaries. He gave the example of a woman and a man at work. The man gently shoved the woman, and then she obsessed over it, instead of just telling him that it had bothered her that he’d done that, that she hadn’t liked that. To her, it felt too aggressive to bring it up to him, so she kept it to herself.

Michael mentions that people with OCD should, but rarely do, give themselves as much empathy as they give to others. According to Michael, “you can only be selfless for so long before you start to take up space.”

I thought Michael’s talk was incredibly eye-opening and informative, and I am very much looking forward to reading the book! As always, when my review of the book is up, I’ll link it here.