Specify Books Supposing Just Checking: Scenes From the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive
| Original Title: | Just Checking: Scenes From the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive |
| ISBN: | 0671024388 (ISBN13: 9780671024383) |
| Edition Language: | English |
Description To Books Just Checking: Scenes From the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive
We all worry. We all have moments of unfounded dread (Is someone behind that door?), or little phobias (roaches) or superstitions (step on a crack) that we indulge. Just Checking is an autobiographical account of what it is like to live with a full-blown case of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which, at its height, finds author Emily Colas nervous that she will contract a disease from blood that she sees on television. In the course of the book, what at first appear to her husband and friends to be Colas's idiosyncratic notions accumulate until she is frozen by the astounding psychological binds of OCD. Using precise (of course), connect-the-dots scenes, Colas draws a life that is at first highly monitored and ultimately unraveled by her disorder.One imagines that from afar, Colas's behavior at the height of her illness would look incomprehensible and just plain weird: She has to check the dishwasher multiple times before using it to make sure the cat is safe; the packaging of every new toothbrush has to meet rigorous sanitary standards; the landlord can't attempt to find new tenants for her apartment — she won't let them in the house. But readers are not at a distance here. Instead, we become privy to Colas's somewhat apologetic but firm explanations of what her logic was, and what it felt like to be afraid. She is so honest and witty that one can't help liking her, rooting for her, and wishing help would come.
In a typical vignette, when the family tries to go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade ("definitely a mistake"), Colas is terrified that shewillstep on blood:
When I was a kid in New York, all we had to eat on the street were pretzels and hot dogs. Food that was readily identifiable. Now, vendors sell the fanciest things with cherries, berries, jelly, and other crap that's way too close to the color of blood. We finally made it to where we had to go, but not before I had inspected the bottom of my shoes. There was a mushy red object there. Maybe a cherry, possibly a finger. The kids watched the parade on TV and I had a nice new worry. My kids don't even remember that lovely November day, but, lucky for me, I do.
This event is sad and resonant, but it also manages to be viscerally entertaining. The result is that instead of inspiring schadenfreude, this book reminds us that psychological disorders are often exaggerations of the ordinary and familiar. We all, on a continuum, wish to survive, to avoid disease, to impose order on our lives. We sympathize with Colas's desperate attempts to find safety and with her seemingly loving husband's gradual loss of tolerance. Even the not-so-funny poems that are occasionally interspersed among the perfectly crafted chapterettes find their place. Strange as it may be to find charm in a memoir of illness, Colas is utterly winning.
Hilary Liftin is a writer living in New York City. Her first book, coauthored with Kate Montgomery, is scheduled for publication by Vintage next year. She is the editorial development manager at BookWire (www.bookwire.com).
Describe Appertaining To Books Just Checking: Scenes From the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive
| Title | : | Just Checking: Scenes From the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive |
| Author | : | Emily Colas |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 165 pages |
| Published | : | June 1st 1999 by Washington Square Press |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Autobiography. Memoir. Psychology. Health. Mental Health. Mental Illness |
Rating Appertaining To Books Just Checking: Scenes From the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive
Ratings: 3.55 From 1228 Users | 155 ReviewsCrit Appertaining To Books Just Checking: Scenes From the Life of an Obsessive-Compulsive
I chose to read this memoir for a paper I am writing for my college Abnormal Psychology class. Being a young woman with obsessive compulsive disorder, I was really eager to read this book and scope out some similarities and coping mechanizes she dealt with. I read cover to cover in about 8 hours. I was very letdown because I did not get what I was looking for in her story. I was able to write the paper but I was looking to gain more from it. I found myself skimming and drifting off because I didSuper easy read. Funny but also great insight into ocd.
I enjoy reading memoirs but this one was poorly written and too breezy for my taste. Although the author has a sense of humor, she did not seem to have much compassion.
Weird, disjointed...must be how her mind works?
I was really excited to read this book, and even enjoyed the first half or so, but I started to get really frustrated with Colas at that point. Her life was filled with enablers and I wish her husband would have stood up to her rather than allow her to get as bad as she did. I understand OCD can be unmanageable, but it didn't seem like her husband even cared that she had a problem until it got to be extreme. I wanted to punch her husband in the face for almost the entire book. Thank god I've
I am really interested in this topic but I found the format didn't draw me in. She told this with a great deal of humour through short quips but I was really looking to get more into the meat of how this progressed for her and how she copes with it. The book is definitely lacking in that for me.
I judge this kind of book against one standard: Is YOUR crazy crazier than MY crazy? And by that I mean me personally, my friends and family, and so on. In this case, kinda sorta, but really, in the end, not really. She starts out strong, when it's easy to see how numerous compulsions are negatively affecting her life. However, once again we end up with a woman safely in the arms of an enabling, loving husband (for awhile, anyway). To put it bluntly, this coddled housewife has free reign to
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