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    Because We Are Bad: OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought
    Unavailable
    Because We Are Bad: OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought
    Unavailable
    Because We Are Bad: OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought
    Ebook283 pages4 hours

    Because We Are Bad: OCD and a Girl Lost in Thought

    By Lily Bailey

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    A Washington Post Best Book of the Year

    “One of the best [books] I have read on the phenomenology of OCD.” —Scott Stossel, the Washington Post

    Written with the indelible power of Girl, Interrupted, Brain on Fire, and Reasons to Stay Alive, a lyrical, poignant memoir by a young woman about her childhood battle with debilitating obsessive compulsive disorder, and her hard-won journey to recovery.

    By the age of thirteen, Lily Bailey was convinced she was bad. She had killed someone with a thought, spread untold disease, and ogled the bodies of other children. Only by performing an exhausting series of secret routines could she make up for what she’d done. But no matter how intricate or repetitive, no act of penance was ever enough.

    Beautifully written and astonishingly intimate, Because We Are Bad recounts a childhood consumed by obsessive compulsive disorder. As a child, Bailey created a second personality inside herself—"I" became "we"—to help manifest compulsions that drove every minute of every day of her young life. Now she writes about the forces beneath her skin, and how they ordered, organized, and urged her forward. Lily charts her journey, from checking on her younger sister dozens of times a night, to "normalizing" herself at school among new friends as she grew older, and finally to her young adult years, learning—indeed, breaking through—to make a way for herself in a big, wide world that refuses to stay in check.

    Charming and raw, harrowing and redemptive, Because We Are Bad is an illuminating and uplifting look into the mind and soul of an extraordinary young woman, and a startling portrait of OCD that allows us to see and understand this condition as never before.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 3, 2018
    ISBN9780062696182
    Author

    Lily Bailey

    Lily Bailey is a model and writer. She became a journalist in London in 2012, editing a news site and writing features and fashion articles for local publications including The Richmond Magazine and The Kingston Magazine. Lily lives in London with her dog, Rocky.

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    Reviews for Because We Are Bad

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    • 4/5
      I'm stunned how Lily Bailey can describe her mental health struggle with such objectivity and selfless honesty. The reader gets real insight into the logic of the Obsessive Compulsive mind. Bailey communicates with self-deprecating wit, balanced with honest communication about the pain of coping. Or trying to. This is an excellent book.