Family Illness

Family Illness is a realistic fictional piece of work written to give mature readers a sense of what it is like for someone to grow up afflicted with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Steve the main character suffers as a child in the 1980s growing up in a secular Jewish household. He has lots of physical and verbal tics while in school but lives in fear that his secret living with a mental illness in a hostile world will be revealed. As Steve grows up into a young adult his illness plays tricks on him making him question every moral aspect of his life. His fears intensify at the same time as he learns that a family member has OCD as well. This encourages Steve to fight back but he wonders if he has lost too much of his life to the disease.