Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

***AS FEATURED ON NPRS TALK OF THE NATION***. Imagine the worst thing in the world. Picture it. Construct it carefully and deliberately in your mind. Be careful not to omit anything. Imagine it happening to you to the people you love. Imagine the worst thing in the world. . Now try not to think about it. . This is what it is like for Fletcher Wortmann. In his brilliant memoir the author takes us on an intimate journey across the psychological landscape of OCD known as the doubting disorder as populated by God girls and apocalyptic nightmares. Wortmann unflinchingly reveals the elaborate series of psychological rituals he constructs as preventative measures to ward off the end times as well as his learning to cope with intrusive thoughts through Clockwork Orange-like trigger therapy.. But even more than this the author emerges as a preternatural talent as he unfolds a kaleidoscope of culture high and low ranging from his obsessions with David Bowie X-Men and Pokemon to an eclectic education shaped by Shakespeare Kierkegaard Catholic mysticism Christian comic books and the collegiate dating scene at the Peoples Republic of Swarthmore. . Triggered is a pitch-perfect memoir; a touching triumphantly funny compulsively readable and ultimately uplifting coming-of-age tale for Generation Anxiety.. Fletcher Wortmann on OCD and sex:. If a girl accepts an invitation to help count the tiles on your bedroom ceiling then she will probably be disappointed when she realizes you were speaking literally.. …on OCD and religion:. I have found Catholicism and obsessive compulsive disorder to be deeply sympathetic to one another. One is a repressive construct founded in existential terror barely restrained by complex arbitrary ritual behaviors; the other is an anxiety disorder.. …on OCD humor:. By the sink I noticed a perfunctory sign warning readers to wash their hands. It was scrawled with graffiti: NO YOU CANT GERMS ARE UNPREVENTABLE AND INESCAPABLE.. …on the seductiveness of OCD:. Every so often everything will work and you will somehow convince yourself that you are safe and the disorder will claim credit. I had struck a bargain with the OCD. The transaction was complete. In that moment I became subservient to it.