About 40% of people with obsessive compulsive disorder struggle, as I do, with contamination anxiety. Balancing the need to sanitize a home in pandemic times with the need to tame OCD can be tricky.
For Wilson, Tourette's syndrome means living with intrusive thoughts that flash disturbing images without warning. His novel, Nothing to See Here, was inspired by visions of spontaneous combustion.
Deep brain stimulation offers relief from some neurological problems and is being tested for mood disorders. But the treatment — an implant in the brain — raises ethical questions.
"It starts out with one little thought, and then slowly that becomes the only thought that you're able to have," Green says. His new novel, Turtles All The Way Down, is about a teenage girl with OCD.
Since childhood, humor writer Jenny Lawson has struggled with mental health issues. In her latest book, Furiously Happy, she explains what it means to fight back with spiteful happiness.