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

By Lily Bailey

Book Overview

A Washington Post Best Book of 2018

"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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062696165
• ISBN13: 9780062696168
• Release Date: April 2018
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.06 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

One woman’s journey

Lily had no way to know what she was living was not typical. As she grew, she began to understand, but not without a hard battle. I loved this book (listened to on audio). I loved it enough to buy a physical copy to read and make notes in. I can relate to some degree, and it is liberating to know I’m not alone!