David
AdamHow did your OCD start?
My OCD is on a very specific thought of HIV
and AIDS. I was a child of the ’80s, when
there was a great deal of information about
how dangerous AIDS was. It started with
these alien thoughts about whether I could
have caught AIDS from a girl I hadn’t had
sex with. It sounds silly and yet, when that
thought doesn’t go away, you start to take
it more seriously and you start checking
and asking people as a way to make it
disappear.Have scientists pinpointed a part of the
brain that’s linked to OCD?
Yes, but in quite vague terms. They’ve
found a part of the brain that seems to show
abnormal activity in people with OCD: a very
old, deep part called the basal ganglia. This
region holds the programs for very rapid,
almost instinctual responses and there’s
a theory that something could go wrong
here – that it hyperstimulates or that you
can’t control it well enough. There’s also
some evidence that ritualistic behaviour in
animals such as dogs and mice is linked to
the basal ganglia.Is there any treatment for OCD?
It’s only really since the ’80s that we’ve
developed an understanding of how it
can be treated. We’re now at the point
where there are two basic treatments. One
is drugs, and the other is what’s called
‘cognitive behavioural therapy’. This can
involve stimulating the sufferer’s anxiety in a
safe environment. The idea is that once the
person recognises that the anxiety will go
away by itself, they won’t feel the need to
perform the ritual.ELAINE FOX is Professor of Cognitive & Affective
Psychology at Oxford University and the author of
Rainy Brain Sunny BrainMEET THE AUTHOR
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A feast for the mind
Early on in this book David Adam claims
that most of us have around 4,000
thoughts a day. These mind wanderings
are, for the most part, inconsequential:
thoughts of what to have for lunch, what
to buy, what to do at the weekend. Others
are more intrusive. ‘Do I look fat?’ ‘I’m
never going to pass that exam.’ ‘People
don’t like me.’ These hard-to-shake
intrusions are the bread and butter of the
whirlwind of negativity that captivates the
depressive mind.
But, as illustrated beautifully in this
book, nothing tops the insidious and
vicious inventiveness of the mind taken
over by obsessive-compulsive disorder:
OCD. This is the human mind in all its
complexity turning in on itself and
wreaking havoc, surreptitiously
convincing its prey that its obsession is
bound to happen.
In David Adam’s case, the obsession
was his conviction that he would catch
AIDS. He knew it was irrational, he knew
it was highly unlikely – but there’s the
rub: ‘highly unlikely’ not ‘impossible’.
That was the crack through which OCD
could squeeze. And so began – in 1991- an escalating obsession that led to a
multitude of compulsions in an equally
irrational attempt to quell the disturbing
and intrusive thoughts that stormed
through his head.
Since his obsession began, he tells us,
life went on autopilot. While he was
‘up-front and central’, his mind was now
elsewhere. ‘I looked the part and smiled at
the passengers, but something else was
flying the plane.’ The Man Who Couldn’t
Stop is a captivating first-person account of
how a blizzard of unwanted thoughts can
become a personal nightmare. At times
shocking, at times tragic, at times
unbelievably funny, it is a wonderful read.
A science writer, Adam has an eye for a
good study, bringing even the driest of
experiments to life. He takes us on a
journey through the history of OCD,
providing an up-to-date and accurate
account of the current scientific under-
standing of this devastating condition. As a
psychologist, I am familiar with much of
the science he discusses. But he describes
studies, old and new, in a fresh way,
invigorating them with personal tales and
haunting anecdotes.
This book will appeal to all those
who are fascinated by the human mind
and its unending ability to delight and
to torment.“In David Adam’s
case, the obsession
was his conviction
that he would catch
AIDS”
The Man Who
Couldn’t Stop
OCD, And The True Story
Of A Life Lost In Thought
David Adam
PicadorPHOTO: PUBLIC LIBRARY OF SCIENCE/WIKIPEDIA COMMONS