Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
*Named one ofBooklist's Top 10 Science and Health Books for 2012*"'Consider...at any moment, the end of the world could occur...[Now] prove, with absolute certainty, that this is not true.' In his grimly funny memoir, Wortmann, an actor and comedy writer, describes the heart-thumping panic that came with his obsessive-compulsive disorder. Only adherence to certain elaborate rituals, he believed, could ward off annihilation.Triggeredis key reading for suffferers of this debilitating condition -and for those who want to understand them."—Peoplemagazine(3 1/2 out of 4 stars)"Wortmann writes eloquently about his battles with OCD, constructing dense, dramatic prose to convey even the tiniest observations... his inspiring victories after successful treatment ring true."—Kirkus Reviews“This touching and often quite funny memoir chronicles a young life perennially on the verge of emotional or physical collapse. OCD, Wortmann notes, demands things that the world is unable to give, safety and certainty. He writes about his childhood, the social paralysis that plagued him through his high-school and college years, self-loathing and suicidal impulses, and the time spent at McLean Hospital outside of Boston, the famous psychiatric institution that has treated musician James Taylor and mathematician John Nash, among others. He comments about his “Vicious-and-Spungen-level unhealthy” relationships (as in the Sex Pistols’ Sid Vicious and his out-of-control girlfriend Nancy Spungen) and the strange symbiotic relationship that he finds between his disorder and Catholicism. Though meant to help anyone who suffers from mental illness, Wortman’s chronicle is also intended for the rest of us, as it sheds illuminating light on an often misunderstood and quite mysterious condition.”—Booklist(starred review)"At times horrifying, at times terribly funny...Bravo!"—Janine Latus,New York Timesbestselling author ofIf I Am Missing or Dead“Jack Kerouac'sOn the Roadfor OCD and the 21st century.”—Jonathan Grayson, PhD., author ofFreedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder "Fletcher Wortmann’s memoir,Trigger,is an acid bath of self-revelation and recognition--incisive, sardonic, brutally honest. His defective "better angel" delivers the interior landscape of OCD with rare crystal clarity."—Gregory Frost, Director of Fiction Writing Workshop, Swarthmore College, and author ofShadowbridge“Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorderis for anyone who is or knows someone who is suffering from mental illness of any type. It is well-written by a man who could be writing fiction and mak[es] you laugh or cry depending on the moment.” —Psych Central“This is a fascinating memoir about mental illness. It is neither maudlin nor whinny, but it portrays a life lived under the weight of a serious disease. What surprised me most about the book was the light tone the author chose to tell his story.”—NetGalley"While the events he describes are universal (high school hell, the first kiss, first love, the crippling workload of Swarthmore academics), the complications arising from his disorder are unique, and portrayed with quirky honesty throughout his memoir."—Swarthmore Phoenix