Shelf Help - OCD

A beautiful, funny and heart-wrenching story of love, brokenness and the purest form of bravery: giving in and asking for help. When Adam meets Robyn at a support group for kids coping with obsess​ive compulsive disorder, he is drawn to her almost before he can take a breath. He's d​determined​ to protect and defend her, to play Batman to her Robyn, whatever the cost. But when you're fourteen and the everyday problems of dealing with divorced parents and step-siblings are supplemented by the challenges of OCD, it's hard to imagine yourself falling in love.

Part of the Reading Well scheme. 35 books selected by young people and health professionals to provide 13 to 18 year olds with high-quality support, information and advice about common mental health issues and related conditions. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a potentially life-long debilitating disorder, which often emerges during teenage years and affects as many as 1 in every 50 people. Young people living with OCD experience recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are distressing and interfere with their social lives, relationships, educational functioning and careers. Written by leading experts on OCD, this step-by-step guide is written for adolescents with OCD and their families, to be used in home treatment or as a self-help book. Using the principles of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which is the proven method for helping those with OCD, it offers teenagers a structured plan of treatment which can be read alone, or with a parent, counsellor or mental health worker. The guide provides useful advice and worksheets throughout.

As many as 2 in every 100 people suffer from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and 16-year-old Joe Wells is one of them. In Touch and Go Joe, he tells the story of his battle with OCD from its insidious beginnings at age 9 and increasingly intrusive symptoms, to diagnosis at age 12. Having struggled to keep the condition a secret for years, he is now able to talk and write openly about OCD and how he battled to overcome it. This book is packed with advice and coping strategies, as well as first-hand accounts of available treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy and medication. Written in an informal and accessible style, and including his own humorous illustrations, Touch and Go Joe gives an upbeat yet realistic look at the effect of OCD on adolescent life.