Triggered: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Imagine the worst thing in the world. Picture it. Construct it, carefully and deliberately, in your mind. Be careful not to omit anything. Imagine it happening to you, to the people you love. Imagine the worst thing in the world.

Now try not to think about it.

This is what life is like for Fletcher Wortmann. Triggered takes us on an intimate journey across the psychological landscape of OCD, known as the “doubting disorder,” as populated by God, girls, and apocalyptic nightmares. Wortmann unflinchingly reveals the elaborate series of psychological rituals he constructs as preventative measures to ward off the end times, as well as his learning to cope with intrusive thoughts through Clockwork Orange-like “trigger” therapy.

A kaleidoscope of culture high and low unfolds, ranging from Wortmann’s obsessions with David Bowie, X-Men, and Pokemon, to an eclectic education shaped by Shakespeare, Kierkegaard, Catholic mysticism, Christian comic books, and the collegiate dating scene at the “People’s Republic of Swarthmore.”

Triggered is a touching, triumphantly funny, compulsively readable, and ultimately uplifting coming-of-age tale for Generation Anxiety.

“Jack Kerouac’s On the Road for OCD and the 21st century.”

-- Jonathan Grayson, Ph.D.

Author of Freedom From Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Listen to Fletch on NPR's "Talk of the Nation"

Triggered received 3 ½ out of 4 stars from People magazine

One of Booklist's Top 10 Science and Health Books of 2012

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