Advance Praise for The Upside of OCD: Flip the Script to Reclaim Your Life
Rarely does one find a book that combines personal experience and professional wisdom in such an exquisitely written package. Dr. Alcee does just that and more by challenging conventional approaches to OCD with comforting compassion and grace for those who suffer. Sensitive readers will find soft places to linger and exciting ideas that inspire. I will recommend this book for years to come as a harbinger of hope and inspiration to anyone struggling with OCD.
-Gina Simmons Schneider, Ph.D. Author of Frazzlebrain: Break Free from Anxiety, Anger, and Stress Using Advanced Discoveries in Neuropsychology
This book is a game changer for anyone with OCD who is ready to find peace within themselves. Being two yrs post-diagnosis and treatment I feel like I understand the fundamentals of recovery, but this book took me beyond that. After reading it, I find myself being grateful for my sensitivities and mindfully reconnecting with my art - something that OCD took from me. Reclaiming my creativity was a natural outcome of reading this book. Though ERP will always be part of me, I find it centering and motivating to remember the upside. This book requires an open mind and a level of readiness to fully appreciate, but I highly recommend it.
-Kristy Richards, advanced reader who recently posted on Good Reads.
Michael Alcee’s intriguing exploration of OCD’s gifts offers a new perspective on a disorder often simplistically treated as uniformly negative. The Upside of OCD is a provocative read in the best sense and a welcome addition to a growing literature on thriving in an age of flux and angst.
—Maggie Jackson, award-winning author of Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure and Distracted.
Drawing upon his extensive clinical experience and scientific research, as well as his musical creativity, Dr. Michael Alcée has written a most unique and highly compelling re-examination of obsessive-compulsive disorder, exploring not only the burdens of this state of mind but, also, its potential benefits. A hugely clever reframing of this aspect of human psychology, I warmly recommend this book to fellow mental health professionals and, indeed, to all members of the general public!
-Brett Kahr, Senior Fellow at the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology in London in the United Kingdom; Visiting Professor of Psychoanalysis and Mental Health at Regent’s University London; and Honorary Director of Research at the Freud Museum London.
This book is a love letter to OCD sufferers. Offering added depth to the exploration of the OCD experience, The Upside of OCD makes a great companion to evidence-based treatments like ACT and ERP.
— Jill Stoddard, PhD, director of The Center for Stress and Anxiety Management and author of Be Mighty: A Woman’s Guide to Liberation from Anxiety, Worry, and Stress Using Mindfulness and Acceptance
If OCD impacts your life in some way, then this book is a must-read. Bringing together evidence-based research with impactful and often personal stories, Alcée invites us to fundamentally rethink the nature and approaches to OCD. Everyone with OCD should have a wise, insightful champion like Alcée.
— Wendy K. Smith, Dana J. Johnson Professor of Management, University of Delaware
It’s about time somebody brought the human being back into OCD. In this readable and entertaining book, Michael Alcée has put the suffering person at the center of the complex phenomenon we have simplistically reified as ‘OCD.’ His chatty, personal writing style has a serious, scholarly intent. Pitched directly to sufferers, the book reframes, with creativity and verve, the nature, function, and meaning of their symptoms. I recommend it to anyone who has struggled with ruminative thoughts and mandatory actions and also to anyone interested in a refreshingly new exploration of obsessive and compulsive psychology.
— Nancy McWilliams, PhD, ABPP, emerita visiting professor, Rutgers Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology
The subject of neurodiversity is one of the hottest topics out there these days. However, one category that often tends to get overlooked is OCD. Those with OCD know that there is so much more to it than the trivializing cliché of the neat-freak perfectionist and/or the excessive worrier. Having to continuously battle against obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors is painfully difficult and debilitating, as well as socially stigmatizing. But what if the negative and destructive traits typically associated with OCD could be redefined, reimagined, and repositioned as a superpower? In this groundbreaking new book by clinical psychologist Michael Alcee, the author normalizes and humanizes OCD so as to help those who suffer from this affliction to transform it from a source of suffering to a badge of honor and a source of strength. In short, The Upside of OCD helps to lift the cloud of negativity, allowing the sun to shine through, so as to equip and empower OCD sufferers to spread their wings and fly.
-Todd Cherches, CEO & Executive Coach at BigBlueGumball and author of VisuaLeadership: Leveraging the Power of Visual Thinking in Leadership and in Life
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