Devil In the Details

Thus far, I have found my non-fiction literary work to be quite fascinating, for it is an autobiography written by Jennifer Traig that tells the story of young girl who struggled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The author struggled with a particularly severe form of the disorder, scrupulosity, commonly know as scruples, that made it very difficult for her to cope with everyday life. She was raised as a Jewish girl in a household with a Catholic mother and a Jewish father who did not practice his faith, but Jennifer did. She found a place for her religion in her illness, for she often obsessed over the laws in the bible as a way to cleanse herself and bring structure and order to her life; however, she did not find much support for this lifestyle in a home where her parents and sister did not keep kosher or observe the Sabbath as she did.

In the opening scene of the novel, the reader is taken to a place where Jennifer has hit rock bottom and realizes that this disease has ruined her life, but she suddenly flashes back to her early childhood and allows us to follow her through a series of events that mark the progression of her disease. This allows those of us who do not battle scrupulosity to understand how the disease can creep up unnoticed by family and friends, for it describes the ways in which the author tried to hide her odd behavior and the shame she felt for performing such rituals.

At the end of each chapter, there is an insert that presents and impossible challenge to the reader, and helps explain why it is so difficult to live with OCD. For I have been given detailed information of the proper way to wash ones hands and not become infected with germs instantly, which as we all know is not possible, and I have been given a guide to understand which chairs in my house are not "safe" to sit in, this includes all of them for one reason or another.

Although I am less than half way through this book, I am beginning to understand the author's purpose, for this book has opened my eyes to what life is like with OCD, except for the fact that to me this is just a book, and I can escape from reading about the world of rituals and rules as soon as I close the pages. I am not forced to live under these conditions as many people struggle to do, for this book clearly demonstrates that OCD is not a term to be used for someone who likes things particularly neat and orderly, but rather a serious and debilitating disorder that plagues millions of people and makes daily life difficult if not impossible to cope with.