“You are not alone” is often something I say, or write, when discussing mental health struggles, but it also makes me laugh because it sounds a bit ominous, too, like maybe I should turn around and look behind me. I think that’s also the look I often get (ominous) when trying to explain Harm OCD to people who’ve never heard of it before. Somewhere in their head they must be thinking, Wait, someone can have intrusive thoughts that they feel they can’t stop–sometimes even very violent thoughts that scare them–and not be violent themselves?
“Yep! Absolutely, and it’s so much more common than you think!” The same mechanism that causes a person to check the same door lock repeatedly or wash their hands until they bleed can cause a thought to loop until the person is in tears. I tell people this at book signings all the time. Intrusive thoughts are actually quite common among true OCD sufferers–not the clichéd stereotyped version of OCD we hear about all too often. We need to be able to talk about our mental health struggles so no one has to suffer in isolation, thinking they are the only ones dealing with these things. Let’s check in with each other, listen longer, and be a little slower to judge. Most of us are going through something we aren’t talking about.
In fact, this month I’m happy to introduce you to some different books from authors who’ve expressed their struggles and how they dealt with them in creative ways. My friend Tara Rocker talks candidly about her challenges with depression in her book My Sweet Home Georgia Cookbook. You can cook up some amazing recipes and gain courage from her honesty about what her path forward looked like. To learn more head to taradeloachrocker.com
Beverly Armento has written a multi-award winning memoir titled Seeing Eye Girl. As the “Seeing Eye Girl” for her blind, artistic, and mentally ill mother, Beverly Armento was intimately connected with and responsible for her, even though her mother physically and emotionally abused her. She was Strong Beverly at school—excellent in academics and mentored by caring teachers—but at home she was Weak Beverly, cowed by her mother’s rage and delusions. To learn more head to beverlyarmentoauthor.com
If you’re looking for fiction books having to do with mental health, Tara Allred offers just that with Sander’s Starfish. Dr. John Sanders is about to begin his career as a clinical psychologist. Full of optimism, he believes he can make a difference and is eager to provide hope to a group the world has deemed hopeless. Yet in John’s quest to offer those in his care a second chance, he embarks on his own journey of self-discovery. In his search, clear answers become scrambled confusion while the unimaginable truth is trapped in a complex web. To learn more head to taracallred.net
And finally, Nicholas, in my urban fantasy Nicholas Eternal is struggling with his mental health when the story opens. He is in as much need of saving as the children he has been tasked for an eternity with saving. I’d always wanted to write a hero who was so absolutely human and relatable that the more we peeled back the layers, the less you saw a powerful immortal and the more you saw a simple man, as scared and flawed as we all are, perhaps more so because so much more is expected of him. Too much really, but doesn’t it feel that way for must of us, much of the time?
To learn more about Kim’s fiction head to Kimconrey.com
Be well and hang in there, my friends. People you haven’t even met yet care about you and want you to succeed.
Here are some great resources if you or someone you know is in need of help:
NAMI National Alliance on Mental Illness
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
IOCDF International Obsessive Compulsive Foundation
Harm OCD: You Are Not Alone 