Obsessive compulsive disorder affects thousands of people in the UK. Written by an experienced practitioner, this booklet explains what OCD is & how it makes you feel. It will help the reader to understand their symptoms & is ideal as an immediate coping strategy & as a preliminary to fuller therapy.
The book did what it was supposed to do. The information was easy to take in and understand. I wouldn’t call it surface-level, but it definitely felt like something you could find on the second page of Google.
That said, I wasn’t expecting more than this. I’m glad this book exists. It’s good at what it aims to be, a simple introduction. Some chapters were genuinely good and very well written.
1. Practical Usefulness: 4/5 Helpful if you’re new to OCD and want a basic understanding without feeling overwhelmed.
2. Clarity & Simplicity: 4/5 The writing is easy to follow and the ideas are explained clearly.
3. Evidence / Research Backing: 3/5 The information feels solid, but nothing really stands out as deep or surprising.
4. Actionability (Can you apply it easily?): 3/5 You can take away a few useful insights, but it’s not very hands-on.
5. Originality (New ideas vs recycled fluff): 2.5/5 Most of it felt familiar, like content you’ve already seen online.
6. Writing Style / Tone: 4/5 Not preachy or condescending, and some chapters were genuinely well written.
7. Long-Term Value: 3/5 Good as a starting point, but not something you’ll keep coming back to.
As this states in the title, this is only a basic introduction. However, it covers the broadness of OCD quite well. It gives basic definitions of different aspects of OCD, examples and ways to combat obsessive thoughts and behaviours.
Not bad, it did cover the basics of OCD very well and provided some methods to try to break the cycle a bit. I figured it would’ve went just a bit more in depth of the different types of OCD and how it affects people. However, great book to hand to someone who has no idea how OCD actually works as there’s misconceptions about it.