Because We Are Bad

<p><strong>A <em>Washington Post </em>Best Book of the Year</strong></p><p><strong>One of the best [books] I have read on the phenomenology of OCD. </strong>--<strong>Scott Stossel the <em>Washington Post </em></strong></p><p><strong>Written with the indelible power of <em>Girl Interrupted Brain on Fire</em> and <em>Reasons to Stay Alive </em> a lyrical poignant memoir by a young woman about her childhood battle with debilitating obsessive compulsive disorder and her hard-won journey to recovery.</strong></p><p>By the age of thirteen Lily Bailey was convinced she was bad. She had killed someone with a thought spread untold disease and ogled the bodies of other children. Only by performing an exhausting series of secret routines could she make up for what she'd done. But no matter how intricate or repetitive no act of penance was ever enough.</p><p>Beautifully written and astonishingly intimate <em>Because We Are Bad</em> recounts a childhood consumed by obsessive compulsive disorder. As a child Bailey created a second personality inside herself--I became we--to help manifest compulsions that drove every minute of every day of her young life. Now she writes about the forces beneath her skin and how they ordered organized and urged her forward. Lily charts her journey from checking on her younger sister dozens of times a night to normalizing herself at school among new friends as she grew older and finally to her young adult years learning--indeed breaking through--to make a way for herself in a big wide world that refuses to stay in check.</p><p>Charming and raw harrowing and redemptive <em>Because We Are Bad</em> is an illuminating and uplifting look into the mind and soul of an extraordinary young woman and a startling portrait of OCD that allows us to see and understand this condition as never before.</p>