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The Story Of A Young Courageous Man Who Persevered Over Ocd And The Harvard Doctor Who Broke All The Rules To Help Him
William Morrow
April 2009
On Sale: April 1, 2009
256 pages
ISBN: 0061561533
EAN: 9780061561535
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Biography
"Time equals progressionβ progression equals death." The equation is logical. But few of us think of each moment and each physical movement as comprising a path to our certain end. Surely such torture would drive us mad. But for Ed Zine, who suffers from a debilitating form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), this statement is a mantra that holds him prisonerβfiguratively and literally. Ed's OCD tells him, illogically, that if going forward in time moves him closer to death, reversing the action will carry him away from it, and if he can hold back the progression of time he will not age. If he doesn't age, the people he loves will never die. This obsession, triggered by the horrific experience of having secretly witnessed his mother's death at the age of eleven, keeps him trapped in a nightmare of perpetual rewinding rituals. Walking from his bed to the bathroom takes seven to ten hours and 16,384 precise, but necessary, movements forward and backward, with each step and turn having potentially dire, even fatal, consequencesβor so his OCD convinces him. The tens of thousands of exacting rituals stop him from showering altogether for two years, as he lives isolated in the chaos of a basement littered with refuse and human waste. But the filth in which Ed lives and the placement of the things he hoardsβfrom a tiny ball of lint to an unopened bar of soap to an unwashed pair of sweatpantsβall represent important placeholders of time in the grand scheme of irrationally keeping his loved ones alive and well. It would be a full year from their first meeting before Ed would come to fully trust world-renowned OCD specialist, Harvard professor, and decorated Vietnam War hero Michael Jenike enough to allow him to enter the dark prison created by his isolating obsession. Breaking the rules of traditional medicine, Michael, who was carrying emotional scars from his own traumatic past, from the loss of too many young men Ed's age with whom he served in the war, would travel many long hours from Boston to Ed's home, and spend countless hours treating him. Finally, with all treatments exhausted, and all hope lost, the unconditional friendship between Ed and Michael remains. The bond of honor that intertwines their lives enables Ed to use his amazing mind to break down OCD and heal himself as a way to reward Dr. Jenike for his compassion.
 Media BuzzDr. Phil - July 10, 2009
Talk of the Nation - May 13, 2009
Inside Edition - April 15, 2009
Good Morning America - April 14, 2009
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