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Ctrl Alt Repeat: A family's struggle to reclaim life hacked by OCD
This is not your usual fairy tale that begins with ‘once upon a time’ and ends with ‘and they lived happily ever after’. In fact, this is not a fairly tale at all. This is a story of my family’s fight with obsessive-compulsive disorder, OCD for short. Through this book, you will get a glimpse of what goes on behind closed doors in a family where one member is affected by OCD.
Research says roughly 2-3 percent of the people have or will develop some form of OCD. That is 1 out of every 30 people. So, if you have 500 followers on Instagram or Facebook, roughly 15 of them could have OCD. OCD can attack kids, grownups, old people, men, women alike. To our misfortune, it struck my wife, Sonal. It brought out the worst in her since she was under its complete control. That brought out the worst in me because I could see excesses on the part of Sonal that I could not understand and could not deal with maturely.
Sonal’s OCD was tenacious, unbeatable, indefatigable. No adjective can do justice to describe the disorder effectively. We have been having a tug o’ war with it for many years now, and for the better part of the game, it has been winning. We have been relentlessly fighting it together, egging each other on, sometimes losing hope, at other times springing back into action. Our peace of mind, happiness, the joys of connubial bliss, the joys of parenthood – all expropriated, all sacrificed at the altar of the disorder. We continue to slog in our efforts to break the OCD monster’s back, which we hope to achieve someday. This story is about our travails.
I am Sunil Punjabi. I am a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy practitioner, focusing on Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD. I gave up my career in the media and advertising space and became a practitioner to help my wife through her OCD. I have a doctorate (DBA) from California where my dissertation focused on understanding how high-performing people with OCD can find more inclusion in the mainstream at the workplace - a topic aimed at reducing the stigma associated with OCD. I have a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology and certificates in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Life Coaching. Through the knowledge and experience gained in the field, I am also in the process of writing a series of self-help books for dealing with different manifestations of OCD. Through this book I aim to present an insider’s perspective on how debilitating OCD can be.
Research says roughly 2-3 percent of the people have or will develop some form of OCD. That is 1 out of every 30 people. So, if you have 500 followers on Instagram or Facebook, roughly 15 of them could have OCD. OCD can attack kids, grownups, old people, men, women alike. To our misfortune, it struck my wife, Sonal. It brought out the worst in her since she was under its complete control. That brought out the worst in me because I could see excesses on the part of Sonal that I could not understand and could not deal with maturely.
Sonal’s OCD was tenacious, unbeatable, indefatigable. No adjective can do justice to describe the disorder effectively. We have been having a tug o’ war with it for many years now, and for the better part of the game, it has been winning. We have been relentlessly fighting it together, egging each other on, sometimes losing hope, at other times springing back into action. Our peace of mind, happiness, the joys of connubial bliss, the joys of parenthood – all expropriated, all sacrificed at the altar of the disorder. We continue to slog in our efforts to break the OCD monster’s back, which we hope to achieve someday. This story is about our travails.
I am Sunil Punjabi. I am a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy practitioner, focusing on Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD. I gave up my career in the media and advertising space and became a practitioner to help my wife through her OCD. I have a doctorate (DBA) from California where my dissertation focused on understanding how high-performing people with OCD can find more inclusion in the mainstream at the workplace - a topic aimed at reducing the stigma associated with OCD. I have a Masters degree in Clinical Psychology and certificates in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Life Coaching. Through the knowledge and experience gained in the field, I am also in the process of writing a series of self-help books for dealing with different manifestations of OCD. Through this book I aim to present an insider’s perspective on how debilitating OCD can be.
255 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 16, 2022
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 29, 2022
Very articulate and emotional! Engaging and sincere. It's an inspiring story of a family who battled a mental disorder and did not give up despite overwhelming odds.
June 8, 2022
I could see the authenticity and thoroughness required while writing such a delicate subject. :)
September 6, 2024
i’ve never finished a book in one sitting before (2 hours, to be exact), but this one was an exception. it’s so beautifully written, despite beginning and ending on a somber note (it’s based on a true story, just so you know). the story is sad and heavy, but absolutely worth reading. the patience and care with which everything is handled are remarkable and rare. i never imagined a real-life account of ocd could become one of my favorite books, but it did.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews