This book is a meditation on what is unique about an OCD person's inner life, sensitivity, and strengths. The author explains that many OCD sufferers don't improve through exposure therapy and other traditional approaches, and he suggests that these therapies can fail patients by treating OCD and intrusive thoughts as random, meaningless garbage, rather than delving into the patient's personality and life history in a way that helps them make meaning out of their experiences and value their strengths.

In my experience, my intrusive thoughts WERE random, meaningless garbage, and exposure therapy worked extremely well. Parts of this book seemed off-putting to me at first, since delving into my internal life and trying to psychoanalyze meaning behind my mental issues for years and years just made things worse. Still, I tried to read this with an open mind, knowing that it can be helpful for people with different OCD experiences.

The author incorporates personal stories, case studies about other people, information from the history of psychology, and various literary and pop culture references. The book offers lots of examples to relate to, and highlights ways that OCD may be a messenger or provide some kind of support, rather than just being a random intrusion. For example, someone who struggles to set boundaries may let their OCD speak for them, and may struggle to work through their OCD because they're dependent on being able to get out of things because of their OCD. Without digging further, someone may not be able to recover with standard therapies that ignore the deeper issues going on.

Each chapter includes reflection exercises and ideas for how to handle different things, with the hope that some of these different approaches and different ways of seeing things will help someone have a breakthrough in accepting themselves and making the most of their unique brain. The strengths-based approach will resonate with people who feel broken because of their OCD, but if someone is looking for a more targeted treatment plan, they need to know that this book is very meditative, broad, and general, focusing on big ideas and individual examples without diffusing everything into clear action steps.

I found this book interesting, but would mainly recommend it to people who are already very well-versed in OCD literature and have experience with it. Parts of this may be confusing to people who don't have a strong handle on the subject, and this book could also discourage people from pursuing traditional therapies they haven't tried yet, instead of giving them a chance first.

Although I appreciate the author's efforts to reach people who have already been through treatments without success, someone who is new to dealing with OCD is better off starting with other approaches to see if they work. On this note, I felt that the author was overly dismissive of other books and resources about OCD, making it sound like none of them acknowledge the uniqueness and potential benefits of an OCD mind. I disagree. Even books that solely view OCD as a pathology still mention that OCD patients tend to be highly sensitive, creative, caring, morally driven people who can harness these strengths in their recovery process.

Overall, I found this book unique and interesting, and it was definitely worth reading and pondering. Parts of this book don't resonate with my experiences, and I can't speak to how helpful this would be for someone who hasn't found improvement through standard OCD treatments, but I would recommend this to people who would like to read a strengths-based book that helps them view OCD in a different way.

As someone with OCD, whose daughter has OCD and who works with adolescents with OCD, I feel like I can honestly say this is the first book of its kind! I love how it blended the science with the art; the therapy with the raw emotion. Dr. Alcee's book accomplished exactly what it sought out to do--to acknowledge the 'difficult' parts about OCD, but also claim (or reclaim) the beautiful parts that make the OCD brain so wonderfully unique. I was able to read this eARC but will purchase this hardcopy for my bookshelves so that others can enjoy the hope this book offers when they feel overwhelmed by flood that OCD can so often bring. Thank you to the author, publishing company and to Netgalley for this advanced e-copy. I was provided this ARC in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this perspective from a clinical psychologist as a lot of the literature around OCD is quite similar. While it's a debilitating disorder, it was nice to look at the positive traits it can bring and ways it can be utilised to better live alongside it.

The Upside of OCD is well-written and well-thought, and balances academic/technical writing and information with more casual, reader-friendly writing styles and content. I cannot fully comment on the tips and advice, though they read sound and inspiring and I will recommend this to my loved ones with OCD.
The highlight of this book for me was, in general, Alcee’s balanced and realistic, yet positive perspective and approach.

Such a great and unique guide for those dealing with OCD to see it from a different perspective and gain insight into how it can be turned into a positive.