The moving story of a girl struggling with OCD—the bully hijacking her brain—who gets the help she needs to push back.Josie arrives at Bryce Haven Psychiatric Hospital sure that she’s a bad person and a bad friend. She must be, because her brain constantly yells at her for not being good enough. It tells her she needs to be perfect or else she’ll be alone and miserable forever. She’s so overwhelmed with worries about bad things happening as punishment for her imperfections that she sometimes feels compelled to punish herself.
Then, when Josie gets discharged and returns home, she’s forced to deal with Hal—the mean, smelly bully of a goat her dad is goat-sitting. Hal has a bad habit of climbing where he shouldn’t and refusing to get out of the way.
When Josie’s therapist diagnoses her with OCD, describing it as a bully in her brain, Josie denies it. Surely her brain is just trying to be helpful . . . right? But eventually, she begins to see that her OCD bears a striking resemblance to Hal, so maybe she shouldn’t feel guilty about wanting to kick it out. With her therapist’s help and the support of her dad and friends, Josie might finally be ready to stand up to the bully in her brain.
The moving, heartbreaking, ultimately hopeful story of a young girl struggling with anxiety and OCD—the bully “hijacking” her brain—and getting the help she needs to start her road to recovery.
Josie arrives at Bryce Haven Psychiatric Hospital knowing she’s a bad person and a bad friend. She knows because her brain constantly berates her for not being good enough. It tells her she needs to be perfect—and if she’s not, she'll be alone and miserable forever. Josie is so overwhelmed with worries about bad things happening as punishment for her imperfections, she often feels compelled to punish herself.
After Josie is discharged and returns home, she's annoyed to find Hal—the mean, smelly, bully of a goat her dad sometimes goatsits—is back. Hal has a bad habit of getting in the way by climbing on things and trying to block access.
When Josie's therapist diagnoses her with OCD and describes it as a bully in her brain, Josie denies it. Surely her brain is just trying to be helpful . . . right? But eventually, Josie begins to recognize her OCD as the bossy Hal-the-goat-like resident of her head that it is. And with her therapist’s encouragement, the right medications, and the support of her dad and some good friends, Josie might finally be ready to start standing up to the bully in her brain.
