Wednesday, we're talking about your compulsions. Everyone has them. Maybe you're a neat freak, or maybe it's exercise. But compulsions don't necessarily mean your brain is broken. In fact, they're a perfectly natural response to anxiety.
You may have said this before … a lot of us do … “I’m completely OCD.” Though doubling back to make sure you locked the doors and turned off the coffee maker or constantly reaching for your phone to check for text and other alerts may not be signs of clinical Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, science writer Sharon Begley says that compulsion is a way of coping with our daily anxieties. Begley joins Doug to talk about the neuroscience of compulsion, and why we “Can’t Just Stop.” (Rebroadcast)
Sharon Begley is a senior writer at STAT. the life sciences publication of The Boston Globe. She's the author of four books. This latest is called Can't Just Stop: An Investigation of Compulsions [Indie bookstores|
Amazon|Audible]
