Pure

By: Rose Cartwright

Narrated by: Charly Clive

Rose Cartwright has OCD, but not as you know it. Pure is the true story of her 10-year struggle with ‘Pure O’, a little-known form of the condition, which causes her to experience intrusive sexual thoughts of shocking intensity. It is a brave and frequently hilarious account of a woman who refused to give up, despite being undermined at every turn by her obsessions and enduring years of misdiagnosis and failed therapies.

Eventually, the love of family and friends, and Rose’s own courage and sense of humour prevailed, inspiring this deeply felt and beautifully written memoir. At its core is a lesson for all of us: when it comes to being happy with who we are, there are no neat conclusions.

©2016 Rose Cartwright (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

Enlightening, thoughtful

Excellent book; the author's warmth and love come through this tale of pain. Relatable to those of us with OCD, even if it's of another stripe. Enlightening to the uninitiated, I'm sure.

Where was this book when I was a teen?!

I am thrilled this book exists. If I had had this when I was a teenager. struggling with horrible sexual and violent intrusive thoughts that exhausted me and made me feel like a freak, then it would have helped me so much. It would have helped me to feel normal, and it would have shown me how to deal with my thoughts.

So much of this book resonated with me, from the way she ruminates on every bit of evidence that she might be gay, to the way she rationalized everything to mean thr worst possible thing, to her account of her Eureka moment when she read the Wikipedia article on "Intrusive Thoughts." I have done every single one of those things, and none of her experiences listed in this book came as a shock to me.

It was helpful, though, to hear what she'd learned from therapy and from herself. The prime takeaway from therapy was this: compulsions makes obsessions worse. If there is any bit of negative remarks I could make about the book, it would be that this was the only effective advice she shared from therapy, as if it was the one answer to the whole problem.

I appreciate that she said this anxiety is something she'll have to live with forever, and deal with rather than cure. So I understand that the book doesn't include a "solution" to the problem. I hope that Rose gets more answers in her continued therapy. and I hope she shares her progress with us in a follow-up.

Ms Cartwright, if you read this, I just want to say thank you. I am a bit further along in my pure o journey than a lot of people (19 years now), but even I found help in it. I can only imagine the tears and gratitude from someone who feels lost and doesn't know what to make of it. For people like that (my younger self), this book is a warm arm reaching around their shoulder, telling then they'll be all right.

And the narrator, Charly Clive, is phenomenal. What a great voice, and a great delivery.