Science Illustrated

OCD: OBSESSIONS HOLD THE BRAIN HOSTAGE

For as long as she can remember, 28-year-old British journalist and author Lily Bailey has had two voices inside her head: Lily’s own inner voice, and a second unpleasant and insistent voice that she has named “Her”.

“Her” is no pleasure to have onboard. Like an angry sergeant from a military training camp, she is constantly issuing orders. “Count your sleeping sister Ella’s heartbeats and number of breaths over and over again, or she will die!” was one of the frequent orders Lily received when she was a child.

As she became a teenager, ‘Her’, the unpleasant resident in her head, gained even more control of Lily’s thoughts.

“I had bizarre ideas about being able to cause internal bleeding in people by touching them lightly, or to kill somebody by just thinking of them,” she told

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