Learn more about mentalhealth with this collection
How to set boundaries to protect your energy
How to cultivate positive energy
Why rest and recovery are important
Marianne Eloise’s brain operates differently from those of “neurotypicals”. Once the “weird” child both at school and at home, she has lived in an embattled emotional state for as long as she can remember, with repeated episodes of debilitating anxiety and depression.
She has also suffered from anorexia nervosa. When she was a child, few adults cared to understand what was behind her distress. Her difficulties remain complex, but her memoir rallies hope.
3
18 reads
MORE IDEAS ON THIS
She divides her book into three sections, on “obsessive”, “intrusive” and “magical” thought, drawing on extensive research and interweaving personal reflections and amusing asides.
Making order out of the chaos of her mind is important to her fragile sense of safety in the world, but she d...
3
8 reads
An exploration of the intersection of neurodivergence, obsession and disorder
Obsessive was, still is, my natural state, and I never wondered why. I didn’t mind, didn’t know that other people could feel at peace. I always felt like a raw nerve, but then, I thought that everyone...
3
31 reads
“Without obsession, I have nothing. It’s taken me on journeys across the world in pursuit of things that interest me, and it always wins against the things that I find hard about being alive.”
Eloise, a culture writer and journalist, describes a mind that never switches off. Her lo...
3
13 reads
Her ruminations cluster around specific themes: time, water, fire, nightmares, the city of Los Angeles. Through her fascination with Walt Disney it is revealed that, as a child, Disney stamped an owl to death.
His life’s work perhaps sprang from the associated guilt, but Eloise – as an adu...
3
6 reads
In her late twenties now, she has also been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, nightmare disorder, dyspraxia and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which affects the body’s connective tissues.
“Diagnosis is a lifeline”, she writes. “It empowers me to live the way I need to, to a...
3
11 reads
Obsessive, Intrusive, Magical Thinking is a culmination of a life spend obsessing, offering a glimpse into Marianne’s brain, but also an insight into the lives of others like her. From death to Medusa, to Disneyland to fire, to LA to her dog, the essays explore the intersection of neurodiverg...
3
21 reads
She processes trauma. Her mother, a mental health nurse, suffered too, with a gaze wandering far from her two daughters.Eloise made sporadic efforts to get help in the form of therapy.
“It turns out, though, that if there is an irresponsible adult in your home leaving the gate open...
3
8 reads
Read & Learn
20x Faster
without
deepstash
with
deepstash
with
deepstash
Personalized microlearning
—
100+ Learning Journeys
—
Access to 200,000+ ideas
—
Access to the mobile app
—
Unlimited idea saving
—
—
Unlimited history
—
—
Unlimited listening to ideas
—
—
Downloading & offline access
—
—
Supercharge your mind with one idea per day
Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.
I agree to receive email updates