Jul 29, 2026 · 1 hr 8 min · 13 segments
John Andrew Bryant on the experience of OCD, Christian readings of “mental illness,” and why it might be important to think about mental health challenges without leaning overmuch on psychiatric and…
John Andrew BryantGuest
Zach MikkelHost
So, I mean, you talk really openly in the book about kind of your own struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder, as we've already talked about.
But I wonder like, how would you describe OCD to someone who kind of only knows the stereotypes, right? To someone who, when they think of OCD, they think of like, adrian monk or howie mendel and they think that it's they they think especially in particular about kind of uh physical compo like compulsions right um which are a facet for a lot of people but it's obviously a much broader and more complicated uh uh kind of condition than than that of course so um maybe a different way to put the question is like how would you describe sort of the experience of living with OCD to someone who has not experienced it or who hasn't kind of knowingly experienced it at least?
I think that I rely, I still rely and maybe over rely on metaphor because I think it changes the landscape.
Yeah, the stereotype of OCD that I know it is like it makes you quirky and good at things.
But the landscape is I just the best metaphor that makes sense with the lived experience of people.
As I said, have you ever been in a car that you had to drive? but the car alarm's going off and you can't stop it.
Your car doesn't know it because the alarm's going off, but you have to still drive this thing.
Like, so I just say like, whatever your brain, like the things in our brain that go, hey, watch out, there's trouble.
Or hey, like, The three things my brain would say is like, you know, something's off, something's wrong or that I'm in trouble.
So, I mean, you talk really openly in the book about kind of your own struggles with obsessive compulsive disorder, as we've already talked about.
But I wonder like, how would you describe OCD to someone who kind of only knows the stereotypes, right? To someone who, when they think of OCD, they think of like, adrian monk or howie mendel and they think that it's they they think especially in particular about kind of uh physical compo like compulsions right um which are a facet for a lot of people but it's obviously a much broader and more complicated uh uh kind of condition than than that of course so um maybe a different way to put the question is like how would you describe sort of the experience of living with OCD to someone who has not experienced it or who hasn't kind of knowingly experienced it at least?
I think that I rely, I still rely and maybe over rely on metaphor because I think it changes the landscape.
Yeah, the stereotype of OCD that I know it is like it makes you quirky and good at things.
But the landscape is I just the best metaphor that makes sense with the lived experience of people.
As I said, have you ever been in a car that you had to drive? but the car alarm's going off and you can't stop it.
Your car doesn't know it because the alarm's going off, but you have to still drive this thing.
Like, so I just say like, whatever your brain, like the things in our brain that go, hey, watch out, there's trouble.
Or hey, like, The three things my brain would say is like, you know, something's off, something's wrong or that I'm in trouble.
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