In the interest of not making this about me, I’ll just say that I empathize with anyone who struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, let alone anyone whose life has been completely upended by it the way Timmy Reen’s has. Joseph Goldstein’s feature is no less affecting for its reportorial remove, chronicling how the disease shaped Reen long before the advent of COVID brought things to a breaking point. You’ll be thinking about this story, and particularly its ending, long after you finish reading it.
Mr. Reen’s first O.C.D. crisis in the Fire Department came early: a memorial service at Madison Square Garden to honor firefighters who died in the Sept. 11 attacks. He and the rest of his company rode the train together from Brooklyn. “I had to board the subway in my Class A uniform,” he recalled. The uniform — the fancy one with the peaked cap and the metal F.D.N.Y. insignia — was now contaminated, and he stuffed it all into a bag when he got home. A few years later, unable to clean it to his satisfaction, he simply threw it out. That was the last time he rode the subway.
More picks about mental health
The Strange Fate of Flight 2069
“Months before 9/11 a passenger seized control of a Boeing 747 and nearly crashed it into the Sahara. Everyone survived but no one quite recovered. How do you measure the cost of a disaster that didn’t happen?”
Mary Had Schizophrenia—Then Suddenly She Didn’t.
“Some psychiatric patients may actually have treatable autoimmune conditions. But what happens to the newly sane?”
The Nurse in the NYC Subway
“As subway assaults rise and calls for safety increase, a psychiatric nurse must decide who is a risk.”
The Therapist in the Machine
“Chatbots take on the talking cure.”
Little Seed
“They insisted that with rest, he would recover.”
What Happens to a School Shooter’s Sister?
“Twenty-five years ago, Kristin Kinkel’s brother, Kip, killed their parents and opened fire at their high school. Today, she is close with Kip—and still reckoning with his crimes.”
