Can't Just Stop is an exceptional book that sheds light on a variety of disorders with names that are often misused in casual conversation. Sharon Begley does an amazing job of describing the complexities clearly. A truly fascinating book that I highly recommend.

** spoiler alert ** JUST CAN'T STOP BY SHARON BEGLEY

This digital copy was provided to me via Net Galley, Sharon Begley and Simon & Schuster for a fair and honest Review.

Sharon Begley's book is marketed to be the first of it's kind to describe Compulsions in all of it's different forms. Some compulsions are mild and some compulsions are stronger. "Mild and Extreme." The following behaviors are examined OCD, hoarding, acquiring, exercise and compulsions to do good things. Sharon Begley states although these compulsions are different, that they are responses to anxiety. In this book she includes people she has interviewed.

Sharon Begley begins with with the example of famous John Milton who blind used his three daughter's to help write down for him verse he had constructed for "Paradise Lost", had a need to unburden himself--to get out the verse as if a cow needs to be milked. The author states that compulsive behavior come from a need so desperate that it demands relief. They work as an outlet valve, a consequence of anxiety. But, while compulsion's bring relief they also bring little enjoyment. I agree with that wholeheartedly. Sharon Begley describes it as two different parts of our brain in conflict with one another. With one wish to stop them, with the other wish we are afraid of stopping them.

Acquiring more and more stuff, no matter how much we already have and how unfulfilled each hoard has left us--we feel compelled to engage in these behaviors more and more, if we are compulsive. If we don't we feel anxiety.

So we do what we can to control what we can, compulsive cleaning and hoarding or washing our hands too often or checking, or shopping, or playing video games. It could also be that we feel a need to check our smartphones. We hang on tight to our compulsions, according to Begley, by clinging to our compulsions as a lifeline for it is only in engaging in our compulsion's that we can let off some of our anxieties to function.

Sharon Begley mentions Carrie Arnold who began exercising regularly for fitness, an overachieving college freshman. She also exercised because she was stressed out off her mind. Whenever anxiety got too bad, she would exercise, her exercise habits were hardly extreme. For example four or five times a week for thirty minutes a day. But then her exercising increased more and more frequently where she would be exercising at night sometimes only allowing only four hours of sleep. I can see that as problematic.

Carrie wrote a book called "Running on Empty: A diary of anorexia and recovery", 2004. I am glad to read that having compulsions as long as they are not too excessive to release anxiety doesn't mean that your brain is broken.

At one time in my life I used to enjoy running. Now I am looking forward to the time when I can get back to doing it. It was a long time ago, so I would have to start from scratch. I don't know if I will ever find the time too do it. I used to run outside when my oldest son was a toddler. I pushed him in the jogging stroller and we would do it everyday in the summer. The more we ran, the more I increased my mileage. It brought me great joy. I feel a compulsion that I am not exercising at all in the past three years. I am married to my Net Galley deadlines. I excessively requested 75 titles by mistake, not realizing I had requested so many. They all came in around the sixteenth of December through December 19. Then in January 2017 the rest came through. I have been compulsive about working on them everyday. Every day I get down to 32 titles left and I have requested easily 15 more since I got bombarded. I can see where the author is coming from, because I can see my destructive behavior in having to keep staying at 32. I just want to be done with it. Because I requested the titles I feel committed to finishing them. I enjoyed this book but at times didn't feel it was easily accessible. Maybe it is a little too filled with too much detail.

A well-researched account of the neuroscience and psychology behind compulsion in a way that is both understandable to the layperson and humanizes those suffering.