THE BOY WHO CRIED GHOST
Breaking Boundaries Representing mental illness in children’s literature The Boy Who Cried Ghost is a spooky, thrilling, heartwarming and funny story for fans of Goosebumps, Jennifer Killick’s Dreadwood series and Phil Hickes’s The Haunting of Aveline Jones. It was inspired by my love of horror movies: Hocus Pocus, The Goonies, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Casper and my older brother who used to tell the most terrifying ghost stories when we went camping. Richard is just starting Year 6 when he has to move with his mum into his grandma’s old house. He is angry, resentful and filled with worry about making new friends at a new school. He is also consumed by obsessive behaviours, low self-esteem and grief. I always think the best ghost stories are nothing to do with the ghost, but instead explore what it’s like to be haunted by trauma. Over the course of his journey, Richard has to learn to accept himself and understand how to start dealing with his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I once heard OCD being described as ‘brain lock’ - which is a perfect description - and I’ve also heard it referred to as ‘catastrophic thinking’. For me, it starts off with an obsession,
which is an unwanted and distressing thought or impulse. This then leads to a feeling of extreme anxiety and the need to carry out a compulsion, which is a repetitive behaviour aimed at reducing those feelings of fear, dread and anxiety. What follows is then momentary relief, but the intrusive, obsessive thought comes back and the whole terrifying cycle begins again. As a child, OCD completely took over my life. I engaged in a lot of repetitive behaviour. For example, I was convinced that there would be a fire in my house unless I checked the light switch in my room every night; I could spend hours turning the light switch on and off. I also remember getting a lot of intrusive thoughts as a kid. One day I was having lunch with my grandad and I remember thinking: “He eats really loudly!” This led to a feeling of real shame and horror that I’d had such a bad, unkind thought - I therefore felt that I was bad and unkind. This was usually followed by a panic attack and the overwhelming feeling that I had to confess how naughty and mean I was to someone in order to get rid of the ‘bad’ thought. I eventually got help when I was seventeen. I was sent to The Priory, who are experts in treating people with acute mental health disorders. I saw a brilliant therapist there called Jerry, who helped me to understand what
OCD is and helped me begin to challenge my intrusive thoughts. He taught me that we are not just our thoughts and that just because we think something, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s true or that we have to act upon it. For parents of children with OCD, I always like to give practical tips - for example, you could spend some time exploring the websites for OCD-UK and OCD Action. I like to remind people that saying things like: “I’m SO OCD” just because you like things to be neat or tidy can be quite harmful and offensive to people who suffer with the disorder. There are also some other brilliant children’s books which deal with OCD, such as The Goldfish Boy by Lisa Thompson, A Flash of Fireflies by Aisha Bushby and When I See Blue by Lily Bailey. As an adult, I read Because We Are Bad by Lily Bailey, which was life-changing and really helped me understand what I had experienced myself as a child and teenager with OCD. I would also recommend the following books
EDUCATION CHOICES MAGAZINE | AUT UM N 2024 | 37
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