Summary Of A Plague Of Tics By David Sedaris

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In his essay “A Plague of Tics”, David Sedaris recounts the compulsions he suffered from for much of his youth, beginning in 3rd grade when his family moved from New York to North Carolina, and lasting through college, until he took up smoking as a more socially acceptable habit to replace his previous, more “inappropriate” habits, such as licking light switches and rolling his eyes back. At the time the essay takes place, the early 1960s, there was not much public knowledge of mental illness, but to a modern reader it is clear that the experiences Sedaris describes are very telling of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Mental health is often considered a difficult to approach, even taboo topic, but Sedaris breaks this barrier easily through

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