Posted by Alumni from The Atlantic
June 17, 2025
Editor's Note: Is anything ailing, torturing, or nagging at you' Are you beset by existential worries' Every Tuesday, James Parker tackles readers' questions. Tell him about your lifelong or in-the-moment problems at dearjames@theatlantic.com. After a series of unsettling events, including what I (falsely) believed was a hit-and-run'a belief that had me Googling 'hit and run' and sent me into a tailspin, convinced that the police were after me'I was diagnosed with a form of obsessive-compulsive disorder characterized by mostly mental (rather than physical) compulsions. Now, with medication and therapy, I've started revisiting the neurotic behaviors I've lived with for most of my life, like the year I was convinced I had HIV until a friend, tired of hearing about it, dragged me to get tested, or the time I was sure a swollen lymph node was cancer but my doctor refused to biopsy it. First of all: congratulations. I, too, have committed crimes that never happened and almost died of... learn more