The story of Kissing Doorknobs is written by Tarry Spencer Hesser. This book is about a little girl named Tara Sullivan and how she dealt with OCD (Obsessive-compulsive disorder.) It focuses on how she was facing her fears throughout her childhood. Tara had a hard time facing her fears, and it took many years and a special friend to help her.

The passage from this book that stood out to me was “Everywhere you look, step on a crack, break your mothers back!” The first time I heard that stupid rhyme is when I was 11 years old and still in possession of my own thoughts. At first, I thought the rhyme was stupid. “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back!” When I couldn’t get it out of my head, I thought it was annoying. Step on a crack, break your mother’s back! Finally I thought it was scary. But no matter what I thought about it, I couldn’t stop thinking it. Actually, it was more as if I couldn’t stop hearing it in my head over and over again.” The reason why this passage was memorable to me was because it was a saying that Tara couldn’t stop hearing it in her mind. She kept hearing it over and over again while she was brushing her teeth, eating dinner, doing homework, having a conversation, and falling asleep. She wasn’t sure what this phrase meant. I sometimes hear phrases which play over and over in my mind such as “sticks and stones may break my bones but names won’t ever hurt me.” It took me a long time to really understand what it meant.

There were three events throughout this story that stood out for me. They were Tara having a nightmare, her problem with paying attention, and her rituals. The first event that happened in this story is when Tara was little and she had a bad dream. She and her friends were playing and she saw a monster trying to get her and her friends. So she woke up and was screaming over and over again. Then when her mom came in, she wanted her mom to tell her that “it was only a bad dream” over and over again at least 10 times. That’s when Tara had started those terrors and quirks. When I was that age, I used to have similar bad dreams to the point I would cry and scream for my mom but I would calm down when she would come in the room and comfort me. The second event was when Tara was in fifth grade and she was overwhelmed from trying to pay attention in class. When she got home from school, she was explaining to her mother that she was trying to pay attention to all of the different things going on in her class all at the same time. She said it was exhausting, stressful, and noisy. I feel the same way if there is a lot of noise going on in the room where I am talking to people or trying to explain things. I also feel this way when I am in school and if there are a lot of students talking around me while the teacher is directing the class. The last event was when Tara’s parents were going out for a few hours, and she started to get nervous and her anxiety was kicking in. So, she developed a ritual to settle her anxiety when her parents were out. The first thing that she would do is call the Legion club where they were at. She would call at least four times in two hours to make sure her parents were ok and asked them when they are coming home. The next thing that she would do is go to her parents’ bedroom and pray over the Virgin Mary statue that was on her father’s dresser. The third thing she would do is check each clock one by the Virgin Mary and one by the kitchen and see what time it was so she had an idea when her parents were coming home. Then the last and final thing she would do is go outside and walk in the middle of the street and looked both ways twice to see if she saw her parents. She would do this ritual over and over again until she saw her parents pulling up to the street. I often feel that same anxiety when my parents are gone, so I will call them to make sure I know when they are coming home.

The two images that I would draw from this book is Tara making 16 snow angels and Tara with her family going out to dinner.  The first image of Tara making 16 snow angels demonstrated her obsessive-compulsive disorder.  She had to have an even number. The second image of Tara and her family go out to dinner represented her obsessive compulsive behavior, because Tara always organized the food on her plate. This image symbolizes how she wanted her food to be neat and know what everything is on her plate and to make sure there were not any mystery ingredients. These images show me how Tara’s obsessive-compulsive disorder affects her in all areas of her life.

The words that have special meaning to Tara are OCD, rituals, quirks, tyrants, and therapy. All of these words show the main character, Tara’s behavioral problems. She was experiencing fears and anxiety so she created little rituals that would help her get through her quirks. She didn’t know what was going on with her and neither did her parents. Then her dad’s friend, Mr. Jacobson, a local science teacher, came over to visit her and her dad. He asked her a bunch of questions that nobody had ever asked her. While he was asking her questions, he told her that he had a little boy in his class who was older then her and that he thought had a similar problem. She couldn’t believe what she heard. Mr. Jacobson told her and her family that he thought that Tara was suffering from an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Mr. Jacobson was telling her parents that “it’s not a psychological disorder; it’s a chemical one.” After Mr. Jacobson left, Tara talked on the phone and met a boy named Sam who told her that he had what she had and promised to come over the next day after school. While Sam visited Tara, he was telling her and her mom his quirks that he had like he was afraid of germs and he used to wash his hands until they bled from all that soap and hot water over and over and over again. Sam was explaining to Tara and her mom that there are lots of varieties of obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are people with contamination fears, worriers, doubters, and counters.

Before Sam left, he gave Tara’s mom a card that had the name of his behavior therapist, Susan Leonardi. Tara met with her. Susan Leonardi then asked Tara questions about her quirks. The Therapist was explaining to Tara and her family about the disorder. Tara started to receive behavioral therapy to overcome her OCD. Susan Leonardi wanted Tara to confront her fears by imagining her parents hurt, injured or dead for five minutes three times every day to eventually calm her fears down.

This story connects to my life because of my own fears and anxieties that I deal with in relation to being blind. I also have a niece that has been diagnosed with OCD. The behaviors that she demonstrates are frequent washing her hands throughout the day, not touching things that are on the floor, and feeling nervous about failing in school. I have learned how therapy can help her overcome her fears and anxieties and why these behaviors are caused from OCD.

The lessons that I learned from this story include how I can understand a person that has OCD, like my niece for example. Before I read this book, I didn’t know how to help someone that has OCD. I am glad that I read this book because now I can help my niece with her OCD. I think anyone that thinks they have OCD should read this book, because there is a lot to learn from the main character, Tara, and how she handled it and how her family was there to try to help her with it.