INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS: KCBS anchor Jeff Bell riffs about his struggles with OCD
Written by admin2 on October 26th, 2009Filed under: Books & Book Reviews, Interviews, Irked Videos
Jeff Bell is a renowned author, speaker, and radio news anchor. His first book, “REWIND, REPLAY, REPEAT: A Memoir of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,” was published in 2007 and quickly established Bell as a leading voice in the mental health community. His story has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Psychology Today, DETAILS Magazine, and The New York Times, for which he was commissioned to write a feature that ran internationally in 2008. He has appeared on NPR’s Talk of the Nation, on The Infinite Mind programs, and on Good Morning America Radio. In addition to being a National Spokesperson for the International OCD Foundation (found at ocfoundation.org), Bell, whose new book “When in Doubt, Make Belief: An OCD-Inspired Approach to Living with Uncertainty” was recently published, currently co-anchors the afternoon news at KCBS Radio in San Francisco.
Jeff was recently interviewed by Peter Hartlaub, Pop Culture Critic for the San Francisco Chronicle. Here are the highlights:
***
Q: Being meticulous can be a plus for a journalist. Was OCD ever helpful at work?
A: I’ve joked for years that my stories on KCBS are the best fact-checked stories in America. But it’s only partly funny to me, because at my worst I became so consumed by fact checking that I could never file my pieces. “Where’s Bell’s piece?” Bell’s back in the studio checking and rechecking. Was the car light blue or aqua blue?
.
Q: What do you think of the TV show “Monk”?
A: I like the show. I find it funny. I don’t think the portrayal of OCD is as consistent as it should be. I’d like to see Monk get more treatment and get better. But on balance, I think it has been good for the OCD community.
.
Q: You write that you push yourself to confront fears. What did you confront today?
A: I stepped on manhole covers.
.
Q: What else?
A: I didn’t wash my hands before shaking your hand. So if you get Ebola, sorry. I did that for the greater good.
.
Buy Jeff’s books via this snazzy widget:
.
Here’s a CBS News segment about Jeff that aired in June:
.
Learn more about Jeff at beyondthedoubt.org
Read Jeff’s Psychology Today blog
Then…
Read Irked posts tagged “obsessive compulsive disorder”
.
