Hijacked by Goats

The moving, heartbreaking, ultimately hopeful story of a young girl struggling with anxiety and OCD—the bully “hijacking” her brain—and getting the help she needs to start her road to recovery.

Josie arrives at Bryce Haven Psychiatric Hospital knowing she’s a bad person and a bad friend. She knows because her brain constantly berates her for not being good enough. It tells her she needs to be perfect—and if she’s not, she’ll be alone and miserable forever. Josie is so overwhelmed with worries about bad things happening as punishment for her imperfections, she often feels compelled to punish herself.

After Josie is discharged and returns home, she’s annoyed to find Hal—the mean, smelly, bully of a goat her dad sometimes goatsits—is back. Hal has a bad habit of getting in the way by climbing on things and trying to block access.

When Josie’s therapist diagnoses her with OCD and describes it as a bully in her brain, Josie denies it. Surely her brain is just trying to be helpful . . . right? But eventually, Josie begins to recognize her OCD as the bossy Hal-the-goat-like resident of her head that it is. And with her therapist’s encouragement, the right medications, and the support of her dad and some good friends, Josie might finally be ready to start standing up to the bully in her brain.