Try Not to Think of a Pink Elephant

Try Not to Think of a Pink Elephant is a collection of real-life stories about living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Contributors are Martin Ingle on OCD and sexual intimacy; Dani Leever on contamination-based OCD; Patrick Marlborough on living with OCD in NYC; Katharine Pollock on over-achievement and control of food and body; and Sienna Rose Scully on the untimely death of her mother, an event that actualised her most persistent OCD obsession.

Kimberley Quinlan is a licensed marriage and family therapist who has a private practice in Calabasas, California, specialising in anxiety, OCD and related disorders, and eating disorders. Kimberley is the founder of CBTschool.com, an online psycho-education platform that provides online courses for those with obsessive compulsive disorder and body-focused repetitive behaviours. Kimberley is the author of The Self-Compassion Workbook for OCD: Lean into Your Fear, Manage Difficult Emotions, and Focus on Recovery, as well as the host of Your Anxiety Toolkit podcast. Martin Ingle is a writer, filmmaker, actor and obsessive-compulsive worrywart who lives and works on Yuggera land. Patrick Marlborough is a neurodivergent nonbinary writer, comedian, journalist, critic and musician based in Walyalup (Fremantle), Whadjuk Boodja. They have been published in VICE, Rolling Stone, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Junkee, Noisey, Meanjin, Overland, Crikey, The Lifted Brow, Cordite, Going Down Swinging, The Betoota Advocate, and beloved other. They are a passionate mental health and disability advocate, regularly writing about their experiences with depression, suicide, bipolar, high functioning autism, and OCD. Dani Leever is a genderqueer nonfiction writer from Naarm. They’re a staff writer at MTV and they’re currently the Online Deputy Editor at Archer Magazine. They’ve been published in JUNKEE, Pedestrian.TV, SBS, Voiceworks, Scum Magazine, Broadsheet and more. They previously sat on the Voiceworks Editorial Committee and have appeared at the National Young Writers’ Festival. They write about gender, mental illness, pop culture and queerness. Outside writing, Dani performs as a genderbending drag DJ called DJ Gay Dad and have performed at stages around the country. Katharine Pollock is a Sydney-based writer who lives and writes on Eora land. Her debut novel, Her Fidelity (Penguin Random House, 2022), is the comedic story of a young(ish) woman working in a struggling Brisbane record shop and finding her place in the world. In 2021, Katharine completed her PhD exploring women in music and the confessional mode. She writes comedic personal essays and short stories. She was most recently published as part of the 2021 Microflix Writing Award and was the winner of GenreCon’s 2021 short story competition. Sienna Rose Scully is the youngest of four children. She is an Integrated Marketing Communications graduate who grew up in Noongar Whadjuk Boodja (Fremantle), Western Australia. Sienna obtained her bachelor’s degree as a student-athlete where she played soccer at a collegiate level in the USA. She recently returned from living in Buenos Aires, Argentina with her fiancé, to move back to Fremantle. Along with diagnoses of depression and chronic anxiety, Sienna has dealt with OCD since childhood and is passionate about bringing awareness to what this disorder entails and to help others.