Louis Horowitz

THE AUTHOR

Louis Horowitz is, above all else, a teacher. With a BA in English and several New Jersey teaching licenses, he has spent the past two decades in public high school classrooms, teaching Language Arts to both general and special education students. His dedication to education now extends to his memoir, where he draws on a career spent reaching even the most reluctant learners. Louis has a gift for candidly sharing personal stories, insights, and hard-earned wisdom in ways that resonate deeply. He’s especially skilled at explaining the workings of his mind—paradoxical, twisted, yet strikingly rational. He approaches his OCD with rare openness, talking about a condition that often leaves others suffering in silence. 

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Louis’s journey with OCD began long before he had a name for it. Nearly 20 years passed between the onset of his symptoms and his official diagnosis. Since then, he has immersed himself in intensive Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), practiced various forms of Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), attended national OCD conferences, spoken on a panel for the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF), read widely, and mentored others living with the disorder. In October 2021, he shared his story with a large crowd at a NAMI NYC (National Alliance on Mental Illness, New York City chapter) event. The audience—a mix of mental health professionals, OCD sufferers, and their loved ones—urged him: “You should write a book!” After years of work, he completed Neat and Freaky: Confessions of an OCD Overachiever. 

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Today, Louis lives in Highland Park, NJ with his wife, daughter, and two dogs. He remains dedicated to his students during the school year, and spends his summers painting, landscaping, and writing. OCD remains a part of his life, as it always will—but he’s learned to accept it and live on his own terms, not according to OCD’s rules. Louis continues his advocacy, now serving on a steering committee to support people with OCD in the workplace.