Angstfrei Leben für Dummies

by Charles H. Elliott, Laura L. Smith

Viele Menschen leiden unter Ängsten - sei es Platzangst, Flugangst, Angst vor Zurückweisung, Fahrstuhlangst, Angst vor dem Verlust des Partners oder Kindes oder Angst vor dem Verlust des Arbeitsplatzes. So unterschiedlich diese Ängste sind, eines haben sie Sie beeinträchtigen das Leben der Betroffenen und ihrer Angehörigen enorm. "Angstfrei leben für Dummies" hilft mit Selbsttests und einfachen Übungen, einen Weg aus dem Teufelskreis von Angst und Sorgen zu finden. Dieser freundliche Ratgeber zeigt, wie man seinen Ängsten Schritt für Schritt begegnen kann und wie es gelingt, dass man seine Ängste überwindet und nicht mehr von ihnen beherrscht wird.

Genres: Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Health, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Medical

345 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2002

Reviews

[Meg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I deal with anxiety and severe depression in my life, and anxiety has been something that I've had a hard time managing. I picked this up right after the first of the year in a bookstore and got engrossed in it immediately. It really spoke to a lot of the problems I'd been dealing with when it came to anxiety.

While I wouldn't substitute this book for actual professional help, it is a good additional resource even for people who are already in therapy. They give good examples of different types of anxiety and how to manage it. A lot of the work in the book is about being mindful and identifying what mental processes are involved in being anxious. For instance, "worry words", which are words that people use that come from and cause their anxiety when they, for instance, get into extreme thinking and are anxious because they think something will be terrible, catastrophic, or they'll absolutely hate it rather than being more reasonable about the outcome of whatever they're anxious about.

All in all, worth picking up and reading. Not a substitute for a professional and they discuss when you know you NEED to go see someone in the book, but it's a good supplementary tool.

[Aimee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this for a dollar at a library book sale, so obviously...as someone on a never-ending journey to reign in my anxiety...I had to buy it. And man, did I take that dollar far. This book is great.

Because this is a "For Dummies" book, I didn't expect to read about anything I didn't already know. And yah, the section explaining what anxiety disorders are, and where they might come from, and the differences between GAD and OCD and whatnot was nothing new to me. But after all of that, the book is split up into three sections to help you manage your anxiety: the logical approach, the "do something" approach, and the emotional approach. I didn't feel like I had a strong preference for one method over the other, so I just read all three chapters in the order I listed them. The book advises you to start with whatever you think will help you the most. All three sections have a bunch of practical exercises, from meditation techniques, to advice about exercising and getting better sleep, to charts and tables that you can make to track making you anxious and then use to transform your worries into constructive thoughts and actions. I've only done a few of the exercises so far, and they've all helped me to some extent.

This was published in 2002, but it was only noticeable because there's a section on overcoming anxiety caused by 9/11. (Which honestly is still relevant to me, almost 15 years later. My dad survived the Pentagon attack. I was 8, and understood both a lot and nothing at all about the whole ordeal.) Some of the information on medication might be outdated, but I don't know enough about pharmacology to know for sure. Obviously, ask a doctor before you take anything.

Reading this book has made me realize that I haven't done nearly enough work on my anxiety symptoms. I'm no longer in denial about it, for sure. And I have a few simple tricks that I turn to when I'm worrying or panicking... but I thought that I knew every coping mechanism in the world after 2.5 years of research, and that simply wasn't the case. Remember if you have a mental illness (or any illness), you should always be open-minded to new ways of making yourself feel better.

Conclusion: add this to your non-fiction collection, anxious friends! It'll be most usual if you have Generalized Anxiety Disorder or crippling phobias. (I agree with other reviewers that this isn't the best resource for OCD or PTSD. I actually wouldn't be surprised if there are other "For Dummies" books that focus specifically on those conditions.)

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good overview. Particularly helpful for me to identify FEELINGS. Also, it has a couple of chapters about kids, which I found helpful.

[Cahit Erdem · Rating 5 out of 5]

For dummies'ten yine harika bir rehber. Akıcı anlatımı ile sıkmadan okutuyor. 350 sayfa, etkinlikler ve mizahı anlatımla aktarılmış. Depresyonda olan, tanıdığı olan veya sadece bilgilenmek isteyenler(genel olarak pratik çözümlere girilmiş) okuyabilir. Özellikle insanın düşüncelerini, insandan ayırma fikri çok hoşuma gitti. Tabii ki bu çizgi keyfi olacaktır. zaten insanın kendi kendini şekillendirmesinin zamanı gelmedi mi?
Bu şekillendirmede düşünceleri maddeleştirme ve bunu yok etme veya değiştirme yoluna gidilmiş. Kendi kendinle tartışma veya fikirleri kağıda yazıp yakma(kulağa kötü geliyor ama gerçekten çok etkili [denemedim ama aşırı mantıklı])
Neyse işte tam bir rehber esasında. Teoriye çok girmeden depresyonda olanlara bir 'takviye' niteliğinde. Tabii bir uzmandan yardım almakta da fayda var

[Amira · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very informative. It helps you to recognize, accept and limit your anxiety.
Many useful tips and relaxation techniques are included.
If you are a perfectionist, you will find many areas in the book addressing what you feel and encounter in your everyday life.

[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent primer. Highly recommended.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this book from the library and it’s dated 2003, so an updated version might be even better. This book covers the standard advice on dealing with anxiety, i.e., breathing exercises, relaxation exercises, CBT, dividing large tasks into smaller tasks, exposure to what you’re afraid of, a review of medications, etc.

The reasons I’m giving it five stars are:
1. It is written like all “for dummies“ books, easy to read, easy to understand, simple instructions. I would think that if you’re really having anxiety, having an easy-to-read book would be far superior to trying to slog through most of the books that I’ve read as I’ve been researching anxiety.

2. Another great thing here is the chapter on what they call Worry Words, chapter 7. I am surprised that I have not seen this in other books on anxiety. This is a concept I came across years ago and it’s extremely effective in bringing down worry and anxiety and panic.

I use this professionally when I’m managing work teams. Basically, you don’t over-dramatize or overstate negative events or situations. In other words, instead of saying “we didn’t get the materials on time, this is horrible”, say “we didn’t get the materials on time, this is inconvenient“. It is a very small change, but the difference in stress levels when an entire team ratchets down their language to accurately reflect events will blow your mind. This book has a good chapter on this.

3. Most books on anxiety I’ve read so far tell you to “Question your assumptions” or “Identify the thought that is causing the anxiety and ask yourself if it’s really true“. I don’t think anyone would waste time becoming anxious about something that they thought wasn’t true, so that can be totally crazy if you’re trying to follow the instructions. Now it’s true that some people do worry about things that may not be true and so I’m sure that that is good advice up to a point. But I’m also sure that people that are anxious about those things probably think that they are true.

As a prayer chaplain, I meet people who have just discovered that they or their spouse or their grand child has just been diagnosed with cancer or other fatal disease and are dealing with it. I think a lot of people who are truly anxious have legitimate concerns to worry about.

This book has more space focused on how to find the thoughts and assumptions that are bothering you, why you might have those thoughts and assumptions or why you perceive the situation as threatening when it may not be, And how to find that alternate thought that would be helpful to you. It has examples of work sheet format that you can use to work through this stuff and filled-out forms to utilize as examples. This seems far more helpful to me than just telling someone to identify a thought, figure out why it’s bothering them and think something else.

[Sasha Ruggiero · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is such a well rounded and digestible introduction to the spectrum of anxiety in general, as well as how to go about overcoming it for the layman. As someone pursuing the psychological sciences I can confidently say that this is a great resource for for clinicians, anxiety sufferers as well as those looking for ways to support a loved one with anxiety.

[Adnan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Temelde pek çok kendine yardım kitabının söylediği şeyleri söylüyor, eğer bundan önce bir kendi kendine yardım kitabı okuduysanız belki sıkıcı gelebilir (benim için durum biraz böyleydi) ama objektif bir bakış açısıyla bakacak olursam güzel bir kitaptı. Ayrıca içerisinde araştırmalardan alınmış kısımlar ve ekstra bilgilendirici minik bölümler var, bu benim çok hoşuma gitmişti.

[Frank Corriveau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and thought-provoking. Like any self-help books, it has some good points, some obvious points and some that don't apply.

[Melanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good but seemed like it was redundant a lot. Like the book was only half as long but was just repeated.

[Tasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some things in here were questionable, but it's a good first step into managing anxiety.

[Ad3le · Rating 3 out of 5]

J’ai voulu m’y intéressé un peu vu que je suis toucher par l’anxiété depuis des années mais franchement c’est basique, c’est vraiment sympa et abordable mais pas pour moi

[Shay Long · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think that for its intended purpose, this book serves its readers well. I was looking for a how-to for dealing with trauma/anxiety that is a little less phobia, and a little more PTSD. The book was easy to read, and pointed me easily from section to section depending on my needs, which I appreciated. It is also less historical and more practical which was nice. I think that this could be a very good self-help book for someone with a phobia of spiders or heights, or something relatively common (but stress inducing).

[Elena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I got to buy it because I tend to be a little anxious at times... Work-related stress, I suppose. This is a very useful and interesting self-help book, which covers common problems like General Anxiety, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders, Phobias etc with references to Cognitive-Behavioural Psychology which is widely accepted as the best 'therapy' for similar problems. The chapters about sleep, physical activity and relaxation could have been less obvious anyway.

[Kikou Hsieh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book provides a good overview on the anxiety problems and symptoms, as a beginner's guide, it's pretty decent, but as a self-help book, it's not particularly helpful, still, it's not a terrible book.

[Carolin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ein super Buch, mit einfachen und sehr detaillierten Beschreibungen. Ich habe hier tolle Anregungen und Tipps bekommen. Kann ich jedem empfehlen, der sich für dieses Thema interessiert oder selbst an einer Angststörung leidet.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

informative. its been very useful in planning and sharing info in my groups and individuals.