Anxiety: A Very Short Introduction

Very Short Introductions #318

by Daniel Freeman, Jason Freeman

Are we born with our fears or do we learn them? Why do our fears persist? What purpose does anxiety serve? How common are anxiety disorders, and which treatments are most effective? What's happening in our brain when we feel fear? And what are Colombian worry dolls?

This Very Short Introduction draws on the best scientific research to offer a highly accessible explanation of what anxiety is, why it is such a normal and vital part of our emotional life, and the key factors that cause it. Insights are drawn from psychology, neuroscience, genetics, epidemiology, and clinical trials. Providing a fascinating illustration of the discussion are two interviews conducted specifically for the book, with the actor, writer, director, and television presenter
Michael Palin and former England football manager Graham Taylor.

The book covers in detail the six major anxiety disorders: phobias; panic disorder and agoraphobia; social anxiety; generalised anxiety disorder; obsessive compulsive disorder; and post-traumatic stress disorder. With a chapter devoted to each disorder, Daniel and Jason Freeman take you through the symptoms, prevalence, and causes of each one. A final chapter describes the treatments available for dealing with anxiety problems.

ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Mental Health, Self Help, Audiobook, Reference

177 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 31, 2012

About the author

Daniel Freeman is Professor of Clinical Psychology and Medical Research Council (MRC) Senior Clinical Fellow in the Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University. One of the United Kingdom's leading clinical psychologists, he is a Fellow of University College, Oxford and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

Reviews

[Steven R. Kraaijeveld · Rating 2 out of 5]

I intend to read all of the Oxford Very Short Introductions, and have devised a system wherein I read one of them, and then buy another when I have finished it. This checks my inclination toward buying sprees, and it ensures that I actually read and finish the texts in question. First and foremost I seek to read the VSIs within my main (academic) areas of interest: philosophy and psychology. This VSI to Anxiety obviously falls within the latter discipline.

The two Freemans begin by addressing what anxiety is, after which they cover some theories of anxiety and the extent to which both nature (genes) and nurture (the environment) contribute to the development of anxiety disorders. They then devote a chapter to, to me, two rather pointless interviews - one with Michael Palin, and the other with Graham Taylor. These interviews are supposed to provide insight into how real people deal with anxiety, but neither interviewee really has anything meaningful to say about it (neither suffer from an anxiety disorder; they simply have or have had jobs in which anxiety is like be provoked), and their input is not connected to the main subject nearly well enough. It is like the Freemans conducted these interviews, working hard to obtain them in the first place, and then didn't quite know what to do with them or where to put them.

The subsequent chapters are devoted to the six main (currently recognized) anxiety disorders: phobias, social phobia, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The final chapter is outlines some methods of treatment, touching (very briefly) on different medications and cognitive behavioral therapy in particular.

While parts of the VSI were instructive, especially the sections on the different anxiety disorders, there was a significant amount of redundancy, and the introduction in the end remained more superficial than it might have been. One wishes especially that the interviews were cut in favor of greater detail in the other chapters.

Having said that, the VSI covers a good range of the latest theories and findings concerning anxiety in many of its most common (and most crippling) forms, and the list of sources at the end provides a wealth of material for those who want to delve deeper into the (primary) literature.

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I pretty certainly have generalised anxiety disorder (GAD). I score 19/21 on the GAD 7 test, even medicated. According to this book's tests, I get 80/80 on the Penn State worry questionnaire, indicating GAD; 39/72 on their OCD test, which indicates OCD as well; 46/88 for a single traumatic event on their PTSD test, where 30 and above indicates probable PTSD.

So that probably tells you why I read this. Another person with GAD recommended it to me: it explores the physiological/genetic/environmental/sociological understanding of GAD, more or less from an outsider's point of view, thereby offering a reasonably academic and detached perspective. For me, this is helpful. I got really sucked in to wondering about the techniques for treating anxiety disorders, trying to apply the conclusions to things I'm familiar with...

For example, people with GAD will often try to avoid the situations that make them feel anxious, but that only enhances their fear of those situations because they never actually experience them to find out that they can live through them, that it wasn't so bad after all. People in fandom often (though not always, and not exclusively in fandom) provide "trigger warnings", enabling people to avoid things that commonly cause people anxiety and distress. E.g. warning for discussion of rape. One my friends usually warn me of in advance is cancer, or bugs. Anyway, so is that actually causing further harm, in the long run, by unduly insulating the person? I always used to think that it would cause more harm for someone to be triggered, not be in any way helpful, but this book suggests -- the research suggests -- that actually, avoidance of triggers makes them worse.

Still, I know first-hand that triggers really can be distressing, can cause harm of their own on top of the existing fear. So I remain pro-trigger warnings: they're a valuable way for people to ensure that they don't encounter something distressing without support and the choice to do so. ERP therapy is valuable not because of the exposure to the trigger alone, but because it is done in a controlled environment by someone who knows what they're doing, and by the patient's choice, it's different to just saying "you've got to man up and face your fears".

Anyway, I think it's helpful, speaking as a person with anxiety, for understanding what's happening to me and why. I think it would also be helpful for people who don't understand what anxiety is, who might be inclined to dismiss it as "all in the mind", but reluctant to actually do so. It identifies a lot of causes and contributing factors, and makes reference to a lot of studies. Additionally, for those who have some form of anxiety but aren't sure whether it qualifies as a disorder, there's several different tests in the back for evaluating how likely it is that your anxiety is severe enough to be considered a disorder.

It's a basic book, of course, probably not useful to anyone with degrees in psychology or even just plain medicine. But I found it both interesting and helpful.

[Abeer Abdullah · Rating 5 out of 5]

As our concerns with mental health keep increasing, and as the conversation has become wider and more accessible, it is important to try and understand the basic elements understood about how Anxiety operates, how it manifests its self differently in different people.

Mental health is a massively large and at times overbearing topic, I got diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder last year and prescribed medication, which I took for nearly 4 months then gave up, I tried to self medicate with other things, some of which are working but not without a price.

There are, I believe, two things that we need to learn about continuously to tackle mental health issues of your own and of others, we need to learn about the basic science of how our bodies and brains operate, and listen to our own voices and behaviours, look back at our own childhood, be attentive enough to see patterns and maybe be able to tolerate and accept the way our minds and bodies behave

this book was quite informative in that sense, it gave a good brief about the history of anxiety, the different types, the different studies, and personal accounts of anxiety, it satisfied most of my needs.

[Daniel Wright · Rating 3 out of 5]

'Anxiety' is a word used by psychologists as a blanket term for what we would would usually think of as a wide range of emotions. The authors of this book, Freeman and Freeman (brothers?) are an academic psychologist and a writer/editor who specialises in self-help. Consequently, the book takes on a popular as well as academic tone unusual in the Very Short Introduction series, which may well be an inevitable consequence of a topic likely to attract attention from people who read self-help books (that would not include me). This is all understandable, but when the authors resorted to interviewing celebrities - namely, Michael Palin and Graham Taylor - about their experiences of anxiety, I could not help but roll my eyes. What is the purpose of this particular trope? I imagine it is to show people who have a difficulty that they can be successful in spite of it. For understanding the concepts at hand it is entirely useless.

Despite my complaining, this is actually a very informative and helpful book, covering all the bare essentials of the topic with admirable ease.

[Giovanni Generoso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anxiety is a fundamental emotion, as central a part of being human as feeling happy, sad, or angry. Emotions, for their part, are crucial in helping us survive—without them, our species (from an evolutionary standpoint) would have died off a long time ago. “The happiness our ancestors felt after developing a useful tool encouraged them to repeat the experience; their sadness when separated from friends and loved ones helped them preserve crucial social ties; and their anxiety helped ensure they didn’t end up as some wild animal’s meal.” In this way, it can be seen that not all anxiety is bad. In fact, I believe that emotions are crucial for the development of a human’s mental health. Emotions help highlight key aspects of our lives that need attending to. If we’re feeling sad, something must be wrong, and we can reach a deeper level of self-understanding (and self-care) when we reflect upon why we feel that particular emotion. It may be that we’re grieving the fact that we aren’t as close to such-and-such a friend as we might wish. Attending to this painful emotion encourages not only self-awareness, but can also be a catalyst for action—since we now know what the problem is, we can address it and improve our qualities of living. Achieving this level of self-reflection is a skill that must be practiced. Few people, I’m afraid, are given the tools to accomplish this task. We oftentimes let emotions pass without much of a thought. Or else, we’re not even conscious that we’re experiencing an emotion until someone close to us points out that we seem quiet or upset. In this way, I’m not sure I think anxiety should be gotten rid of altogether, although in its more severe forms, it can be an extremely painful experience (and I know this first hand, as someone who has dealt with anxiety attacks).

Charles Darwin observed that emotions result in expressive behaviors: “automatic, unconscious, and largely innate (rather than learned) physiological changes, facial expressions, and behaviors.” What interested Darwin were the visible bodily changes that characterized emotions—in animals and humans alike. In the case of fear, he noted, the eyes and mouth opened, the eyebrows raised, the frightened person stood like a statue motionless and breathless, often crouching down as if to escape observation, the heart beats quickly and sometimes violently, the skin becomes pale, the hairs on the skin stand erect, and the mouth becomes dry. In the case of anxiety, these expressive indicators “alert us to potential threat and prepare us to react appropriately.” Again, this underscores the potentially therapeutic implications for understanding the causes and effects of anxiety. By understanding these expressions—(my girlfriend, Annie recently noticed that my neck was bright red when I was venting to her about something that made me really angry)—we can start to attend to our emotional life and wellbeing in ways that we simply couldn’t before we were consciously aware of such emotions.

There are four theories of anxiety: psychoanalytic, behavioral, cognitive-behavioral, and neuro-biological. The authors claim that each of these theories are interrelated and that none of them have any inherent priority over the others. Still, they maintain that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been the most effective approach at treating anxiety disorders. Due to my interest in the ancient philosophical schools of thought (and their psychological tendencies, e. g. Stoicism, Epicureanism, Pyrrhonism, etc.), I am not unfamiliar with rough forms of philosophical therapy that we might liken to something like cognitive-behavioral therapy as it’s been distilled through the ages by the philosophers. Nietzsche spoke of the ancient philosophical schools of thought as “experimental laboratories” that we should refer to for our own benefit. Socrates encouraged us to examine ourselves (as he famously said, “the unexamined life is not worth living”). Jonathan Lear, a philosopher at the University of Chicago, has written a lot of material on the relationship between Freudian psychoanalysis and the ancient Socratic maxim “know thyself.” Montaigne taught us not to take ourselves so seriously—we’re all human, ordinary, and shit brown stuff out of our asses all of the time (clearly, this is an antidote to human arrogance and pride!). Seneca the Stoic taught us to expect hardship and recognize that life, even at its most bleak moments, really isn’t that bad—just stop trying to make life conform to your wishes, and instead will everything to be as it is, and you will have peace. I frequently spill into philosophy out of habit, please forgive me. Where was I?

The short-story version of CBT is the hypothesis that events do not invoke anxiety in a person, but rather, how events impress themselves upon the person is what invokes anxiety. In other words, how you look at something will effect (and in large part determine) how it impresses itself upon you. The mind is active in interpreting any data, and is altered by the context in which the data presents itself, the mood the person is in at the time, and the person’s past experiences. Either way, anxiety—along with other emotions—arise from our appraisal of a situation. Keep in mind that it does not have to be a conscious appraisal (and indeed it often is not). Here is a helpful illustration of what CBT is getting at: “Imagine, for example, that you are woken in the early hours of the morning by a noise downstairs. How you interpret that noise will determine your emotional response. If you decide it’s your cat clattering around, you might feel mild irritation at being disturbed before turning over and going back to sleep. But if you believe it may be the sound of a burglar rather than your pet cat, you’ll almost certainly be gripped by anxiety and lie awake wondering whether you ought to investigate. It’s not the event that determines our emotional state, but rather the way in which we make sense of that event.” Another example that comes to mind for me personally is horror movies. After seeing a horror movie, I’m afraid of the basement, suspicious of dark corners, hyper sensitive to creaks in the floor…why the hell did I see that movie now that it’s robbed me of my ability to walk around in my own house with the lights off?

Nature or Nurture?—you, guessed it… both… but mostly nurture, according to these authors. There is good evidence that genes influence a person’s susceptibility to anxiety, but the evidence is even more significant in terms of one’s environmental upbringing. Still, the findings cause researchers to conclude that causation involves a complex interaction of genetic make-up and life experiences. The nurture findings split childhood experiences into four factors that cause anxiety later in adult life: 1) trauma and other upsetting events—such as physical and sexual abuse, the death of a parent, bullying or teasing, parental conflict, divorce, etc.; 2) Parenting style—such as children with parents who have a legacy of abuse or neglect. Also parents who attempt to control their child’s behavior too rigidly—quite possibly because of a desire to protect them—can unwittingly send out a signal that the world is a dangerous place, and it can also rob the child of the change to discover that, by and large, he or she can indeed cope with life’s problems; 3) Attachment style—which has to do with the infant’s sense of attachment to the caregiver (and a sense of separation anxiety when the caregiver, often the mother, is gone); and 4) Learning from others—we often learn how to react to any given stimuli (like spiders, the dark, or whatever) from our observations of another person’s explicit talk or behavior. Parents who tend to worry too much can unwittingly train their child to become worried, but children can also learn more positive messages, if only we would maintain a relaxed attitude toward life’s troubles in general and situations we find scary in particular.

Phobias are pretty interesting. They broke them down into five groups: Animal phobias, natural environment phobias, situational phobias, blood-injection-injury phobias, and all other types (like a fear of choking or of catching an illness). Social phobias are also really fascinating. Persons with a social phobia typically have an extremely elevated view of everyone around them coupled with an abnormally low self-image—both of which don’t match what’s really going on. They’re like the opposite of the Pharisees, who had a very high view of themselves and a very low view of others (“God, I thank you that I’m not like these other sinners”). You see, this is why I love Michel de Montaigne—who really didn’t take anybody, chiefly himself, very seriously. He really levels the playing field, you know? As does Thomas Hobbes, with his pleasure/pain principles—he thought everyone was driven, at bottom, not by virtues and vices, but by simple sensations of pleasures and pains. Under the hood, we’re not all that impressive, and ethics boils down to what feels good. At the end of the day, the person who has an elevated view of others and a dejected view of the self could really learn a thing or two from thinkers like these. All around us society sends us messages that implicitly tell us to hate ourselves, and then change ourselves, by buying their product, clothes, car, technological gadget, or whatever else it is that’s on billboards these days. If only we could look past all of these ideologies and truly love ourselves—our ordinary, simple, fragile, and broken selves! Anyways, that’s enough philosophy.

The authors then discuss General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I found it interesting that it’s been estimated that the average person has around 4,000 thoughts each day, most of them which last no more than five seconds. Of those 4,000, approximately 13% of these thoughts arise spontaneously (i.e. around 500). 500 thoughts per day arise spontaneously, out of the blue, willy-nilly! A study was done that assessed the spontaneous thoughts of members of the general public, and this is what they found. In my opinion, this is telling of how strange we humans are. This is, remember, a random sample of the population. This is you and me. (Viewer discretion is advised):
- Impulse to push someone in front of a train.
- Wishing a person to die.
- Thought of throwing a baby down the stairs.
- Idea that dirt is always on my hand.
- Thoughts of blurting out something in church.
- Thoughts of “unnatural” sexual acts.
- Etc.

These sorts of thoughts are not uncommon, I guess. Thank God, I’m not alone. Everybody has these sorts of thoughts now and then. What sets OCD apart is the quantity of the obsessions, which are “upsetting and unwanted thoughts, images, and impulses that constantly recur, sometimes throughout the day and night,” as well as compulsions which are a “variety of elaborate and time-consuming rituals to try to make [the obsessions] disappear, or to prevent the harm they seem to predict.” The obsessions and compulsions can be related or unrelated. Related, for example, is the fear that if one doesn’t unplug all of the appliances before leaving the house, then a fire will erupt when one isn’t home and will burn down the house. Unrelated, on the other hand, might be the fear that if one doesn’t sing the alphabet twice (once forwards and a second time backwards) then a loved one will die that day. People with OCD often experience their disorder affecting their lives since so much time is spent coping (with compulsive behaviors) to overcome their erratic obsessions. The authors think that CBT has been helpful in treating both OCD and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which they also discuss.

The last chapter assesses treatment for the various anxiety disorders. The authors are convinced that the most successful method, as I said before, is CBT, which seeks to retrain the patient to think differently about their experiences so as to relearn how to interpret the events that are causing them their anxiety (be it a phobia or the memories of a traumatic event). They also briefly touch on some medications that have proven useful to varying degrees of proficiency. This book was a helpful guide and introduction to the updated findings on the causes, effects, and treatments of various strands of anxiety disorder.

[Devin Moncada · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very short book like the title says. Feels like I understand the rules of the game. Playing the game is another thing entirely, but at least I know some of the rules.

[Amine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice read, it lives up to its namesake quite well.
Anxiety is not the most complicated of topics, yet it somehow eludes a lot of people.
I find the approach taken in this book interesting, starting with an attempt at definition and moving to more historical theoretical information that helps situate us in the present then going to the role anxiety plays and its place in and amongst the common psychiatric disorders.

[Lubna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Words: informative, relatable, and interesting

Comments:
- The scientific reasoning + the real life relatable examples make it easy to read and understand + the self-assessment questionnaires at the end is such an appreciated addition.

[Maryam · Rating 3 out of 5]

"You know those days when you've got the mean reds ... the blues are because you're getting fat or maybe it's been raining too long. You're sad, that's all. But the mean reds are horrible. You're afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don't know what you're afraid of. Except something bad is going to happen, only you don't know what it is."

- Holly Golightly in Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's

[Eman Khalid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good as a start.

[Justin Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Mai · Rating 5 out of 5]

وجدت الكتاب صوتيا مجانا على تطبيق منطوق للكتب الصوتية.

[Trương Đạt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a small volume into “Anxiety” - the very current problem that many of us are facing at the moment! I feel delighted and inspired after reading this book after knowing much more information about what I might/will experience.

The part which I like the most might be the Chapter 2 - Theories of Anxiety. The author successfully mapped out the four theories along with illustrative examples. Moreover, I can also relate some the text into the earlier literature that I have read on attachment theory. The part about how our brains react in these event really inspires me to pick up “The Brain: A Very Short Introduction” next.

The book can be improved by better structure, which I believe offer more information in the current volume. Some parts are a bit lengthy, while the some parts are discussed too briefly, but these are just personal thoughts. All in all, I would recommend this to everyone, especially the ones who are combating any form of anxiety disorder.

[سلمان التميمي 🇧🇭 · Rating 3 out of 5]

لشدة سطوته علي لم أملك سوى الانتصار للقلق مؤولاً بأنه يفيدني في تخيل المآلات المتحملة حتى لا تدهسني بعدما تدهشني لكن سنة تلو الأخرى جسد كان يتداعى : الارتجاف ، تسارع الوجيف ، رمشة العينين تسعة مرات في الثانية ، القشعريرة السارية في الوجه
كل ذلك كشف عن حقيقة جسدية : أن جسدي أضحوكة وفريسة سهلة لهذه النوبات ولذلك قررت من العدم العام الفائت : هذا سينتهي !
منذ أغسطس ٢٤ وأنا أمارس التأمل ، تغيرت حياتي ١٨٠ درجة ، أود الاستفاضة عن نجاعة الأثر والنتيجة البراقة التي انعكست على أفكاري ومبادئي لكن لدي كتب تختص به وقتها سأستطيع بسط تجربتي كلها في تقييمي لها ، القلق تضاءل كثيراً لكن ما بقي منه هو المتن ؛ ذلك الذي لا نستطيع محوه لأنه إيجابي أكثر من كونه سلبي ويدفعنا للتطور أكثر مما تجمدنا النسخة الأشر منه
أنا سعيد الآن لأني صرت أقلق حسب الشريعة وكما تقول دعاية شامبو بيبي جونسون : لا دموع بعد اليوم .
عن الكتاب : مفيد ولكن هناك كتب أشك أنها أفيد فهذا إما يمللك أو لا يسد جوعك .

[Carrie Scarr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like the others books in the "A Very Short Introduction" series, this volume provides a very brief introduction to a vast topic. Under the "anxiety" umbrella you'll also get a brief introduction into phobias, panic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and treatment. Anecdotes, such as Charles Darwin's anxiety disorder, demonstrates that anxiety disorders can manifest in even the most scientific brains. The sources list, listed by chapter, provides an excellent research guide for students.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

A decent overview of anxiety and issues, but was quite sparse and fragmented by the books structure. Each chapter covered a different aspect of anxiety, so it felt like a series of pamplets. Also, the section of case studies - Graham Taylor and Michael Palin - felt like a bit of a random/novelty item which didn't really contribute. I'd have preferred to see some more down-to-earth case studies rather than people doing work in the public eye and required to be high performance because of that.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

After much wringing of hands and biting of my nails, I decided this book was okay for people who are so chill that they have never frantically googled everything about anxiety anyway. So much of it is a review. However, one fun fact stuck in my head and has been a constant source of musing for days. We have about 4,000 thoughts a day. About 13% of thoughts are concurrent. So claims this book.

[C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anxiety is a reader friendly explanation of many types of mental health issues. The book provides definitions, examples and reasons for development of varios disorders such as anxiety, depression, OCD and PTSD. It speaks to common medications, treatments, studies, and potential outcomes.

This short book is a great source for those interested in the basics of mental health issues. There are also quizzes at the end of book. This A great resource.

[Alice Pickersgill · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Pretty comprehensive introduction to the clinical definition of anxiety and its many offshoots. Learn more here than I did in my NHS prescribed CBT sessions and they both took only 3 hours. Found it interesting how the majority of anxiety disorders disproportionately effect women and I'd definitely like to read more literature about that.

The interviews with Palin and Taylor felt pretty redundant, wordcount would definitely have been more effectively spent elsewhere.

[Ryo · Rating 5 out of 5]

近年來隨著大眾對心理健康的關注增加，對心理疾病的探討變得更為廣泛，且更容易理解，我們應該要嘗試去理解焦慮症運作的基本要素及它如何在不同的人身上產生不同的影響。

從本書中神經生物學的觀點來看，不少焦慮症的產生是源於基因（大約40%），再來就是環境的影響。 我們會感覺焦慮，這個過程牽涉到大腦好幾個區域的共同作用，科學家早在很久之前就發現大腦的邊緣系統在情緒的運作上扮演要角，其中被稱為「情緒電腦」的杏仁核儲存了無意識的恐懼記憶，甚至透過下視丘（功能在調節身體各種恆定）影響我們的自律神經系統。 焦慮的人大腦有幾項特徵，包括：過度活躍的杏仁核、不活躍的額葉（判斷及思考），以及失能的海馬迴（情境記憶），導致他們無法藉由過往經驗判斷生活中哪些屬危險信號，以至於產生莫名的焦慮與恐懼。

而為什麼我們的大腦會出現錯誤訊號，原因有很多，可能是遺傳，或是環境影響又或是生活經驗造就，但無論如何都並非單一原因而導致精神疾病。它就和身體其他部位的受損一樣，是自然會有的現象，絕不是不正常的，在面對任何精神疾病必須要有這樣的認知。

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

Competently written, in the sense of most books of this series. I especially liked the interviews of two well-known, healthy people - one a presenter, regularly confronting stage fright and one a trainer. responsible for helping elite athletes through high stress competitions - discussing their approaches to dealing with anxiety. That as a novel inclusion.

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great book and a lot better than some in the "very short introduction" series. I liked the way it was organized, and I liked how it took the time to point out where some of the opinions in modern psychiatry differ and things are still under debate. There's a reason they call it "practicing medicine" after all.

[Gogelescu Ion Petre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sunt de părere că dacă oamenii ar cunoaște înțelesul corect al unor termeni pe care îi aruncă în discuții mult prea ușor, atunci și-ar alege cuvintele cu mai multă grijă în conversațiile viitoare.

"Stress is defined as what we feel when we believe we can’t cope with the demands facing us."

[Ka'tje · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although it's an intro, some sections were just not really fitting in the book, and then the description of each distinct anxiety and its causes were too general in my view.

I did not get a lot out of this one, honestly.

[Monica Willyard Moen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a thorough introduction to the multiple schools of thought for treating anxiety and panic disorders. This is more of a tour guide then a treatment plan. As such, it is written well.

[M Pereira · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a very good introduction. I think this owes to the topic.

[Wei Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although really short, it covers more than what I expected and provides a very thorough coverage of all you need to know about anxiety.

[Ryan]

spiders are scared of you too.

[Miri Wa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viele Infos&Fachwörter

[Suzi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nope. Still not cured.