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The Narrowing: A Journey Through Anxiety and the Body
An exploration of the connection between anxiety and the body by a clinical psychologist, drawing from the latest research as well as historical and cultural insights through time, arguing that only through understanding anxiety’s role in our lives can we transform it into resilience
Almost all of us are intimately familiar with anxiety, and with its increasing hold on our minds, our hopes and plans, and our bodies. But how well do we really understand it, and what can we do to transform it into something new—into resilience, or courage, or creativity?
In this extraordinary book, Dr. Alexandra Shaker, a clinical psychologist, takes us on a journey through the body—from brain to blood to heart to guts—to examine the connections between our emotional, psychological, and physical lives. She unravels what the body can teach us about anxiety, and what we can learn from our long cultural history of the anxious impulse.
Melding psychology, neuroscience, history, and literature, she considers why—despite all the checklists and therapies and scientific advancements—we are still struggling to outrun our oldest terrors, and how a new approach accepting anxiety as part of the human condition can help build resilience.
Almost all of us are intimately familiar with anxiety, and with its increasing hold on our minds, our hopes and plans, and our bodies. But how well do we really understand it, and what can we do to transform it into something new—into resilience, or courage, or creativity?
In this extraordinary book, Dr. Alexandra Shaker, a clinical psychologist, takes us on a journey through the body—from brain to blood to heart to guts—to examine the connections between our emotional, psychological, and physical lives. She unravels what the body can teach us about anxiety, and what we can learn from our long cultural history of the anxious impulse.
Melding psychology, neuroscience, history, and literature, she considers why—despite all the checklists and therapies and scientific advancements—we are still struggling to outrun our oldest terrors, and how a new approach accepting anxiety as part of the human condition can help build resilience.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published March 4, 2025
16 people are currently reading
3758 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 5, 2025
3.5 stars - This book just didn’t hit the same way I thought it would. Even though a lot of the concepts were relatable, the writing felt unreachable and esoteric to me. I felt my attention wandering pretty frequently, which isn’t a great sign. I did feel like the research was thorough, and I appreciated the author sharing her own history with anxiety.
June 22, 2025
I feel a little bad about the rating. This book is lovely—thoughtful, carefully researched and well-written by someone who feels deeply and empathically.
The problem is that psychology is an arrogant field, that sneaks blinders onto even the most loving and compassionate of its practitioners.
You can’t write a book like this and ignore all the work that’s been done by members of the neurodiversity movement. You just can’t. It’s irresponsible and arrogant, even if not intentionally so. You need to grapple with the pathology paradigm and be aware of theories like monotropism and kinetic attention styles. You need to reckon with the work of Jim Sinclair, Nick Walker, and even Judy Singer, TERF though she may be.
As a late diagnosed autistic person, I winced a lot when reading this. Throughout my life, when I was being treated for “depression”, I was seen by scores of mental health professionals. But ultimately, the first person to figure out that I was autistic was me. At age 33, I steered myself into the paths of practitioners who specialize in autism, and to them my autism was obvious. But I can tell from reading that Dr Shaker would have missed my obvious autism if I’d shown up in her office. The line I found perhaps most alarming is when she wonders if when her son lines up his rice cakes, it’s a sign that he’s inherited her anxiety. (Ali, if you’re seeing a lot of this from him, consider an autism assessment! And maybe, while you’re at it, take a glance at Samantha Craft’s unofficial female autism checklist.)
So it worries me a lot that this book doesn’t do enough to address how often what gets diagnosed as anxiety is actually something else altogether. I’m still grappling with the anger I feel about how long I was told that my dysautonomia symptoms from POTS were just anxiety. A panic attack may not be a heart attack, but tachycardia needs to be investigated by a cardiologist, not dismissed.
Anyway. Like I said, it’s a lovely book written by a lovely person. But it doesn’t escape the biases of the field that informs it.
The problem is that psychology is an arrogant field, that sneaks blinders onto even the most loving and compassionate of its practitioners.
You can’t write a book like this and ignore all the work that’s been done by members of the neurodiversity movement. You just can’t. It’s irresponsible and arrogant, even if not intentionally so. You need to grapple with the pathology paradigm and be aware of theories like monotropism and kinetic attention styles. You need to reckon with the work of Jim Sinclair, Nick Walker, and even Judy Singer, TERF though she may be.
As a late diagnosed autistic person, I winced a lot when reading this. Throughout my life, when I was being treated for “depression”, I was seen by scores of mental health professionals. But ultimately, the first person to figure out that I was autistic was me. At age 33, I steered myself into the paths of practitioners who specialize in autism, and to them my autism was obvious. But I can tell from reading that Dr Shaker would have missed my obvious autism if I’d shown up in her office. The line I found perhaps most alarming is when she wonders if when her son lines up his rice cakes, it’s a sign that he’s inherited her anxiety. (Ali, if you’re seeing a lot of this from him, consider an autism assessment! And maybe, while you’re at it, take a glance at Samantha Craft’s unofficial female autism checklist.)
So it worries me a lot that this book doesn’t do enough to address how often what gets diagnosed as anxiety is actually something else altogether. I’m still grappling with the anger I feel about how long I was told that my dysautonomia symptoms from POTS were just anxiety. A panic attack may not be a heart attack, but tachycardia needs to be investigated by a cardiologist, not dismissed.
Anyway. Like I said, it’s a lovely book written by a lovely person. But it doesn’t escape the biases of the field that informs it.
April 29, 2025
Ultimately not what I expected. I often found myself battling through lengthy passages that just kept on circling around a certain concept wrapped in a tone that is supposed to make you emotional and more absorbed into the matter but they just fail at achieving that. Many times I felt relieved having plowed through those parts, feeling excited to dive deep into the research only to be left disappointed because it turns out it's just a few sentences that barely scratch the surface. There are some nuggets of gold in there which I found very useful but getting there was draining for me. I agree with the need to balance cold, scientifical facts with humanist approach but in my personal experience I was left disappointed.
March 18, 2025
Rating=3.75 stars This book discusses anxiety through the interconnectedness of the body's systems, blood, guts, heart, and brain. Research based without being overly academic, Shaker uses anecdotes of her own experiences of living with anxiety and shares her insights from examining what has been learned from psychology, neuroscience, history, mythology, and literature. The writing is thoughtful and from time to time Shaker shows us her sense of humor amid the seriousness of the subject matter.
March 21, 2025
Interesting research. Normalizing anxiety and an interesting take on anxiety. I too, found myself thinking of other things while reading-being distracted. I will be passing and sharing this book with others as It is worth while and informative.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews