More Help for Your Nerves

by Claire Weekes

Discusses the development, symptoms, prevention, and treatment of nervous disorders, examining the problem of nervous fatigue, explaining how to break the pattern of nervous suffering, and answering queries about nerve ailments.

Genres: Self Help

182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Dr Hazel Claire Weekes MBE was an Australian general practitioner and health writer. She also had an early career as a research scientist working in the field of comparative reproduction. She is considered by some as the pioneer of modern anxiety treatment via Cognitive Therapy. She continues to be noted for her books on dealing with anxiety disorders. Many of today's anxiety self-help books continue to cite her work.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

"He looks back with longing at the person he used to be, the person who could sit peacefully and enjoy a good book, or happily watch television, and he apprehensively counts the weeks, months, even years since he was that person. He reasons that if he cannot become himself again by fighting, how else can he? Fighting is his natural defence, the only weapon he knows, so he fights harder. But the harder he fights, the worse he becomes. Naturally - for fighting means more tension, tension more adrenaline and further stimulation of the adrenaline-releasing nerves, and so the continuation of the symptoms."

"Many people trying to recover from nervous illness have the feeling that they must struggle up, up, out of some depth, almost as if they have to drag themselves out of some kind of bog to finally feel on top of things; on the same level as life around them.
Time, more time and acceptance make the impossible gradually possible. The bog becomes dry land."


"Recovery, like all healing, must be given time. Understandably the nervously ill person is impatient with time and wants immediate appeasement; but impatience means tension and tension is the enemy of healing.
The sufferer removes a big obstacle to recovery when he understands that sensitisation is a chemical process and needs time for chemical readjustment. A still sensitised body can be deceptively calm in a calm atmosphere but a body even only slightly sensitised cannot always maintain calmness when under renewed stress. So time, more time, must pass. Time itself is a healer. It's rather like the donkey and the carrot. The carrot (recovery) must be shifted just a little further forward during each setback but always remain within sight."

[Cheesecake · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book follows the first; 'Hope and Help With Your Nerves' with even more examples. It talks more about the many symptoms of anxiety and reasures you that you are not a faker or a 'nervous Nelly.' The first book says all you need to know, but this book was reasuring. It's about the same size as the first book.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

In her recordings, Claire Weekes sounds so confident, knowledgeable, kind and encouraging that merely listening helps me feel better about whatever is going on and I credit her with surviving some difficult times.

When I read her books I hear her speaking and feel much the same way. To me she offers one of the most effective ways of dealing with anxiety I have found.

I’m summarizing my take on the process here, but read for yourself! I don’t want to turn anyone off to it by misrepresenting what Dr. Weekes is saying (or said since she passed awhile ago).

The problem of anxiety comes from sensitization, bewilderment, and fear. Through trauma, illness, ongoing problems/stress, or maybe pandemic, one may get an adrenaline rush at the smallest things and then become bewildered at the sensitivity. Then one begins to be afraid of the anxiety, thus heightening sensitivity and so a cycle begins that can become quite debilitating and can result in ongoing fatigue and depression.

However, in an otherwise healthy person, anxiety won’t cause a heart attack or make one faint or anything like that (I guess sorbitol over the long haul causes various problems). The fear cycle is nothing more than a chemical reaction in the body’s glands. There’s a finite amount of anxiety-inducing chemical available at any given time so acute panic can only last as long as the hormone supply lasts. Realizing this can help reduce the fear of the fear and begin to break the cycle of anxiety and panic.

Then you accept the problem and the symptoms and face them (move to solve the problem or make some compromise to live with it). Then you learn to float through the symptoms of anxiety, ie rather than fighting them or tensing up, breathe, embrace them and allow yourself to experience them. Let time pass-after enough practice, you lose the fear of anxiety, desensitize and realize you can get through it; the panic and anxiety recede and you’re on the way to recovery.

It’s straightforward but not easy and you might need some help. I did, but you don’t necessarily need in depth analysis or some major catharsis to get better.

[Emilio · Rating 5 out of 5]

muy buenos los libros de weekes claire los recomiendo a todos quisiera leerlos pero todos