Unworried: A Life Without Anxiety

by Gregory K. Popcak

Anxiety. It’s practically an epidemic. Twenty percent of Americans suffer from anxiety disorders, and millions more wrestle with worry and stress on a daily basis. For us as Christians, all that worry gets mixed up with a lot of guilt. After all, Scripture tells us, “Have no anxiety at all” (Phil 4:6).

How can we stop worrying and start living an anxiety-free life? As you’ll learn in Unworried: A Life Without Anxiety, the answer isn’t “just pray more” or “just read more Scripture” or, worst of all, “just stop worrying.” If we learn to respect how God made us, we can build new habits of thinking, communicating, and acting that will help set us free from worry.

Dr. Gregory Popcak integrates insights from our Catholic Faith with cutting-edge psychological research to help the anxious reader form a comprehensive plan for conquering anxiety and living a life of true peace.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Gregory Popcak is the founder/director of CatholicCounselors.com, a Catholic telecounseling practice providing faithful solutions to tough marriage, family, and personal problems. A Fellow of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and a Board Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work, Dr. Popcak serves as an Associate Professor of Pastoral Studies and the director of the online Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies program at Holy Apostles College. Together with his wife Lisa, he hosts More2Life, which airs each weekday at 10 am Eastern/9 am Central on EWTN Radio affiliates across the country and on SiriusXM130.

Genres: Catholic, Nonfiction, Faith, Religion, Psychology

195 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 11, 2018

About the author

Dr. Gregory Popcak is the Executive Director of the Pastoral Solutions Institute, an organization dedicated to helping Catholics find faith-filled solutions to tough marriage, family, and personal problems. The author of over a dozen popular books integrating solid Catholic theology and counseling psychology (including; For Better…FOREVER!, Holy Sex!, Parenting with Grace, Beyond the Birds and the Bees), Dr. Popcak is an expert on the practical applications of the Theology of the Body. Through the Pastoral Solutions Institute, he directs a group pastoral tele-counseling practice that provides ongoing pastoral psychotherapy services to Catholic couples, individuals and families around the world. Since 2001, he and his wife and co-author, Lisa Popcak, have hosted several nationally-syndicated, call-in radio advice programs including Heart, Mind and Strength (Ave Maria Radio 2001-2010), Fully Alive! (Sirius/XM-The Catholic Channel 2007-2010), and most recently, More2Life (Ave Maria Radio–Airing M-F, Noon-1pm Eastern– 2010-Present). They have also hosted two for EWTN (For Better…FOREVER! & God Help Me!). Dr. Popcak’s articles appear regularly in Catholic periodicals such as Catholic Digest, Family Foundations, and others. Dr. Greg Popcak and Lisa Popcak are sought after public speakers and trainers and have been honored to address audiences across North America, Australia, and Hong Kong.

In addition to his ministry work, Dr. Popcak serves as adjunct faculty for the Franciscan University of Steubenville in both the sociology and graduate theology departments where he teaches Christianity & Society and Pastoral & Spiritual Direction respectively. He also serves on the faculty of the doctor of social work program for the Harold Abel School of Behavioral Health at Capella University.

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have really benefitted from this book. Popcak presents a well-rounded Catholic approach to recognising anxiety patterns in your life and practicing techniques to combat them one little step at a time.

I particularly liked the recommendation to apply relevant virtues to particular situations that cause stress (e.g. the virtues of patience and perspective when stressed by little children, prayerfulness when being over-consumed by work, etc).

I also enjoyed the sections on strengthening relationships in our lives. Popcak stipulates that the presence of strong relationships is one of our greatest protectors against anxiety. Reasons for this are that we need people to lean on for support and we feel good about ourselves when we experience healthy relationships.

Popcak also spends some time talking about prayer and having a heart of gratitude as it moves our focus from self to God's generosity and loving care of us.

A great read!

[Ciara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great Catholic guide to help you through anxiety. It is a book I will be re-reading again

[Ciarán · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful blueprint of peace.

This book is like having a therapist, a spiritual director and a friend to confide in. If your looking for a good mental health resource without all of the New Age nonsense, then look no further then this book.

[Honza Prchal · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's a lot of psychological preparatory throat clearing, for example useful information starts comin around page 42 and then there's a long pause until half-way through before it resumes, but this little book is actually quite useful, and thought provoking.
I strongly suspect that many readers will need the preparation to really get into this. Personally, I p[refer to get right to the point, but most people with anxiety likely aren't so into "chop-chop, this is what to start doing!"

[Shelley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! It had so many practical tips and strategies for the mildly anxious all the way to someone with full-blown anxiety. The author, Dr. Gregory Popcak the founder/director of Catholiccounselors.com.

[Stephen Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helpful advice

If you're down and out with anxiety, I feel this book will encourage you to grow strong we through good advice. Bee ready to change.

[Elaine]

This book was recommended to me by the wife of my marriage mentor couple while my husband and I prepped to be married. Though page 86, I was mostly onboard, with few arguments. I have been through a DBT program, which has done wonders for me. I also promote talk therapy (CBT), life style changes, and both supplements and medications for treatment of anxiety, meeting the needs of individuals. Dr. Popcak, not a psychiatrist mind you, flat our recommends on page 88 that one does CBT alone, ie no medications, to truly recover from anxiety. While I agree that popping a Xanax every time you're anxious won't help you recover, this spits on so much research based on ONE STUDY HE READ TO SUPPORT HIS OPINION. You wouldn't tell someone with overt physical ailments not to take meds, that they must learn to fix their diabetes on their own to truly recover. At that point, I chose not to finish this book. The opinion is too skewed.

[Sean Pirmann]

DNF the book stated “we will get to this topic in this chapter” “you will hear more about this in this chapter” Too many unnecessary statements. Majority of the things I was reading I already knew from being a psychology major, but may be interesting to some. I did learn one thing from this book, but other than that I dnfed 40 pages in.