Courtney S’s Reviews > Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety > Status Update

"Whenever I felt my mind tracing dire consequences again...simply lift my eyes, raise my hands, and shout, 'Bring it on! Lemme see what you've got!'"

"there is no cure for anxiety, just perpetual treatment....the only nonnegotiable approach to the anxious life is discipline."

"'if you're in a house that's on fire explain to me the logic of sending in the marshal to figure out what caused the fire. Wouldn't it make sense to - oh, I don't know- out it out first?'"

"Musico-visual Prozac: that's *Singin' in the Rain*."

"Anxiety is...a disorder of choice. It begins with a doubt about the self and if that doubt is not isolated and slaughtered immediately it will breed like vermin."

"the only choices that have permanent consequences are creating life and ending it...I hadn't even acted maliciously. I had worked hard and tried my best and hoped to do well, to do good."

"Intimations of catastrophe can be kept secret. But sweat - sweat is the mark of Cain."

"'Nothing bad is going to happen. You're not dying. You're not going crazy. It just *feels* like you're going crazy. But that's all this is. You have to see that. that's all it is: a feeling. It isn't real. it's just a feeling.'"

"Anxious people breathe too quickly, and from the upper parts of the lungs, increasing the heart rate and throwing off pH balance and resulting in all sorts of unpleasant physiological changes. learning to breathe slowly and more deeply is sound advice."

"Kierkegaard was right: To be human is to be anxious. But that's just the starting point. The next and most important step is learning how to discipline your anxiety without smothering it."