Coping with Anxiety

Ten Simple Ways to Relieve Anxiety, Fear and Worry

New Harbinger, 2016

15 min read

10 take-aways

Audio & text

What's inside?

This handy guide explains how to deal with anxiety, stop worrying and love your life.

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In this user-friendly workbook, Edmund Bourne and Lorna Garano take you by the hand to help you understand anxiety and what you can do about it. The authors start by asking why more people are suffering anxiety now than in the past. About 50 million people in the US suffered from this malady in 2015. Bourne and Garano designed their book to help readers handle anxiety by relaxing their bodies and minds – and by developing the capacity to deal with life realistically. getAbstract recommends this manual to anyone who wants a primer on anxiety – whether for yourself or to help a relative, friend, employee or colleague.

Summary

“Acute Anxiety”

More people – about 50 million of them in the US in 2015 – suffer from acute anxiety than ever before. Of course, people confronted difficulties in the past, but modern society promotes anxiety.

Three elements generate anxiety:

The rapidity of change in modern societies.
A lack of agreement on moral and social norms to live by.
An increasing disaffection with “postindustrial society’s” functioning.

People feel vulnerable and anxious when they lack attachment to something greater than themselves – perhaps a mission, the good of society or faith in the divine. People can regain a sense of security and comfort by caring about other people or about situations that lie beyond their own concerns.

To understand anxiety, first distinguish it from other psychological states. When you experience fear, your emotions focus on specific, concrete issues around you. For instance, you could fear losing the approval of someone important to you.

Your sense of anxiety could preoccupy you, especially if you don’t know why you feel anxious. To tackle anxiety, address your body, behavior and...

About the Authors

Former director of the Anxiety Treatment Centers in California, Edmund Bourne earned his PhD in behavioral sciences. His bestsellers include The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook and Beyond Phobia and Anxiety. Lorna Garano is a freelance writer.

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D. T. 5 years ago

I got it very useful,I think everyone should read this book
J. F. 5 years ago

This summary contains very practical tips to manage anxiety. Well worth reading.
A. 6 years ago

I never knew how much one could suffer from anxiety .. this is very interesting read to learn more about those with anxiety and how to guide them. I knew it was a medical disorder and I believe strongly in facing ones fears in controlling it.

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