Undoing Perpetual Stress
The Missing Connection Between Depression, Anxiety and 21stCentury Illness
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
The author of Undoing Depression presents an effective guide to modern anxiety, and shows how you can recognize—and rescue yourself from—its effects.
Twenty-first-century life evolves at a breakneck pace—and with it, stress seems to multiply by the day. We work long, harrowing hours. We fret over our families and finances. Our e-mail beeps and our cell phones ring. But our nervous systems were never meant to handle so many stressors.
In this groundbreaking book, psychotherapist Richard O’Connor explains how a wide range of common problems—both emotional and physical—are actually side effects of modern life, and how you can undo their damage. Combining expertise with down-to-earth language, Undoing Perpetual Stress explains how you can:
• Recognize the hidden effects of stress on your brain and body
• Understand your inner sanity in conflict with a crazy world
• Develop self-control over how you think, act and feel when stressed
• Regain a sense of meaning and purpose in your life
You already know how to “do” stress. With the help of this book, you can undo it, too.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
According to psychotherapist O'Connor (Undoing Depression), the human brain and nervous system cannot process the constant stress that is accepted as inevitable today, resulting in an alarming rise in chronic illness, depression and anxiety. Using current mind/body research, he shows how the brain and nervous system respond to stress; how the body manifests these changes; and how negative patterns become vicious cycles of mental, emotional and physical illness. O'Connor says there are many studies implicating stress as a major factor in heart disease, diabetes, cancer and such difficult to treat conditions as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, but the health-care establishment hasn't been able to adequately help patients make the lifestyle modifications needed for lasting change. To that end, he suggests mindfulness techniques to help readers identify mental and emotional programming and defense mechanisms, make healthy choices and form life-affirming habits. O'Connor's vast subject ranges from everyday stress to deep-seated emotional trauma and serious mental illness, and this work may overwhelm readers in the acute phase of a stress-related condition, although they will likely find O'Connor's compassionate understanding helpful. The book may be of greatest value to professionals who work therapeutically with patients, and readers interested in the mind/body connection who are ready to make major changes in their lives to combat stress.
