Worry
Hope and Help for a Common Condition
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4.0 • 4 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Here is the first book to explore every facet of the most common and debilitating emotional state: worry. While a healthy level of worry can help us perform efficiently at work, anticipate dangers, and learn from past errors, in its extreme forms worry can become "toxic"--poisoning our pleasures, sabotaging our achievements, and preventing us from resolving actual problems.
In this lucid, reassuring book, Dr. Hallowell discusses all types of worry, explores their underlying causes, and considers the best strategies for coping. Case histories and anecdotes illuminate such issues as worry in relationships; the correlation between worry and conditions like , depression, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder; worry at work; and the worried child. In an effective section titled "Remedies That Work," Dr. Hallowell shows us how to evaluate, control, and manage worry, both with and without medication.
Even "born" worriers can learn to use their worry wisely and channel it healthily. This book is the key. Filled with practical solutions and insightful guidance, Worry is an invaluable aid to living a happier, calmer, and more rewarding emotional life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Noting that "not all worry is bad," Hallowell distinguishes between "wise worry that alerts you to real danger" and "unwise worry that serves no useful purpose and can hamper your life." In this engaging book, the Harvard Medical School senior lecturer and coauthor of Driven to Distraction examines "toxic" worry and its underlying causes and manifestations, and offers various means for getting back control. (Depression, panic disorders and a host of anxiety disorders can all result from uncurbed, undue forethought, he says.) Hallowell asserts that, due to genetic brain chemistry, some people are inherently prone to fear, anxiety and negative thinking, and cannot control excessive worry once it has taken hold of them. However, he also provides abundant information on a wide variety of alleviating treatments. Hallowell advises structure and organization ("planning instead of worrying"), exercise, adequate sleep, a healthy diet, controlled breathing, alcohol avoidance, talking, prayer or meditation and many other practices to be tried in combination with the many professional therapies and medications (such as Prozac) currently available. In a voice both authoritative and compassionate, Hallowell thoroughly explores a topic that touches nearly everyone in this age of anxiety.
Customer Reviews
Worry
This book is most helpful in identifying why we worry and how it can be managed. I have read it 5 times and refer to it often as my bible on worry. It tells stories of real people and worry that everyone can identify with. Lots of simple strategies to decrease worry in your life.