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Freaking Out: Real-Life Stories About Anxiety (2013)

by Polly Wells(Favorite Author)

3.79 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

1554515440 (ISBN13: 9781554515448)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Annick Press

review 1: This is an excellent book to read for anxiety sufferers young and old alike. For teens especially, though, it shows that they are not alone, it is not "just you" and there is hope and understanding that it can get better.I did not know that it could get better...not as a preteen, teen, in my twenties ...in fact it wasn't until my mid-thirties that things started to turn around for me. I stumbled across answers, that, had I continued to seek help, I might have found years before. I deal with IBS, which is nervewracking in itself, but not until age 35 or so did I realize the anxiety triggered the illness and not the other way around. A vicious, horrible cycle of: will I get sick today? I'm afraid I'll get sick...then getting sick due to the anxiety and stress, then being... more upset and stressed that I had got sick...validating my anxiety. Round and round we went, swirling the drain. It was so horrible at one point I was nearly a shut in. I tried diets and the doctors ran tests and we came up empty. I refused to see a therapist after a couple bad experiences - I thought they would all be like this or force me to get sick as exposure therapy.It doesn't work that way. The recommendation for cognative behavorial therapy is worth its weight in gold and those principals are some of the ones that finally started to help me (along with dietary changes, cutting out all caffeine, and lots of exercise to keep the edge off!).Now, three years later, I'm writing this in a hotel room 8 hours from home, with another 8 hours to drive today. My stomach and nerves are not great, but I can deal with it and reshape my thinking to a more positive perspective. If someone had suggested this trip 3 years ago, I would have felt sick just at the idea, and my follow up thought would have been "no way..."The stories in the book are not only educational for the understanding that anxiety comes in many different shapes, but each person describes their process in what helped them recover. Recommended for anxiety sufferers of most ages - parents might find it useful as a teaching tool for a younger child & tell them some of the less difficult stories (like the boy with the fear of dogs) to show them that it doesn't always just get worse and worse...
review 2: In compliance with FTC guidelines; I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.This was a quick read with meaningful stories.I was touched by the stories that each of these individuals shared. Each story had a unique premise dealing with anxiety in the teen years revolving around things many people have had to deal with when they were teens bringing the stories close to home and to heart.The stories are written in a straight forward manner and the language is easy to read.I am not sure it is a helpful book as it does not offer any real solutions to anxiety. It does offer a list of websites and books at the end that could further a persons understandings of anxiety. Perhaps it could be helpful to young teens who may think they are the only ones who are suffering from anxiety or OCD. less

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