My Age of Anxiety

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind Hardcover – Deckle Edge, January 7, 2014

Author: Visit Amazon's Scott Stossel Page | Language: English | ISBN: 0307269876 | Format: PDF, EPUB

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My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind – Deckle Edge, January 7, 2014
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• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (January 7, 2014)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307269876
• ISBN-13: 978-0307269874
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,905 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Psychology & Counseling > History
  • #11 in Books > Medical Books > Psychology > Neuropsychology
  • #12 in Books > Health, Fitness & Dieting > Mental Health > Anxiety Disorders

Who knew that Freud, Darwin, Gandhi and Moses all suffered what could be viewed as anxiety disorders at times? Or that many other great achievers did as well, including Harvard deans and the Atlantic editor who wrote this tome? If you dread public speaking, suffer nervous stomach, obsess over phobias, or hail from a family of worriers, "My Age of Anxiety" might very well make you feel better. The author has been through all of that plus a hundred times more, including losing bowel control at the Kennedy Compound one weekend when he was conducting interviews and getting raw sewage all over their guest bathroom, its rug, and himself. He grew up with a morbid fear of vomiting and, lucky for us readers, exceptional powers of self expression and research. The book chronicles his own life struggles and study of anxiety and is both highly readable and tremendously informative, just like an award-winning Atlantic article on the subject would be.

No matter how much you've read about anxiety, this is likely to offer something more either in the very moving and often stunning personal account or the thoughtful analysis and detail. The book excels in what it covers, mainly the medical model and treatment of anxiety and Mr. Stossel's own hellish experiences. Where it falls somewhat short is in providing enough information on how a man so encumbered by intrusive symptoms and insecurities could manage to excel at Harvard and become a successful editor of a national magazine.

There's also not much on the benefits of exercise, mindfulness meditation, self compassion, or dialectical behavior therapy, and I'd like to see the author delve into these more, as he has other treatments, and report back, both for his own sake and for ours.

You do not have to be one of the 40 million Americans* with an anxiety disorder to appreciate Scott Stossel's My Age of Anxiety. Whether or not a reader believes anxiety is worthy of a prized DSM slot and a handshake from Big Pharma, chances are we've all felt its claws at times. Anxiety and stress do seem to be the current Modern Human Condition. (* Source: NIMH dot NIH dot GOV, using US Census data)

Stossel combines survey and memoir so engagingly that I occasionally forgot the topic was how unmanageable anxiety had made his life. I like that his presence throughout the book is not intrusive, or worse, pitiable. He does not overwhelm with dry history and there is no hard lobby for a cause or a position. There is humor and authentic humanity here; most importantly, there is also hope.

In the first few pages, Stossel shares that he has known anxiety since the age of 2. Has anything worked? Surprisingly, no, or at least not for any length of time. And in the last pages, he admits that writing this book is in part self-therapy. In between these auspicious pages Stossel covers:

~ ~ ~ the definitive nature of the beast (Is it an illness? A disorder? A conditioned response?

My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind – Deckle Edge, January 7, 2014 Download

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