The Anxiety Book: Information on panic attacks, health anxiety, postnatal depression and parenting the anxious child

Description

There are so many reasons to be anxious these days - even people who have never suffered from anxiety before are finding 2020 hard to handle. Life can be hard even without drought, bushfires and the coronavirus. We are all feeling anxious about our health, in particular - and journalist Elisa Black knows exactly what that's like. Over one-tenth of Australians suffer from an anxiety-related condition and Elisa is one of them. In The Anxiety Book Elisa weaves memoir with science, using the stages of her own life to relate to stages in everyone's lives and the types of anxiety that may be experienced during each phase, including health anxiety. She includes the latest in research and other scientific information about anxiety, its causes and treatment. Elisa's story will inspire fellow anxiety sufferers to believe that there is a way to manage their condition and live more freely. From her own experience she also offers hope that anxiety does not have to dominate a life, or even dent it - it can be managed and conquered. For those of us who now find that each day brings more anxiety, this book can show you the way forward.

It was only following a misguided spell in a German girl band that Elisa finally settled on a career in journalism a decade ago. After post-grad study at the University of South Australia, she moved to Brisbane where she spent her first weeks in newspapers covering the sports round, rapidly learning there is, in fact, no such thing as a handball in rugby. A stint in magazines and feature writing followed before she returned to Adelaide to work first as an entertainment reporter and then as health and family reporter for a weekend newspaper. She vacillates between hoping desperately for a resurgence in the popularity of the written word, and terror that, one day, her boys will read exactly what she has been writing about them. Elisa's website: elisablack.com.au

Covering topics from disgust and phobias, to social anxiety and recovery, it is an extensive, important read. This book is an ideal first step for people who want to learn more about mental illness - Salvation Army an eye-opener for all - Haven refreshing ... I feel I have sat down and talked with someone who gets me, someone who shows me that even my darkness can be appealing, and potentially useful - WellbeingAtWorkDr honest, searching and well-researched and contains surprising (and necessary) moments of humour - MostlyBooks.com.au