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6 Books For Dealing With Anxiety

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Disclosure: I was provided anxiety books for this post.6-books-for-dealing-with-anxiety

Suffering from anxiety can be debilitating. Once an anxiety attack hits, it is hard to control the worry, the panic and the endless spiral of anxious thoughts. Anxiety is scary because it can take over many aspects of your life. Anxiety can easily get out of control if you allow it.

Being a perfectionist myself, I am frequently anxious. I am an over-thinker and an over-worrier. Calming my anxious mind takes effort and awareness on my part. But I don’t want anxiety to control me – that is why I use practical tips for controlling anxiety that I’ve found in these books. If you suffer from anxiety, worry and panic, the following books will be helpful for dealing with anxiety!

1) Don’t Let Your Anxiety Run Your Life – Using the Science of Emotion Regulation and Mindfulness to Overcome Fear and Worry By: David H. Klemanski PsyD, Joshua Curtiss MA, Stefan Hofmann PhD

About the Book:anxiety-run-your-life
Anxiety is an epidemic in our modern world. But studies now show there is a direct link between anxiety and how you respond to emotions. Don’t Let Your Anxiety Run Your Life provides a groundbreaking, step-by-step guide for managing the thoughts and feelings that cause anxiety, worry, fear, and panic.Are your emotions causing you anxiety? Emotions can be quite beneficial—they help us communicate with others, and are deeply connected to special and important memories in our lives. But sometimes, emotions can have unwanted consequences, especially when they cause us fear or anxiety.

Studies now show a direct link between emotion regulation and anxiety. Based in the latest research from a Yale University psychologist and professor, the simple yet powerful mindfulness tips in this book will help you stay calm, collected, and make significant improvements in your everyday life, whether at work, at home, or in your relationships. Read more at New Harbinger…

My Thoughts:

Overcoming anxiety is no easy feat, but I am done with it running my life! This book showed me that my emotions are directly connected to anxiety. After all, I already knew that I am HSP (highly sensitive person) and can be very emotional. Using the mindful practices in the book, I can work to regulate and manage my emotions to control my anxiety. The “outsmarting anxiety skills” throughout the book have given me the knowledge and power to overcome anxiety!

2) The Antianxiety Food Solution – How the Foods You Eat Can Help You Calm Your Anxious Mind, Improve Your Mood, and End Cravings By: Trudy Scott CN, James Lake MD

About the Book:anti-anxiety-food-solution
It’s remarkable how much the foods we eat can impact our brain chemistry and emotions. What and when we eat can make the difference between feeling anxious and staying calm and in control. But most of us don’t realize how much our diets influence our moods, thoughts, and feelings until we make a change.
 
In The Antianxiety Food Solution, you’ll find four unique antianxiety diets designed to help you address nutritional deficiencies that may be at the root of your anxiety and enjoy the many foods that foster increased emotional balance. This helpful guide allows you to choose the best plan for you and incorporates effective anxiety-busting foods and nutrients. You’ll soon be on the path to freeing yourself from anxiety—and enjoying an improved overall mood, better sleep, fewer cravings, and optimal health—the natural way! Read more at New Harbinger…
 
My Thoughts:
This book lays out good foods and bad foods when you are trying to calm you anxious mind. They have a few diet options, not a set in stone for everyone. Since I was already gluten free, this book convinced me I should be dairy free too. One of the most important chapters for me was the Balance Brain Chemistry with Amino Acids.  I learned a ton about GABA, Seratonin, Catecholamines, and Endorphines – so much new information to me! I found the questionnaires in this book to be very helpful too.

3) Calming the Rush of Panic – A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Guide to Freeing Yourself from Panic Attacks and Living a Vital Life By: Bob Stahl PhD, Wendy Millstine NC

About the Book:calming-rush-of-panic
Do you constantly feel anxious? Do you have panic attacks that make you feel as though you are about to lose control? You are not alone. In fact, anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions faced by our society. Perhaps you’ve tried therapy or medication and have not found any real, lasting relief for your symptoms. So where do you go from here?
 
Calming the Rush of Panic will introduce you to the practices of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR)-a proven-effective meditational method developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn-as a way to work through episodes of panic. After an informative introduction to MBSR, you will be guided through a number of exploratory practices and meditations to transform your panic into peace.” Each chapter in the book contains informational background on the topic, guided meditations, and up to 10 practices that let you put the information and skills you will learn into action.The book promotes mindfulness-based practices and exercises to help you deal with the physical, emotional, and mental effects of panic, and inside you will learn foundational MBSR meditation practices, including mindful breathing, sitting meditation, and loving-kindness meditation. Read more at New Harbinger…

My Thoughts:
This book is a little bit bigger than pocket size, making it an easy book to carry around. Having this stress reduction guide by my side means I can quickly open a page that I have highlighted mindfulness tips that help me. I was really touched by the chapter Calming the Rush of Panic in your Thoughts and the section “Cope with Your Fear of Illness”. Suffering with IBS and digestive disorders makes me very anxious. When my fearful thoughts appear, I calm my panic by returning my focus to the here and now, not the unpredictable future. 

4) In This Moment – Five Steps to Transcending Stress Using Mindfulness and Neuroscience By: Kirk D. Strosahl PhD, Patricia J. Robinson PhD

About the Book:in-this-moment-anxiety
Little daily hassles can add up to big, big stress.Whether you’re stuck in traffic, hauling your kids out the front door in the morning, dealing with a demanding boss, or worrying about money, it’s easy to become overwhelmed. Stress is a normal part of daily life; but over time, chronic stress can take its toll on both your mental and physical health, leading to everything from anxiety and depression to weight gain and disease. So how can you move past the little hassles that get in the way of fully enjoying life?

In This Moment will show you how to find a sense of calm and serenity using a breakthrough, evidence-based program grounded in mindfulness and neuroscience. Imagine feeling stressed, and being able to work through it by paying attention to your thoughts and feelings, moment by moment, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. Read more at New Harbinger…

My Thoughts:
This book helped me combat anxiety in a very simple way. Kirk Strosahl and Patricia Robinson have included a number of exercises in this book that I can practice. I can work at the exercises a little each day and I can use these anxiety tips to combat stress, stay balanced, and live in the here and now. It is kind of like a anxiety study book, I use it on a daily basis, instead of just reading it once and am done with it. It is getting a lot of use and the exercises are working!

5) Natural Relief for Anxiety – Complementary Strategies for Easing Fear, Panic, and Worry By: Edmund Bourne PhD, Arlen Brownstein ND, Lorna Garano

About the Book:natural-relief-for-anxiety
Twenty-five million Americans suffer from diagnosable anxiety disorder, and our cultural climate seems to breed more apprehension and fear with each passing day. It is no surprise that international pharmaceutical companies spend billions each year to research and develop psychoactive drugs that counter psychological symptoms. Unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any magic pill for people who are chronically anxious. Successful treatments that rely on drugs have an extremely high incidence of relapse, and the side effects of most prescription anti-anxiety drugs are as debilitating as the disorder itself.
 
The authors begin with an introduction to healthy lifestyle choices. Then they discuss a variety of conditions that can aggravate anxiety-related problems. Read more at New Harbinger…
 
My Thoughts:
I am a believer that there is no magic drug to solve anxiety. Of course when doctors hear “anxiety” they immediately push “anxiety drugs”. Instead of pushing drugs, this book takes a drug-free natural approach to anxiety. Some of the natural ideas for anxiety are using herbs and supplements, massage, chiropractic, and homeopathy. Just what I was looking for – natural solutions to help solve my anxiety. I loved this book so much that I am going get The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, by the same author. It is a best selling book and I’ve heard great things about it. 

6) Coping with Anxiety – Ten Simple Ways to Relieve Anxiety, Fear, and Worry By: Edmund Bourne PhD, Lorna Garano

About the Book:coping-with-anxiety
Relieve anxiety, fear, and worry for good! Fully revised and based in the latest research, this second edition of Coping with Anxiety includes the latest DSM updates and provides immediate, user-friendly, and effective strategies to stop anxiety at its source.
 
If you suffer from anxiety, you may try to avoid the situations that cause you to feel uneasy. But avoidance isn’t the answer—and letting your fears and worries constantly hold you back will keep you from living the life you truly want. So, how can you learn to cope with your anxiety while it’s happening? Read more at New Harbinger…
 
My Thoughts:
Another book by Edmund Bourne that is just as helpful in showing my how to cope with anxiety. This book offers and easy to follow step by step approach to overcoming all layers of anxiety. The exercises in this book are important for when I need to reign in my anxious mind. I find the exercise to calm me before my fear takes over. If you want to take charge of your anxiety now this is a wonderful book.

If you are dealing with anxiety, stress and worry, you are not alone! I have made great progress in fixing my anxiety with these 6 Books for Anxiety. Each book has different tools and insights, giving solutions to dealing with anxiety, fear and worries. Don’t let anxiety rule you, pick up one of the anxiety books and be rid of anxiety for life! You deserve it!

How do you deal with your anxiety?

What anxiety book(s) looks the most interesting to you?