Living With Anxiety: A Clinically-tested Step-by-step Plan For Drug-free Management

by Bob Montgomery, Laurel Morris

According to a 1999 Surgeon General's report, "Anxiety disorders are the most common, or frequently occurring, mental disorders." Too often overworked doctors prescribe drugs to manage the condition for a short-term cure and send the patient on his way quickly. Psychologists Bob Montgomery and Laurel Morris strongly disagree with treating anxiety disorders with drugs. Their timely book provides a step-by-step plan to help anxious people learn to cope without resorting to medication, even for severe manifestations of anxiety such as obsessive-compulsive disorders and panic attacks. In easy-to-understand terms, Montgomery and Morris define anxiety, describe the different forms it takes, and show how to manage anxiety in everyday life. They discuss general anxiety, agoraphobia, phobias in general, social phobias, and social anxiety, among other types. Living with Anxiety discusses how and why to stop taking anxiety drugs and when drugs can help; it also recommends when to seek out a psychologist. It offers readers practical exercises and specific strategies for dealing with feelings, thoughts, and physical symptoms associated with anxiety attacks, and methods for strengthening social, sexual, and interpersonal skills that can be the source of anxiety.

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

Reviews

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been in therapy for years with anxiety as well as taken meds for it. I found this book did a great job following the coping skills and practice to delve into anxiety causes/situations that therapists have done before. I agree with the thoughts on medications and use them only when absolutely necessary. I prefer to mange my anxiety as natural as I can. This book has good practices to help you come up with underlying reasons behind anxious situations as well as finding ways to manage anxiety, but you have to put in the work. I would recommend this for anyone who wants to look into natural ways to manage anxiety as well as those who would like to find out more about what is behind their anxiety.

[Welther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good book. Some solid advice without too much repetition. I think many self-help books suffer from that.
I wish the book had went a bit further into some subjects, but I guess that's not what this books is about, as it is a step-by-step book. Still I would've like some more depth on, e.g. anxiety. Still, I can't really fault this book for much. Now I just have to buy a few more books to get what I want. And I doubt it will all be in one single book (I'm not really gonna be doing that).