When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life - Hardcover

Burns M.D., David D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0767920716 ISBN 13: 9780767920711

Publisher: Broadway, 2006

Synopsis

Do you toss and turn at night with a knot in your stomach, worrying about your job, your family, work, your health, or relationships? Do you suffer from crippling shyness, obsessive doubts, or feelings of insecurity? Are you plagued by fears, phobias, or panic attacks?

What you may not realize is that these fears are almost never based on reality. Anxiety is one of the world’s oldest cons. When you’re anxious, you’re actually fooling yourself. You are telling yourself things that simply aren’t true. See if you can recognize yourself in any of these distortions:

· All-or-Nothing Thinking: “My mind will go blank when I give my presentation at work, and everyone will think I’m an idiot.”

· Fortune Telling: “I just know I’ll freeze up and blow it when I take my test.”

· Mind Reading: “Everyone at this party can see how nervous I am.”

· Magnification: “Flying is so dangerous. I think this plane is going to crash!”

· Should Statements: “I shouldn’t be so anxious and insecure. Other people don’t feel this way.”

· Emotional Reasoning: “I feel like I’m on the verge of cracking up!”

· Self-Blame: “What’s wrong with me? I’m such a loser!”

· Mental Filter: “Why can’t I get anything done? My life seems like one long procrastination.”

Now imagine what it be like to live a life that’s free of worries and self-doubt; to go to sleep at night feeling peaceful and relaxed; to overcome your shyness and have fun with other people; to give dynamic presentations without worrying yourself sick ahead of time; to enjoy greater creativity, productivity and self-confidence.

Does that sound impossible? The truth is you can defeat your fears. In When Panic Attacks, Dr. Burns takes you by the hand and shows you how to overcome every conceivable kind of anxiety. In fact, you will learn how to use more than forty simple, effective techniques, and the moment you put the lie to the distorted thoughts that plague you, your fears will immediately disappear. Dr. Burns also shares the latest research on the drugs commonly prescribed for anxiety and depression and explains why they may sometimes do more harm than good.

This is not pop psychology but proven, fast-acting techniques that have been shown to be more effective than medications. When Panic Attacks is an indispensable handbook for anyone who’s worried sick and sick of worrying.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

One in four Americans has unhealthy anxiety--that's over 73 million people. What have we turned to? Pills. Have they helped? The numbers say no. David Burns, M.D., knows what nobody else does: traditional therapy and drugs don't cure anxiety. But revolutionary new cognitive behavior therapies do, and Burns has developed clinically proven techniques. The road to a cure begins with discovering the stories we tell ourselves that make us worry--"If I'm late for the meeting I'll be fired and never find another job"; "
"There's no way on earth this plane can stay in the air." Burns provides an arsenal of techniques for exposing the lies and proving them wrong. Here you'll find:
-Methods for uncovering the sophisticated lies we tell ourselves that make us worry
-A cost/benefit analysis, for figuring out what you get--good and bad--out of hanging on to hangups and phobias
-Playful ways to test the lie that's making you afraid
The good news is that the techniques in his Anxiety Toolkit take 60 seconds to work. This is an indispensable guide for anyone who's spent sleepless nights imagining a workplace disaster, dreading a plane trip or public speaking engagement, or fretting about the safety of a loved one.

About the Author:

david d. burns, m.d. is an adjunct clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine and has served as Visiting Scholar at Harvard Medical School. He conducts lectures and workshops throughout the United States and Canada for healthcare professionals and for the general public and has received numerous media and research awards. His bestselling book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, has sold more than four million copies worldwide and is the book most often recommended by American and Canadian mental health professionals to patients suffering from anxiety and depression.

About this edition

• Publisher: Broadway
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0767920716
• ISBN 13: 9780767920711
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464