The Worry Trick: How Your Brain Tricks You into Expecting the Worst and What You Can Do About It

Are you truly in danger or has your brain simply "tricked" you into thinking you are? In The Worry Trick, psychologist and anxiety expert David Carbonell shows how anxiety hijacks the brain and offers effective techniques to help you break the cycle of worry, once and for all.

Anxiety is a powerful force. It makes us question ourselves and our decisions, causes us to worry about the future, and fills our days with dread and emotional turbulence. Based in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), this book is designed to help you break the cycle of worry.

Worry convinces us there's danger, and then tricks us into getting into fight, flight, or freeze mode—even when there is no danger. The techniques in this book, rather than encouraging you to avoid or try to resist anxiety, shows you how to see the trick that underlies your anxious thoughts, and how avoidance can backfire and make anxiety worse.

If you’re ready to start observing your anxious feelings with distance and clarity—rather than getting tricked once again—this book will show you how.

David A. Carbonell, PhD, is a clinical psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders in Chicago, IL. He is the “coach” at www.anxietycoach.com, and author of Panic Attacks Workbook.

Foreword writer Sally M. Winston, PsyD, founded and directed the anxiety disorders treatment program at The Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Baltimore, MD. She served as the first chair of the Clinical Advisory Board of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), and received their inaugural Jerilyn Ross Clinician Advocate Award. She is coauthor of What Every Therapist Needs to Know About Anxiety Disorders.