10 Best – Ever Anxiety Management Techniques

Margaret Wehrenberg

Praise for 10 Best – Ever Anxiety Management Techniques

“This book offers the key to unlocking the complex biochemistry of your brain, and reversing your anxiety-inducing habits. Dr. Wehrenberg has done the work to create the right learning environment and organize the needed tools. Follow her lead and your body and mind will thank you with the peace and quiet you deserve.”
—Reid Wilson, PhD, author of Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks

“This excellent book brings Dr. Wehrenberg’s expert knowledge and clinical wisdom to anxiety sufferers with clarity and compassion. Comprehensive and easy to read, she emphasizes the role the brain plays in anxiety, and more importantly, how one can then ‘use the brain to change the brain.’ This practical, mind-body focus will be immensely helpful to those who are tormented by anxiety. I recommend it with enthusiasm!”
—Aureen Wagner, PhD, University of Rochester School of Medicine, author of Worried No More: Help and Hope for Anxious Children

“[A] thoroughly ‘user friendly’ instructional guide….is a ‘must-read’ for anyone suffering from a condition of chronic anxiety whether it is a low-level condition or a traumatically crippling one.”
—The Midwest Book Review

Overview

Do you feel a tightness in your chest and a racing heart anytime you have to speak up for yourself, whether in a large group or small? Does the very idea that others could perceive you as looking uncomfortable or frightened make these symptoms even worse? Do you vigilantly avoid potential panic triggers, and always think the worst is bound happen?

If so, you may be one of 40 million Americans who suffers from anxiety. Symptoms run the gamut from mildly embarrassing but tolerable to persistent and debilitating. While feelings of worry, dread, panic, social unease, and general anxiety are common, their impact is insidious, leaving sufferers feeling worn out and often hopeless.

This book is your answer. Drawing on fresh insights into the anatomy of the anxious brain, Wehrenberg gets to the biologically-based heart of the problem and offers readers practical, effective tips to manage their anxiety on a day-to-day basis. From diaphragmatic breathing and self-talk, to mindfulness, muscle relaxation, and “plan to panic” strategies, you can learn to train your brain, conquer your stress and anxiety, and regain control of your life.

Contents

Introduction: What You Can Do About Your Anxious Brain

Part I: Understanding Your Brain
1. How Your Brain Makes You Anxious
2. Managing Your Brain with Medication

Part II: Managing the Anxious Body
3. Technique #1: Change Your Intake
4. Technique #2: Breathe
5. Technique #3: Practice Mindfulness with Shifting Awareness
6. Technique #4: Relax

Part III: Managing the Anxious Mind
7. Technique #5: Stop Catastrophizing
8. Technique #6: Stop Anxious Thoughts
9. Technique #7: Contain Your Worry
10. Technique #8: Talk Yourself Into Changing Behavior

Part IV: Managing Anxious Behavior
11. Technique #9: Control TMA (Too Much Activity)
12. Technique #10: Implement a Plan and Practice

Recommended Reading & Resources

Excerpt

From Technique #5: Stop Catastrophizing:

When people suffer the blushing, sweating, and trembling symptoms of being afraid of how others will react to them, the brain is at work. The amygdala may be enlarged or overly sensitive to subtle changes in the faces of people. This means that when interacting with others, people with social anxiety will notice small changes that someone else might ignore. Plus, the oversensitive amygdala overinterprets negativity in others. It quickly generates an “Oh, no!” at the slightest change in the face it sees, and it triggers fear responses that set off the embarrassed, flushed appearance. If the socially anxious person believes that blushing will immediately cause social rejection, he or she will catastrophize that normal and minor interaction between people. Catastrophic thinking in this situation is coupled with an unspoken belief that there is no escape.

The success of technique #5 depends on using the left prefrontal cortex (PFC) to take control of the catastrophic interpretations of feelings/thoughts/situations and calm down the rest of the brain activity triggering such mental anxiety . . . Several different methods exist to interrupt catastrophizing and begin to control the way you think . . . remembering that “a feeling is just a feeling” can really help . . . Self-talk is important here, and you should repeat, “Panic is unpleasant, but it is not lethal.” It is vital to use that message. You can then add diaphragmatic breathing to calm whatever alarming sensations you’re experiencing.

About the Author

Margaret Wehrenberg, is a clinician in private practice. She also is the author of The Anxious Brain: The Neurobiological Basis of Anxiety Disorders and How to Effectively Treat Them (W. W. Norton). She's also co-author of The Anxious Brain. She lives in St. Charles, Missouri.

ISBN 13: 978-0-393-70556-0
ISBN 10: 0-393-70556-0
2008 / 224 pages / 20 illus / paperback