Anxiety, Phobias, and Panic - A step-by-step programme for regaining control of your life
By Reneau Z. Peurifoy
Book Review of "Anxiety, Phobias and Panic..."
This book, as the title suggests, is designed as a self help programme to help you regain control of your life if you are experiencing an anxiety disorder. It will be of use not just to people experiencing anxiety but also to life coaches or others interested in finding out initial information about techniques and strategies which can help clients experiencing stress or anxiety. The author, Reneau Peurifoy, sets out six different types of anxiety and gives useful information about each as well as general tips for dealing with anxiety. The six basic types of anxiety considered are: Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Specific Phobias, Social Phobia and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
The book is set out in a series of 'Lessons' which cover different aspects of stress or anxiety and ways of dealing with them successfully. It contains over 300 pages of useful information and material and its author cautions you not to read it too quickly but instead to spend at least one week on each of the lessons and to ensure that you read each lesson several times to absorb its material. If you do so it is likely that you will derive significant benefit, greater insight and increased ability to tackle whichever of the six basic type of anxiety that he discusses is most relevant to you.
Initial topics covered include:
- "What, Why, and How" - information about the so-called 'flight or fight response' which is involved in anxiety and about personality traits and childhood experiences which may contribute to anxiety;
- "Reducing the Symptoms of Anxiety" - ideas about some underpinning ingredients of a successful strategy for combatting anxiety and stress, including relaxation techniques, coping self statements and particular comments about what may help for different types of anxiety disorder;
- Lessons focusing on the role of negative thoughts, emotions and distorted anxiety and how cognitive techniques can be used to moderate the extremes of negative thinking which often contribute to anxiety.
People who suffer with anxiety and those who have worked with clients experiencing anxiety are likely to be aware that high levels of anxiety can often go side by side with a number of related issues such as:
- low self esteem
- anxieties about being assertive
- perfectionism
- a tendency to rely excessively on the approval of others for self validation.
Peurifoy devotes a number of chapters in the book to approaching these related topics in a practical manner, demonstrating an awareness of the emotions and thoughts that can be involved and suggesting pragmatic strategies and exercises for improving your self esteem, becoming more assertive and moderating perfectionistic tendencies if these are creating problems for you.
The book is written in a helpful, informative and non judgemental way. It covers a range of topics and is full of useful ideas, exercises to try out and suggestions. At the time of writing I have not come across a more useful or informative introduction and basic guide to the issues surrounding anxiety and stress. This a book which I would thoroughly recommend for both its style and its content.
To Find out further details and Purchase "Anxiety, Pobias and Panic - A step-by-step programme for regaining control of your life" through Amazon.co.uk click on the image below:
David Bonham-Carter, the Founder of Life Coach Tips, and writer of this Review is a Life Coach and Stress Consultant with over 15 years of professional experience in the field of personal change management. He founded this directory of life coaching articles in order to bring life coaching ideas and techniques to a wider audience. To find out more about the particular life coaching services David himself offers, please go to: Life Coach David Bonham-Carter.
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