Scott Stossel

It's long, but if one is at all interested in anxiety, this is a great book. Scott Stossel has written a revealing and courageous memoir about his own struggles with overcoming anxiety interspersed with a fascinating history of the treatment of anxiety from ancient times to modern day.

It’s interesting and surprising to learn about the many people in history who suffered from debilitating nerves and depression. The book is packed with lots of well-researched information about treatments and medications of the day.

Some interesting factoids … Apparently Freud used cocaine for awhile to treat his own nerves until a friend over dosed and died. Bayer brought Heroin to market where it was available in America without a prescription until 1914. And Chlor-Trimeton, the allergy med, helped quite a few people overcome panic attacks. Who knew!
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“Anxiety” is a fiendishly difficult affliction to pin down and define; although written about for thousands of years, it was only formally recognised as a condition by the medical profession as late as 1980. Millions of lives, though, are altered, crippled or completely swallowed up by it every year. And it is also, once set in motion, an example of a self-worsening debility, amplifying itself over years or decades if left untreated.
    Scott Stossel, as a life-long sufferer, knows it better than most and in this book has pulled together everything there is to say about it. Chapters cover, first, anxiety as a riddle (what is it exactly?) and the variety of forms it can take. Then there’s its treatment (history of, and effectiveness or otherwise—do any of them even work?). He explores the question of what causes it: nurture (infant-parent relationships)? Or nature (genetics)? Or culture (modern life, prosperity, or perhaps even, particularly in the Western capitalist democracies, having more freedom of choice than ever before in history)?
    Some of the descriptions of Stossel’s own state of mind and resulting behaviour when in the grip of the worst bouts of his own anxiety are, at times, scarcely believable and excruciating to read. This is not only a comprehensive and exceptionally well-researched book, it’s harrowing in places too and, above all, incredibly honest. The writing itself is simply brilliant, as readable as a book on a subject as perplexing as this could be.… (mehr)

In general, I like books about psychology, so I was predisposed toward this one from the beginning. The book itself is a very comprehensive look at anxiety from every angle - neurobiological to philosophical to historical. The informative aspects of the book are interwoven with Scott's memoirs regarding his own really serious struggle with anxiety and phobias.
True confession, I, myself, struggle from some anxiety issues. I joke that if I don't have anything to worry about, I'm sure to find something soon. But anything I've endured is NOTHING compared to what Scott has had to deal with. Even after years and years of therapy and a myriad of medication and excruciating knowledge of the condition, he still suffers. It pained me to read as I felt a great deal of empathy for the guy.
Turns out, the underlying causes of anxiety disorders are pretty murky. There's definitely some biochemical components and some genetic ones. But it seems that parenting can contribute or exacerbate the underlying predisposition.
My only criticism of this well written and researched book is that the first chapter is by far the least compelling. After that, I found it very interesting and educational.… (mehr)