Everything Anxiety Ever Told You Is a Lie is written by Dr Toni Lindsay, a psychologist who has extensive experience working with adults and young people, particularly those who've had a cancer diagnosis.
Through her practice, Dr Lindsay has observed the growing prevalence of anxiety and wanted to provide advice in an accessible format for people who might never visit a psychologist.
Everything Anxiety Ever Told You Is a Lie explores what anxiety is, starting with the simple explanation of it meaning being fearful and letting it get in the way of life. Then how it can appear in our lives in different ways and at different frequencies.
Anecdotes help explain concepts and their physiological response, like fight or flight and survival of the fittest. Analogies help, too. Anxiety is like chocolate. A bit of it is okay, but too much isn't. One of my favourite analogies is anxiety as being like a wave. From gentle water which can build into the intensity of white waves, then drop into broken waves with much less power.
There’s a lot covered in Everything Anxiety Ever Told You Is a Lie. Chapters are of varying lengths, but all are short. From as little as a couple of pages, to no more than six pages, which makes it easy to dip in and out of the book. You can read it straight through, use the index to find something specific, or just browse.
The chapter titles are clearly intended to grab your attention. They include: The people in our brain (about the different 'voices' we hear), Who is this guy? (visualising and naming anxiety), Procrastinating (a 'trick' anxiety uses to control us), The A Word (accepting our emotions), Nighty Night (the impact of anxiety on sleep), and How to talk to your friend versus yourself (being kind to yourself). And lots of more, too.
By the end of Everything Anxiety Ever Told You Is a Lie you will have learned plenty, and have practical tips and strategies which you can apply to your life. Some are as simple as closing your eyes, picturing something specific, or asking yourself questions.
Anxiety is a subject we all need to understand and know how to manage, because we've all been affected by it in some form. I recommend Everything Anxiety Ever Told You Is a Lie as a tool for doing that.
Teachers might also find the book useful as a classroom resource and can download teacher's notes from the publisher's website.
Title: Everything Anxiety Ever Told You Is a Lie
Author: Dr Toni Lindsay
Publisher: Exisle Publishing, $ 37.99
Publication Date: July 2024
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781922539991
For ages: 14+
Type: Young Adult Non-Fiction