Re: Book review (anxiety)
Thanks to Cattia above, I ordered a copy of 'The Phantom Illness' by Carla Cantor. I did not realise before i started, that is focusses mostly on people who have real pain, or real symptoms, without any physical illness. So the problems in the body have been created by the mind.
This was fascinating, but absolutely terrifying.
The book was written in the 1990s so I don't know if neuroscience has come a long way since then, or not much. Regardless, it may still be the only book which probes into the topic.
I'm going to go back and read 'Rewire Your Anxious Brain' now, as that is more suited to the problems my wife has (no physical symptoms, other than of the anxiety itself). Hopefully I can summarise the findings for her, and make her feel that following the exercises in the book are worthwhile. Ultimately, I cannot make her try it. But it seems to offer real hope, compared to what CBT could offer her a few years ago.
Some of the solutions the book offers are based on exposure therapy, which basically means practising being calm whilst having that bad thing you dread happen to you. For me, that is the equivalent of sitting at the top of a massive ladder, covered in spiders. I can see why someone might be reluctant to undertake it, despite the speedy progress you can apparently make. It seems that deep breathing is one of the few ways to communicate with that inner part of your brain which is responsible for so much anxiety (the amygdala).
Last edited by TheHusband; 22-03-18 at 17:26.
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I do not suffer from Health Anxiety, but I have supported my wife through 12 years of battling with it.