This is a excellent and hands-on workbook for dealing with anxiety disorders including panic, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety, and OCD. It goes more into the underlying causes of anxiety, and is at some level more "philosophical" than other workbooks targeted at anxiety. If none of your strategies for handling anxiety have worked, have a look at this book!

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #39016 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Synopsis
Enough is enough! Many have struggled too long to control the symptoms of anxiety, only to find fear, shyness and worry creeping back into their lives the minute they let down their guard. The bottom line is that most efforts to "control" or "get rid of" anxiety simply don't work. But, fortunately, this book offers another option. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) helps people facing a range of psychological problems learn to accept painful feelings without becoming overwhelmed by or submerged in them. Then it works to help them identify their values and commit to living their lives in ways that make these values come alive.This is the first workbook to offer readers a complete, ACT-based programme for dealing with any anxiety related problem. The techniques in this book are equally effective with of the different manifestations of anxiety: social and specific phobias, agoraphobia, worry and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and more. The book is divided into weeks, with clear directions and objectives for each.

The light, engaging style of the authors make exploring this new approach interesting, accessible, and fun.

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Customer Reviews

A step in the right direction
I enjoyed reading this book its clearly written and each chapter introduces some new techniques.I duly note it has previously received a bad review but too often when we are in the grip of anxiety we have unrealistic expectations of a book.Try as we might we cannot read our anxieties away and wish as we might there is no magic technique to solve all our problems either.The key to this book is in the title we must accept our anxiety and work with the techniques contained therein.Yes I am an advocate of mindfulness as I find it to be the calming influence in a sometimes debilitating condition.I believe whether you suffer from panic attacks, PTSD or any form of anxiety that there is something in this book for you.Maybe not the entire answer but part of it at least.Keep searching

Excellent resource book for anxiety sufferers
Declaring my interest as an ACT therapist in the UK, I recommend this book to anyone who experiences difficulties with anxiety. The authors have put together a comprehensive self-help manual, including information and case examples relating to the various types of anxiety problem, showing how this therapy can provide the tools needed to enable sufferers to reclaim their lives from worries, anxieties and fears (WAFs the book calls them). It is especially useful that a CD is included, with blank copies of materials and more importantly, audio versions of the mindfulness exercises which are much more user-friendly than working from the printed page. The book mixes many new metaphors and exercises with tried and tested materials from existing ACT resources, giving readers plenty of choice in finding those which resonate best with them. It is a strength that the central themes (including acceptance, mindfulness, compassion and living according to one's values) recur throughout the book, as the new, sometimes radical concepts in ACT do necessitate, for most of us, repeated presentation.

yes acceptance, no this version
Yes, acceptance is the only thing that works for anxiety. But this book is not a good point to start. They only actually give advice on what to do about anxiety in Chapter 16, and you're supposed to work through the book one chapter a week. Imagine you're their client, you arrive on their doorstep in a state of desperation and distress, and find you have to wait four months before they say anything about dealing with fear. Obviously this is a book written by people who haven't experienced anxiety themselves.

Instead of this Workbook, get one of Claire Weekes' books (and search anxiety healing). Although Forsyth & Eifert don't mention her, Claire Weekes was the originator of acceptance therapy, and she manages to describe it quickly and briefly, and without any of the conventional therapy baggage which Forsyth & Eifert bring to it. Acceptance isn't easy, painless or quick, but it is the only thing that helps.

If you think you might prefer something by a therapist, try 'The Anxiety Cure' by the DuPonts. Much of Part 1 is unnecessary theory, but the Part 2 practical section, based on Claire Weekes' work, is good.

If your difficulties are more with a vicious inner critic than with 'fear of fear', try 'Taming your Gremlin' by Rick Carlson. Good, and on acceptance, but he says next to nothing on fear so this is for later.

Forsyth & Eifert are academic therapists (the book endorsements are from academics not clients). And they follow the usual therapy framework of analysing what is wrong with your life, and specifying the ideal life you would like to aim for. There are several problems with these steps. One is they make you thoroughly miserable. It may be necessary for a therapist to find out what a client's problems are before they can help, but a book reader doesn't need to do that, they're already well aware their life is a barely survived mess. More important, both these steps focus on what is wrong, they are inherently judgemental, so it is odd to find them in a book which claims to be about acceptance. And someone suffering from anxiety is so confused they're often don't know what their ideal life would be, apart from 'freedom from fear'. Also many people have fears about going for what they want. Being forced to make this sort of decision too early is an added stress at a time when anxious people are under too much stress already. Far from being a pre-requisite for healing, personally I find this understanding of a 'good life' emerges as healing progresses.

And finally, this Workbook only mentions the physical symptoms associated with anxiety right at the end. Good books about anxiety deal with symptoms first, as understanding why you have a thumping heart, feel nauseous or shaky, have a headache etc is the quickest and easiest route to accepting these symptoms instead of worrying about them (and makes doing the unpleasant exercises suggested by the Workbook for mimicking these symptoms completely unnecessary).

For darker moments, it's good to have a joke book on hand. Sark helped me recover from my most recent bout with this Workbook. Or make a collection of images or music that warms your spirit.

For exploring what you want to do with your life try 'Finding your own North Star' by Martha Beck or any book by Barbara Sher. It's best not to try them until you find life easier. At early stages of healing you're likely to feel too tired to be interested in much, and have difficulty with making decisions.

I've tried to work through this Acceptance Workbook twice now, and both times I felt thoroughly knocked sideways off my path to healing. In contrast, the other books I've mentioned leave me feeling understood, hopeful and as if there is something I can do about my situation.