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A Brief History of Anxiety...Yours and Mine | 
 enlarge | Author: Patricia Pearson
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy New: $12.80
You Save: $11.15 (47%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 131069
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.9
ISBN: 1596912987
Dewey Decimal Number: 152.46
EAN: 9781596912984
ASIN: 1596912987
Publication Date: March 4, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A bold new view of anxiety from an unerringly smart and funny writer who has suffered from it her whole life. The millions of Americans who silently cope with anxiety at last have a witty, articulate champion in Patricia Pearson, who shows that the anxious are hardly “nervous nellies” with “weak characters” who just need medicine and a pat on the head. Instead, Pearson questions what it is about twenty-first century American culture that is making people anxious, and offers some surprising answers—as well as some inspiring solutions based on her own fierce battle to drive the beast away. Drawing on personal episodes of incapacitating dread as a vivid, often hilarious guide to her quest to understand this most ancient of human emotions, Pearson delves into the history and geography of anxiety. Why are North Americans so much more likely to suffer than Latin Americans? Why did Darwin treat hypochondria with sprays from a hose? Why have we forgotten the insights of some of our greatest philosophers, theologians, and psychologists in favor of prescribing addictive drugs? In this blend of fascinating reportage and poignant memoir, Pearson ends with her struggle to withdraw from antidepressants and to find more self-aware and philosophically grounded ways to strengthen the soul.
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| Customer Reviews:
Mixed bag June 30, 2008
The book started out with a bang, grabbed my attention, thought we were "kindred spirits". Then it fizzled. She suggests many things about our culture/society, why we are so anxious and what can help anxiety (meaning, community) but never comes right out and says what she thinks (except about medication). I liked hearing about her personal struggles with anxiety, and I found the first two chapters the best. I think she lost track of her purpose in writing the book at different times and I lost interest. Her negative views on medication are justified AND medication has also helped many people with mental illness.
Not Great May 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
About: Pearson describes her struggle with bouts of anxiety and its treatment as well as provides a history of anxiety (and its treatments).
Pros: Short, not poorly written. Sources cited
Cons: Nothing Earth-shattering. Pearson provides some poor examples; i.e. Melinda Doolittle from American Idol when discussing personality, and who's going to remember her in a few years' time? Leading me to think this book will not survive the test of the ages. Discusses a poem by Auden and doesn't share the text. While sources are cited, they are solely in the back matter in a "sentence...source" format, where citation-sequence (superscript numbers) would have been easier to look up what sources she cites and where.
 Self-Absorbed and BORING! April 25, 2008
3 out of 7 found this review helpful
According to the 2002 World Mental Health Survey conducted in 18 countries, anxiety has emerged as the most prevalent mental health problem across the globe. The U.S. has the highest levels of anxiety, Shanghai one of the lowest.
Pearson sheds no useful light on why the disparity, or means of ameliorating the sometimes paralyzing condition - I know from experience. Instead she rambles through her life like some addled old lady.
Pearson's anxiety has not been cured by medicine. Therefore, I suggest strenuous exercise, filling her daily life with challenging and exciting activities, and ceasing her wasteful introspection.
 Coping With Anxiety By Writing March 22, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This brief memoir of Ms. Pearson is the way that she struggles to understand the disease that cripples her at times. Anxiety is the fear of a certain danger (which is often unrealistic), accompanied by a sense of dread. In the opening chapter, the author describes her fear of a pandemic flu outbreak in end-of-the-world terms as she stockpiles food and water. She name-drops famous persons who have struggled with anxiety through the ages to normalize the illness. Ms. Pearson writes in a humorous, conversational tone. For those wishing a primer on the disease, there is no better book.
 Anxious Days Indeed. March 17, 2008
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
I don't actually know Patricia Pearson but have interviewed her twice. I totally loved When She Was Bad and was thus excited to read A Brief History of Anxiety. Overall, I enjoyed the book. Pearson is a creative, lively, and skilled writer who possesses keen wit and intelligence. For such a short book there certainly is a great deal of information available here on the topic of anxiety. It is not the first book I've read on the subject but it offered several insights of which I was not previously aware--such as the differences between American and Chinese socialization which result in lower levels of anxiety in eastern mothers and their offspring. The only reason I could not give the book 5 stars is that I felt that too much of it concerned the author. I did ask her about this and she stated essentially that this is to be expected as it is a memoir. Well, that's true if it's a memoir but I did not know this before cracking the spine. Its title, A Brief History of Anxiety [Yours and Mine], caused me to regard it as being more of a dispassionate study of the psychological condition. Perhaps that was a misassumption on my part alone as its autobiographical nature will be intuited by other readers. If it isn't at least I have illuminated its personal focus here. Regardless, spending time with Pearson's pen is always a good use of time.
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