On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety

3 thoughts on “On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety”

• 16 of 17 people found the following review helpful

  
  Anxiety Explored, June 16, 2017

  By 

  Susan M. Baumann (Waterford, MI United States) –

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  This review is from: On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety (Hardcover)

  This book has some interesting insights about anxiety. The material is more intrigung when focused on the personal memoir portions depicting Petersen’s own experiences. Found the scientific research to be detailed and well organized, but somewhat dry. Some of the studies of “anxious” children seems to reinforce a pervasively ingrained idea in American culture. One study suggests that anxious, “inhibited” children are “maladaptive”, and that they could be socialized out of this behavior – with therapy medication, etc – and into a more desirable “uninhibited” approach to life. I kept thinking in terms of extroverts and introverts. How many anxious people are merely introverts? Society seems to extol extroversion as the higher ideal, and yet introverted and/or “anxious” people are perhaps just more “finely tuned”, re: more sensitive to environments, stimuli, socialization, mood, etc. I’m not suggesting that an anxious person should limit their life to conform to their fears, or that an agoraphobic should embrace being housebound, but perhaps the anxious/introverted person would find relief in embracing their unique inherent, temperament as something positive, and not something that needs to be changed into something else that more closely resembles “healthy” extroversion. If one is inclined to worry, rumination and seeks solitude, we now know that these propensities are merely how the introverted may perceive and process the world around them. It’s the “labels” that concern me. If a pensive, shy inward-focused child exhibits anxiety, it may be simply who he or she is in terms of personality. I do agree that anxiety appears to have a hereditary component. Where once the focus was outward, it seems now that biology and genes can account for how many of our medical and psychological issues will manifest.
• 8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

  
  Having anxiety myself I know how extremely horrible the condition can be but I didn’t like the …, August 7, 2017

  By 

  K. Hicks (East Alton, IL United States) –
  
    

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  This review is from: On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety (Kindle Edition)

  Having anxiety myself I know how extremely horrible the condition can be but I didn’t like the fact that the solution to her anxiety/panic episodes were always popping a benzodiazepine. That’s not really a journey through anxiety but just putting a band aid on the problem. I myself was looking for a book that helped me get thru my anxiety attacks without the addictive benzo drugs. I have been without those drugs for 7 years and though each day is rough it’s better than being addicted to a drug. Yes for 6 years this is how I treated my condition and believe me the anxiety is better than the benzo withdrawal that took over 5 years to get over.
• 1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

  
  Must read for people with anxiety disorders, February 25, 2018

  By 

  Paul Wilson (Arlington, TX USA) –

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  This review is from: On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety (Kindle Edition)

  I have suffered from anxiety for over half of my life starting in my mid teens but only started getting help for it recently. Starting with the prologue, I could immediately relate with what Andrea was going through. In fact the only difference between me and her is that I was not a female college student. The symptoms, the reactions, everything else tells a very familiar story. Well worth a read if only for taking comfort in the fact that somebody else out there has articulated very well what you’re going through.

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