Available:*
Material Type | Library | Call Number | Suggested Age | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Searching... Cabell County Public Library | 616.85223 H | Adult | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
From the co-author of the best-selling Driven to Distraction, here is the first book to focus on the many forms of worry (both destructive and productive), their underlying causes, and how these patterns of thought and behavior can be changed. Worry consumes time and energy, too often isolates us from friends and family, and prevents us from solving the real problems that are behind the act of worrying. Dr. Edward M. Hallowell makes clear the crucial distinctions among the various forms of worry, showing which are protective and productive, which handicap achievement and pleasure, and which seriously threaten physical health and mental balance. He explains which forms of worry are rooted in inborn predispositions, which arise from misguided attempts to cope with the stresses of daily life, and which are symptomatic of other problems, such as depression or attention deficit disorder. In each case he maps out the most effective strategies for change--psychotherapy, medication, innovative methods of retraining the brain--many of which the chronic worrier can pursue on his or her own. Filled with illuminating case histories, anecdotes, and practical guidance, this is an invaluable aid to understanding and coping with one of the most common and debilitating but least understood states of mind.
Author Notes
Edward M. Hallowell, a child and adult psychiatrist as well as an author and lecturer, is a graduate of Harvard College, Tulane Medical School, and a Harvard Residency Program in Adult and Child Psychiatry. In addition to his private psychiatry practice in Cambridge, Mass., and his teaching career at Harvard Medical School, Hallowell is the founder and director of The Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health. The Center specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive and emotional problems in both children and adults.
As an author, Hallowell has written two best-selling books on Attention Deficit Disorder: Driven to Distraction and Answers to Distraction. He has also written the comprehensive books When You Worry About The Child You Love and Worry: Controlling It and Using It Wisely.
Hallowell, who is married and has three children, lives in Massachusetts
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Noting that "not all worry is bad," Hallowell distinguishes between "wise worry that alerts you to real danger" and "unwise worry that serves no useful purpose and can hamper your life." In this engaging book, the Harvard Medical School senior lecturer and coauthor of Driven to Distraction examines "toxic" worry and its underlying causes and manifestations, and offers various means for getting back control. (Depression, panic disorders and a host of anxiety disorders can all result from uncurbed, undue forethought, he says.) Hallowell asserts that, due to genetic brain chemistry, some people are inherently prone to fear, anxiety and negative thinking, and cannot control excessive worry once it has taken hold of them. However, he also provides abundant information on a wide variety of alleviating treatments. Hallowell advises structure and organization ("planning instead of worrying"), exercise, adequate sleep, a healthy diet, controlled breathing, alcohol avoidance, talking, prayer or meditation and many other practices to be tried in combination with the many professional therapies and medications (such as Prozac) currently available. In a voice both authoritative and compassionate, Hallowell thoroughly explores a topic that touches nearly everyone in this age of anxiety. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
What, me worry? Well, except for Mad magazine's cover boy, just about everybody does--sometimes to the point of obsession and behavioral paralysis. This immensely helpful study is written for all the anxious ones. Hallowell, a senior lecturer at the Harvard Medical School and founder/director of a center for ``cognitive and emotional health,'' explores the full gamut of worry, from healthy worry (the root of planning) to hard-core paranoia. He supplies a succinct ``equation'' for how worry comes about, noting that it ``results from a heightened sense of vulnerability in the presence of a diminished sense of power.'' What perhaps most distinguishes Hallowell's book is its holistic approach. The author's multidimensional exploration of worry's causes balances the genetic, physiological, psychosocial, and attitudinal. His guide to managing worry calls for drawing upon a broad array of practices, involving not only medication and psychotherapy, when appropriate, but also proper exercise, diet, and sufficient sleep. For Hallowell, an additional key to maintaining a healthy, not-overly- fretting self is what he calls ``connectedness'' to other people, to ideas, and to the spiritual dimension of life, all designed to help one go beyond the emotional ghetto of the brooding self. And the author, whose style is straightforward and engaging, almost conversational at times, is nothing if not pragmatic. A concluding chapter recommends everything from trying Kundalini Yoga to buying insurance. If not everything Hallowell recommends will work for a particular reader, he or she still will find much in this first- rate popular psychology book to better understand and control worry before it becomes toxic.
Booklist Review
Hallowell's basic equation is: increased vulnerability plus decreased power equals increased worry. He offers a quiz so one can assess one's own level of worry, then he gives advice on lowering it: thinking positively, giving one's worry a name and identity, changing one's diet, developing positive friends, connecting more to community (family, work, etc.), and, above all, exercising. He believes medication often helps, though his examples from clinical practice sound facilely like parables. The writing is lively, but vocabulary ranges from the chic expression toxic to neurochemistry terminology. By explaining worry's biological basis, he hopes to stop worriers from heaping on self-criticism. He gives many examples of how worrying less leads people to happier lives and work, but he never addresses today's social, political, and economic realities that make worry so prevalent (as does, for example, psychologist James Hillman). Perhaps voting is better advice than thinking good thoughts. Still, the book offers useful advice and entertaining stories, and readers can find something here to help them worry less. --Kevin Grandfield
Library Journal Review
Don't worry: a best-selling psychologist (Driven to Distraction, LJ 3/15/94) is here to explain the difference between worry rooted in in-born predispositions and worry that signals other, deeper problems. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
