Is your anxiety trying to tell you something? And what would happen if you listened? In What Happened to Make You Anxious?, an anxiety and trauma expert offers a counter-intuitive approach to help readers tune in to the truth behind their anxiety, address the unhealed past traumas that drive their fear and worry, and live the life they truly want.

This book reviews all important aspects of anxiety disorders with the aim of shedding new light on these disorders through combined understanding of traditional and novel paradigms. The book is divided into five sections, the first of which reinterprets anxiety from a network science perspective, examining the altered topological properties of brain networks in anxiety disorders. The second section discusses recent advances in understanding of the neurobiology of anxiety disorders, covering, for example, gene-environmental interactions and the roles of neurotransmitter systems and the oxytocin system. A wide range of diagnostic and clinical issues in anxiety disorders are then addressed, before turning attention to contemporary treatment approaches in the context of novel bio-psychosocial-behavioral models, including bio- and neurofeedback, cognitive behavioral therapy, neurostimulation, virtual reality exposure therapy, pharmacological interventions, psychodynamic therapy, and CAM options. The final section is devoted to precision psychiatry in anxiety disorders, an increasingly important area as we move toward personalized treatment. Anxiety Disorders will be of interest for all researchers and clinicians in the field.

Listen up! It’s time to change the way you manage your anxiety—by working with it rather than against it. This revolutionary guide provides the key to understanding the root cause of your anxiety, so you can break free from its grip. Let’s face it: anxiety can interfere with every single aspect of your life, from work and family to relationships and finances. Left unchecked, the cycle of anxiety reinforces and perpetuates itself over time, and can leave you feeling paralyzed with fear. You’ve probably attempted to “get rid of” or “outrun” your anxiety, only to find your symptoms growing even stronger. What you need is a new way to deal with anxiety: one that emphasizes listening to what your anxiety is trying to tell you. In What Happened to Make You Anxious?, anxiety expert Jaime Castillo offers a whole new approach; one that focuses less on avoiding or extinguishing anxiety, and more toward understanding and working with it to create a fulfilling, meaningful life. You’ll learn how your anxiety is connected to what Castillo refers to as “little ‘t’ traumas”—seemingly small, unhealed traumas from your past that drive your fear and worry, so you can get to the root of your anxiety and start healing. Your anxiety works overtime communicating perceived threats; this book will show you how to listen to anxiety, discern which threats are real, which don’t fit the actual facts of the situation, and which are triggered by past events. Once you and your anxiety are on the same page, anxiety will loosen its grip—freeing you up to live with clarity, confidence, and serenity. You’ve tried managing it on your own. You may have even received treatment. If you’re at your wit’s end when it comes to your anxiety, this book will show you a new path toward lasting relief.

World-renowned neuroscientist and author of Healthy Brain, Happy Life has developed an “absolute game-changer” (Conscious Conversations podcast) for managing unwarranted anxiety and turning it into a powerful asset. We are living in the age of anxiety, a situation that often makes us feel as if we are locked into an endless cycle of stress, sleeplessness, and worry. But what if we had a way to leverage our anxiety to help us solve problems and fortify our well-being? What if, instead of seeing anxiety as a curse, we could recognize it for the unique gift that it is? As a neuroscientist, Dr. Wendy Suzuki has discovered a paradigm-shifting truth about anxiety: yes, it is uncomfortable, but it is also essential for our survival. In fact, anxiety is a key component of our ability to live optimally. Every emotion we experience has an evolutionary purpose, and anxiety is designed to draw our attention to a number of negative emotions. If we simply approach anxiety as something to avoid, get rid of, or dampen, we actually miss an opportunity to not only manage the symptoms of anxiety better but also discover ways to improve our lives. Listening to our worries from a place of curiosity, instead of fear, can actually guide us onto a path that leads to joy. “Suzuki draws on decades of neuroscience, including her own research, and leavens her learning with a little personal storytelling to create a practical, science-backed guidebook for those seeking such a transformation” (The Wall Street Journal).

It is only human to worry about problems in our lives - but for some, obsessing for weeks and months, avoiding social events and situations due to feelings of panic can become a regular part of our lives. If any of these describe you or a loved one, then you or they may be almost anxious. Those of us who are almost anxious may never address the issue because we don’t fully meet the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder. In Almost Anxious, Luana Marques, Ph.D., describes the spectrum of almost anxiety symptoms, from normal situational anxiety on one end to a full-blown diagnosable anxiety disorder on the other. Drawing on case studies and the latest research, she gives you the tools to: Assess whether your or a loved one’s worry is a problem Gain insight on how to intervene with a loved one Discover proven strategies to change unhealthy feelings of distress Gage the physical, psychological, and social impact of your anxiety symptoms Determine when and how to get professional help when needed

New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone. We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us to map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work. Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

Do you ever wonder what is happening inside your brain when you feel anxious, panicked, and worried? In Rewire Your Anxious Brain, psychologist Catherine Pittman and author Elizabeth Karle offer a unique, evidence-based solution to overcoming anxiety based in cutting-edge neuroscience and research. In the book, you will learn how the amygdala and cortex (both important parts of the brain) are essential players in the neuropsychology of anxiety. The amygdala acts as a primal response, and oftentimes, when this part of the brain processes fear, you may not even understand why you are afraid. By comparison, the cortex is the center of “worry.” That is, obsessing, ruminating, and dwelling on things that may or may not happen. In the book, Pittman and Karle make it simple by offering specific examples of how to manage fear by tapping into both of these pathways in the brain. As you read, you’ll gain a greater understanding how anxiety is created in the brain, and as a result, you will feel empowered and motivated to overcome it. The brain is a powerful tool, and the more you work to change the way you respond to fear, the more resilient you will become. Using the practical self-assessments and proven-effective techniques in this book, you will learn to literally “rewire” the brain processes that lie at the root of your fears.