YOUR NAME IS NOT ANXIOUS

A very personal guide to putting anxiety in its place. This book offers the most up-to-date, comprehensive understanding of anxiety and stress, empowering readers to support themselves in a holistic, humane way - especially when professional help is inadequate or unavailable. This 'democratizes' as well as synthesizes specialist information - putting it in the hands of those who need it most.

Your Name Is Not Anxious... ... emphasizes that anxiety is the most treatable of all mood disorders. ... demonstrates that anxiety is never who you are. A whole body, whole-self approach goes to the heart of identity, self, and meaning. 'Storytelling' is the default position of the brain. This book brings all its workable, transformative ideas to life through the author's personal as well as clinical experiences of anxiety, trauma and stress, along with other exceptionally honest, thoughtful examples. It is written in short, highly reader-friendly chapters, with distinctive headings. The book protects readers who are already emotionally flooded, allowing them to go directly to what they need. The book offers a uniquely clear picture of the intricate interactions between mind, body, brain - and why it is essential to understand how to calm the body in order to calm the mind. Calming the body demands insight into the release of stress hormones, like cortisol, that have a more powerful effect on the whole body than fight/flight/freeze responses. When someone is severely or chronically stressed, the 'thinking brain' shuts down. Fear-driven (or panic-driven) responses take over, making self-soothing or strategic thinking near-impossible. Understanding what is happening physiologically is the 'missing piece' to understanding what is happening psychologically - and acting self-protectively. Reducing stress (and discovering how to) is not optional. Stress is a whole-body response, not least to living in a hectic, harsh world. It has drastic effects that can be life-limiting or life-threatening. Coming into a more compassionate, self-caring relationship to yourself is key to reducing anxiety - permanently. And to healing the personal and social relationships on which wellbeing depends. Stephanie Dowrick, PhD, is a multi-award-winning bestselling author with an exceptional career in both publishing and writing. She currently has six books in print with TarcherPerigee (Penguin USA). She was previously published in the United States by W.W. Norton. Her work is also widely translated and available in audio as well as print and e-book editions. Dowrick has twice been awarded Nautilus awards: in 2009 the Nautilus Silver Award in the Psychology category for Choosing Happiness and in 2014 the Nautilus Grand/Gold Award for Heaven on Earth in the Religion/Spirituality category. In 2010, she won a COVR (Coalition of Visionary Resources, USA) Award for Creative Journal Writing. Her international non-fiction bestsellers also include Forgiveness and Other Acts of Love, Everyday Kindness, The Universal Heart and Intimacy & Solitude, published in the US by W.W. Norton. That book, continuously in print, has been updated three times, most recently by Allen & Unwin to meet the anxiety and loneliness that came with COVID-19. Her two adult novels were published by Viking/Penguin (UK and Australia). She has written two successful picture books for children and the libretto for an acclaimed short opera. While she creates her books very much as a writer, Stephanie Dowrick has unusually broad clinical experience also. She trained in the UK in analytic psychotherapy, as well as in the psychospiritual psychology, psychosynthesis. She is strongly influenced by Viktor Frankl's logotherapy, and activist social inclusion. She was ordained as an Interfaith minister at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in NYC in 2005, and from 2006-2020 she led a large post-denominational congregation in Sydney, where she now lives. Stephanie is active on social media and continues to teach and offer workshops globally.