Diagonally-Parked in a Parallel Universe : Working Through Social Anxiety

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Summary: Lets you in on the secret of social anxiety
Review: I can't believe how useful and helpful this book is! I feel much more confident now I will beat this thing. If you have ever felt anxious in any social situation, you MUST read this book. You will be glad you did because it can give new meaning to your life as it has to mine.

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Summary: Eye-opening book!
Review: When I was a kid, I was petrified of being judged. That fear continued to the present. Reading Diagonally-Parked, I discovered that part of the problem was that my father always criticized me and my mother was overprotective, making the world seem a scary, risky place. But more important, I discovered that I don't have to live by yesterday's messages today. I can rewrite the script for my life. I guess this is what they mean by knowledge is power. That makes this book powerful too.

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Summary: Helps keep kids from getting SP
Review: I have been anxious around people since my late teens. Now that I am a parent, I have been worrying about my five-year-old son developing these fears too because he does everything his daddy does, including avoid and escape things. So I got this book and started to use it on him. Funny thing - while I have been helping him, I have been helping me too. I am starting to feel better and he is responding to that as well. This is a real win-win situation. Great book!

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Summary: Lots of super suggestions
Review: This book is crammed full of fab tips about how to have a more satisfying life and develop relationships. I especially like how it showed me how my dog Scruffy can help me meet people. Whenever Scruffy and I go for a walk, people want to pet him and talk to me about him. He acts like a people magnet. I was surprised how much people like you when you have a pet. As a result, I'm talking with people more and getting to know them and starting to feel okay about it. Scruffy likes the attention too.

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Summary: Wins the gold medal
Review: This book is a blessing for SAD sufferers like me. I teach elementary school but have been afraid and in hiding all my adult life. The only time when I feel safe is when I'm with the children. Children, unlike adults, don't judge you and find you inadequate. They are more accepting. All these years I hoped to find someone who would understand the real me and my painful problem. That someone is this book! It mirrors my life and thoughts and actions. It offers hundreds of pages of useful resources, help, and support. If there were an Olympic competition for the best SAD self-help book, this one would win it in a walk.

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Summary: Motivational
Review: This book has inspired me to believe that even I can recover from SA which is no small accomplishment because for years I have been convinced I was lost. Thank you, Dr. Signe!

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Summary: Ignites the needed spark
Review: My mother has always been "shy" around people. She doesn't like to go to parties or talk to strangers and finds ways to avoid them. She leaves grocery stores and shopping malls as soon as she can looking nervous. With few friends she's always seemed lonely and sad to me. I bought Diagonally Parked, read it, and gave it to her, saying I thought she would find it interesting. Surprisingly she plunged into it right away and read it with considerable interest. A week later she grabbed me in a big bear hug with tears in her eyes and thanked me repeatedly for the book. There's a small spark in her now I've never seen before and I'm very happy for her and hopeful.

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Summary: Release from captivity
Review: In my family we did not talk about personal difficulties and mental disorder was the ultimate dirty word. So I have struggled with my social anxieties alone, wearing a social mask so no one would know the truth and reject me. I have been trapped like an animal in a leghold trap, slowly dying in excruciating pain and indescribable fear. This book opened the jaws of that trap for me and is mending my wounds. I know now that I am not alone, that millions of others suffer from my problem and that there is help and hope for us all.

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Summary: Hope for children too
Review: I thought my 12 yo daughter Kerri was becoming introverted. At first she didn't seem interested in being with others her age which I hoped might be a phase. But then she became reluctant to be with adults as well, getting upset when she couldn't get out of it. Her pediatrician said maybe she was just shy but this didn't seem to explain it. I chanced upon Dr. Dayhoff's Effectiveness-Plus web site and read about Diagonally Parked in a Parallel Universe. In so many ways it seemed to describe Kerri. I got the book and am so glad I did. Now she and I have a better understanding what Kerri fears. We are reading the book and doing the exercises together and she's showing improvement. I'm a very hopeful mom!

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Summary: The answers are here
Review: For years I have sought the one cause of my social anxiety disorder. I thought if only I could discover it, my social fears would disappear. Diagonally-Parked showed me that my frantic search was dooming me to frustration and failure. Even if there were "one" cause (which there isn't), I found out that knowing it wouldn't do anything to help me function in my present life. While insight about the past is useful, it is not essential to feeling better in the present. What I need to do is work on my thoughts and behaviors as they exist now and this is what I'm doing with the help of this super book. What a big relief.