Worry: Controlling It and Using It Wisely

Rating:
Summary: very informative book on worry
Review: "Worry" by Edward Hallowell is an excellent self-help book to read for people who feel they worry too much. It is also great introduction to the academic and clinical treatment of worry.

"Worry" teaches us that people, by evolutionary design, worry. Worry results from the combination of fear and the ability to create abstract thoughts. Worry is the natural result of combining "What if?" with fear. Fear, like pain, is a natural mechanism to protect people.

It was smart to be afraid of the Saber-toothed tiger that was looking at you. It told you that you had a problem to deal with. We are wired for fear as Hallowell writes. People without any fears tend not to live long under dangerous environments.

Yet, as humans developed more sophisticated brains, which gave us other adaptational survival advantages, we naturally started thinking about what could go wrong in our lives. We began worrying and became somewhat neurotic as a species.

Now some worry is natural and good, but Hallowell discusses "toxic" worry, where one worries relentlessly about something that probably should be given less thought than it is receiving.

The book gives great practical advice for dealing with worry, such as sharing your concerns with others, and exercise. Exercise tends to divert the mind from its worries and helps the mind deal with worry.

Also, Hallowell points out the obvious, but often-overlooked things we can do to reduce our worry about some such thing. For example, getting the facts about the thing that concerns us, and then taking some action to overcome the lurking danger that is concerning us. Certainly, this beats endlessly ruminating on our fears.

For most people, the chapter "The Management Of Worry Without Medication" will be the most useful.

Hallowell writes that we should try to distinguish between toxic worry and the healthy variety and just as we feel ourselves becoming enmeshed in toxic worry, we should do something to reset our mind by doing something that distracts us from the worry. Again, exercise is an example.

The discussion of the relationship between worry and genetics is very interesting as is learning that worry adversely affects our bodies. Hence, the label of "toxic."

Finally, a clinical psychologist after my own heart, Hallowell suggests saving money for a rainy day and not doing things that you know to be wrong.

This book also mentions more extreme solutions such as Prozac and cingulotomy (that's a lobotomy, in case you're wondering) Did we mention this is not just another feel-good self-help book? Hallowell is a senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School. Plus he's a really good speaker.

If you feel you might have a problem with worry, this book is probably the best book on the subject. It will give you an easy-to-read introduction to worry, great tips for overcoming your worries and will help you decide if you need professional help for your worries. Don't worry, read this book and be happy.

Peter Hupalo, Author of "Becoming An Investor"

Rating:
Summary: Don't look to this book to help you stop worrying
Review: Hallowell's book does a good job of classifying different types of worries/worriers, but a very poor job of helping you worry less if you already know you worry too much. If you suspect you waste too much time on worry and you want to figure out how to help yourself, this is definitely not the book to buy. I'll save you the cost of the book: (1) get professional help (especially Prozac); (2) eat healthy, cut out the drugs and alcohol, and get some exercise; and (3) stop worrying so much (if I knew how to do that, I wouldn't have bought the book). There's nothing wrong or inaccurate in his advice, it's just not helpful. All I can see this book doing for you is that it may (but only may) enable you to walk into a psychiatrist's office with a more technically accurate self-diagnosis (how much help that would be, I won't speculate).

Rating:
Summary: A good introduction to the world of worry
Review: I disagree with the reader from Minneapolis who feels that this book won't help you worry less -- you just have to read past the case studies that dominate the first two sections. The third section of the book (chapters 19-26) contains a good deal of practical advice that goes beyond Prozac, exercise, and low alcohol consumption. I would recommend this book as a good starting point for those who know they worry too much, but aren't sure if they worry enough to see a physician or psychologist.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best self help books I've read
Review: I found this book applys to all areas of one's life fom work to personal relationships. It is percise in defining the types of toxic worrys people have day to day and may not realize how it affects us and people we are in contact with. It not only points the worrys but also provides solutions and techniques to deal and overcome excessive worry. The author really knows what he is talking about. The case histories make it r easy reading and I was able to relate to some of the cases.

Rating:
Summary: A multimodal approach to worry
Review: I found this book extremely practical and helpful. Dr. Hallowell describes different types of worry and explains the various approaches for working to curb worry. Dr. Hallowell is honest in that worry cannot be cured -- only managed. Dr. Hallowell comes up with a variety of approaches for worry including medical and non-medical. I am sending a copy of this book to all the worriers in my own family!

Rating:
Summary: Help for the common man and woman
Review: I picked up Dr. Hallowell's book about three years ago. I was in a horrible job with a demanding and verbally abusive boss and thought I had died and gone to Hell. On more than one occasion I seriously considered driving my car into a tree just to avoid having to go to work another miserable day. I was in counseling with a psychologist at the time who, though quite a funny guy, was of no help to me. I worried about a lot of things. I worried about everything: how to survive in a rotten job; how to regain joy in my life with my wife and newborn son; how to stop self-destructive behaviors; how to get back my lost sense of humor. I was, needless to say, desperate! Then, while browsing through the "Self-help Section" of the bookstore, I was grabbed by the title of Dr. Hallowell's book: "Worry". I bought the book and read case studies all about myself. People who suffered exactly like I did. I learned that I wasn't a failure. I wasn't crazy. I wasn't destined to live out the rest of my life as a miserably unhappy man. I talked about the book with my wife and told her I thought I was depressed and really needed help. I went to a psychiatrist who said I was suffering from Major Depression. He prescribed medication and long term therapy. The change in me was dramatic. I felt better, mentally and physically, enjoyed my family, regained my sense of humor, and, best of all, I quit my job. Of course I found another job and I'm still in therapy. I'm no longer depressed. This book literally saved my life.

Rating:
Summary: very informative book on worry
Review: I was very happy that I bought this book. As a person who suffers from worry/anxiety (learned from the best of them....my mother) I turned to this book to help me understand the reasons behind worry and what can be done to help the person suffering from it. Dr. Hallowell does an incredible job discussing the different forms of worry (including the differences between good and bad worry), the possibility of genetic reasons, how worry fits in with other mental illness (depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder), etc. He then talks about the different ways that worry can be dealt with. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he is not an advocate of just giving medication. He discusses a well-rounded approach of therapy, medication (if necessary), and things a person can do on their own. He discusses the various types of medication and how they work with different types of mental illness. The last part of the book talks about various things a person can do to help themselves deal with worry.

Overall I think this is a wonderful book. It is definitely a great starting point for those who know they have a problem but are unsure of how to start dealing with it.

I completely disagree with the reviewer who said this book would not be good for learning how to deal with worry. Its as if they were reading a completely different book than I did.

Rating:
Summary: Worry: Controlling It and Using It Wisely
Review: This is a good overview of the various forms of worry and the generally recommended treatments. I don't think it will reduce your worries on its own, but I do think it will help point you in the direction of help. I found the book "Choose to be Happy" more useful in identifying the positive steps I could take to reframe my perspective on my life.