Worrywart's Companion: 21 Ways to Soothe Yourself and Worry Smart

The Worrywart's Companion is an excellent guide for the anxious in heart. It is filled with practical ideas to overcome the worries that keep you awake at night. Potter includes 21 strategies to mitigate your anxiety and help you reduce your worries. It teaches you how to worry smart, and not worry yourself sick. Following Potter's suggested principles would calm your mind and appease your soul, and help you think clearer when dealing with the worry at hand. Practicing the tips in the book like-under-reacting, saying a prayer, imagining a happy ending, doing a good deed, even taking a warm bath-might sooth you and help you conquer your fears. For fun, you can take the quiz in the beginning of the book, which will provide you with insight, and allows you to rate yourself and figure out your score on the worry scale. The book is light, positive, pleasant, commonsensical, and simple. It delves into the root causes of worrying, and elucidates the importance of understanding the cognitive distortions that perpetuate the worrying process. It will also help the reader realize that worrying is a learned behavior that becomes an ingrained habit, rather than a hopeless and uncontrolled contracted virus. The Worrywart's Companion is a good self-help book that might give you hope when you're feeling stuck in a chronic state of worry, agony, and anxiety. It will help you unlearn the negative patterns that have kept you trapped in your web of self-torment. It is a must read for every person who's negative thinking and worried thoughts dictate every moment of his or her life.

This book has been such a huge help to me. I used to feel absolutely horrible and stressed out with anxiety. Now when faced with an anxiety provoking situation I can figure out how to think about it so that I am not feeling miserable. 9 times out of 10 whatever I was worried about doesn't come to pass anyway. The most helpful part of the book for me has been the chapter on "flexible thinking". I have a little summary that I have memorized so I can quickly work through a high anxiety moment: 1. objective - what are the facts - facts 2. emotive - what are the feelings? - feelings 3. supportive - what is working? - right 4. possiblity - what is possible here? - possible 5. critical - what is/could go wrong? - wrong 6. strategic - what is the next step? - next I hope I am not doing a diservice by posting that here. It makes a lot of sense when you read the book and has been the key, absolute key, for me to change. Very very helpful book. Highly recommend. If I knew anybody who was having anxiety and worry I would get them this book. I feel so greatful to the author of this book. You have made my life incredibly much better. I don't know how to express how much this has helped me and how thankful I am. Could you do a book like this on anger?

The coping strategies in this book are refreshing, and there are a lot of novel ideas that are truly helpful. Dr. Potter seems to know her stuff, and the book is informative as well as pleasant. I don't know that it will make you stop worrying forever, but trying the various strategies for dealing with worry and anxiety will be fun, and they certainly can't hurt. I would recommend this book for anyone who has a problem with excessive worrying, or even for the occasional worrier who needs a lift.