Review of "My Age of Anxiety"
By Scott StosselKnopf, 2014
Review by Donald L. Beahm, Ph.D. on Jun 10th 2014
It took courage to write this book. I suppose all publicly shared writing endeavors take some amount of courage to initiate and complete, but when the writing reveals this much about a personal struggle that can range from frustrating and humiliating to completely demoralizing, well, it just takes an inordinate amount of courage to expose this much of one?s self, especially when you have been burdened with so many mental health challenges. Beyond revealing his own outright nearly lifelong brawls with anxiety, Scott Stossel writes a book that does a superb job of discussing and analyzing anxiety from a medical, philosophical, cultural and historical perspective. The focus of the book is on trying to understand anxiety, its causes, manifestations and how it can be treated, with the added dimension of hearing it from someone who has boat loads of experience trying to grasp its dimensions and cope with it.
One of the things I liked most about the book is that he manages to intertwine the various aspects of his evaluation of anxiety without muddling them. He begins each chapter and then delicately intersperses quotes from a number of revered historical authorities from philosophy, medicine and psychology (Kierkegaard, Freud, and William James, to mention a few). He includes his own struggles with anxiety where appropriate but I never felt as if he was making the book a ?woe is me? exercise. In fact, the way Stossel tells some of his personal stories about trying to cope with anxiety you are more likely to laugh with him about how ridiculous things get than to cry over how terrible the situations are. It is clear that what he is trying to do in writing the book is answer a number of interrogatives, such as, what is anxiety? Where does this affliction come from (nurture v. nature or child rearing v. genetics)? How does one treat this illness (therapy v. medication?both?neither)? He states that he is hoping that writing the book will help him deal with his own anxiety, but the book is far more than what he has gone through, and he has been through a lot. It has more to do with what anxiety is, how it has been understood and where we are going with treating it.
Stossel relies on various sources to claim that anxiety is today the most common form of officially classified mental illness, where thirty-five years ago it didn?t exist as a diagnostic category in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders published by the American Psychiatric Association and used by mental health practitioners to identify types of mental illness. Conditions such as general anxiety disorder and panic disorder were not listed in the manual then but are now. He argues that although anxiety was not a new condition these specific illnesses did not become diagnostic categories until after the drugs were discovered to treat it. In other words, and as he puts it in part of the title of Chapter Six in the book, ?How Drugs Created a New Disorder, these new drugs became heavily prescribed for illnesses that just a short period before had not been diagnosable.
The trajectory of ascertaining new drugs, such as benzodiazepines (two of the best known are Valium and Xanax) to treat anxiety led to an explosion of the use of these drugs. He does recognize that large numbers of people have benefited from the use of these drugs, a group that includes him by his own admission. However, his concern appears to be that these drugs were created in search of an illness, or at the least these drugs just happen to treat mental illnesses that hadn?t been identified. Also, he has legitimate concerns that too many patients are being prescribed these drugs when they may not be necessary.
I have no doubt that he is correct in observing the two diagnostic categories came after the advent of some of the drugs being developed. Also, I don?t doubt that many anti-anxiety medications and anti-depression medications are over prescribed. Nevertheless, anxiety had been identified by both Herodotus and Hippocrates by the fifth century. Is it such a revelation that medications would have been discovered to treat certain types of the malady, or the general condition itself? It seems that over prescribing is the problem that physicians need to reign in, not so much that pharmaceutical companies develop drugs that don?t yet fit a specific diagnostic category, although, there are plenty of problems with how pharmaceutical companies go about their business.
Despite concerns about how some of the drugs used to treat anxiety came about, and what they may be doing to his brain, Stossel continues to use them and fairly strong doses of alcohol at times to try to reign in his anxiety (he lists what he has taken over the years and it is a very long list). He knows this is not healthy but feels it is necessary to persevere. He indicates that many other accomplished people have struggled with anxiety, such as Darwin, Freud and William James. Stossel is quite accomplished himself currently editing The Atlantic and having authored a previous book titled Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver, in addition to numerous other articles and essays in The New Yorker, The New Republic, The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. His writing skills are well presented in My Age of Anxiety. He takes on the affliction of anxiety with a clarity and grasp of its complexity that few would be able to harness. His research and his own experiences have motivated him to write this book as a ??quest to understand, and to find relief from or redemption in anxious suffering.? I believe that he has succeeded to a great degree and I believe his readers will largely benefit as hoped.
© 2014 Donald L. Beahm
Donald L. Beahm, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Political Science, Dowling College, Oakdale, NY
Resources
-
Articles
- What is Anxiety?
-
The Biopsychosocial Model of Anxiety
- The Biopsychosocial Model: Causes of Pathological Anxiety
- Biological Explanations of Anxiety Disorders
- Biological Explanations of Anxiety: Part II
- Biological Explanations of Anxiety: Part III
- Biological Explanations of Anxiety: Part IV
- Psychological Explanations of Anxiety Disorders
- Psychological Explanations: Part II
- Social Explanations of Anxiety Disorders
- Development & Maintenance of Anxiety Disorders
-
Classification & Diagnosis of Anxiety Disorders
- The Classification and Diagnosis of Anxiety Disorders
- Panic Attacks: A Classic Symptom of Several Anxiety Disorders
- Panic Disorder
- Separation Anxiety Disorder
- Selective Mutism
- Agoraphobia
- Specific Phobias and Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia)
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
- Other Anxiety-Related Disorders
- Anxiety and Other Psychiatric Disorders
-
Anxiety Disorder Theories and Therapies
- Anxiety Disorders: Theories and Therapies
- Behavioral Learning Theory and Associated Therapies
- Operant Conditioning
- Operant Conditioning and Avoidance Learning
- Contemporary Views of Behavioral Learning Theory
- Behavioral Therapies for Anxiety Disorders
- Cognitive Theory and Associated Therapies
- Cognitive Therapy
- Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy
- Adjunct Therapies
- Pharmacologic Treatments (Medication)
-
Treatment of Anxiety Disorders
- Treatment for Separation Anxiety Disorder
- Treatment for Selective Mutism
- Treatment for Panic Disorder
- Treatment for Specific Phobias and Treatment for Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia)
- Treatment for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
- Treatment for Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders (OCSDs)
- Conclusion
- Anxiety Disorder References & Additonal Resources
-
News
-
Questions and Answers
- Anxious About Opinions
- Possible OCD and Anxiety issues
- Fear
- Stay in Therapy Because I Like it?
- Is My Anxiety a Normal Reaction?
- What am I Supposed to do With a Hypochondriac Step Daughter?
- Need Help
- Husband Continually Annoyed/Angry With Me
- How Can I Overcome my Debilitating Shyness and Fear of Life?
- Really Desperate..Please Help
-
111 more
- OCD and Trauma?
- Depression
- I Don't Care For Anything, I Feel as Though I'm Wasting my Life.
- Unwanted Thoughts
- Anxiety Has Taken Over My Life...
- CBT Therapy and Transference
- Transference II
- OCD
- 19 Yr Old Naive Daughter
- Fear of Choking
- Help
- Should I be Worried?
- Too Much Time doing Homework
- Falling Apart
- Can't Stand Noise
- What Is Intimacy, Exactly?
- Is She Ill?
- Social Anxiety, Depression and More...
- Do I Have Just Social Anxiety or Other Diagnoses Combined with SA?
- Need To Ask Someone
- False Memories
- Help! Please!
- Two Year Old Son Wandered
- Infections and The Brain
- Are Personality Disorders For Life?
- I am Terrified of Death.
- Anhedonia
- Our 23 Year Old Son Refuses to Get Help for His Anxiety Attacks and Depression.
- Anxiety
- Anxiety Disorder vs. Personality Disorder: Differences?
- Restroom Phobia
- I'm Afraid I'm Going Crazy
- Post Brain Surgery Mental Problems
- Would Medication Help?
- obsessive strange thoughts about life and existentialism
- Am I Crazy?
- Is it Anxiety? Is it Normal to Be Like That?
- Depressed 19 year old college student
- Depression helps to contribute to my unemployment! - Paula
- Relationship Anxiety
- Disconnected
- I'm Scared
- Please help fix my mom. - Kenny
- OCD?
- Saving my Son
- Scary thoughts, dark feelings, help?
- Swallowing fear
- Is there something wrong with me?
- I have PTSD and I feel nothing
- OCD Cure
- Repressed Memory
- I have OCD. Will this increase my child's chance of developing Autism?
- Crazy Thoughts
- 20 Year Old Female: no friends, depressed, what should I do?
- unwanted thoughts!
- crazy thoughts... all the time
- A very low threshold for stress tolerance
- Why can't I get gross images out of my head?
- fear of expiration
- SPECIFIC PHOBIA
- anxiety or going crazy?
- OCB
- visions of what could have been
- about depersonalization
- obsessive compulsive disorder
- OCD/ANXIETY while pregnant
- Amnesia
- Social Phobia
- Constant Counting Disorder
- Anxiety
- Is this OCD?
- Worried about my therapist
- No Friends
- Teenager...angst vs. mental health issue
- phobia regarding uncertainty
- Obsessed with running out of things
- Do I Have OCD?
- Do environmental factors hold a person back?
- Never Had a Relationship
- Shy Rural Student
- Nursing Student's Anxiety
- I'm Afraid They Are Judging Me
- Part Time Work and Stress
- Anxiety
- Panic
- Bathroom Phobia
- Anxiety?
- Mastery Of Anxiety And Panic
- Very Determined Panicker In The South
- Panicking Boyfriend
- Alternatives For Anxiety Treatment
- Is Anxiety A Hereditary Factor?
- Unable To Keep Eye Contact
- Is It Really Panic? And How Do We Get Help
- A Cure For Claustrophobia?
- Panic Attacks
- Shyness And The Post Partum Blues
- Klonopin
- Alternative Treatment
- Can't Afford Therapy
- Driving Phobia
- Indecisive
- Agoraphobia?
- Social Fear
- A Cure For Anxiety?
- Panic Attacks
- Fear of Driving
- Shy Guy
- Anxiety?
- Social Anxiety
- Linda writes:
-
Book & Media Reviews
- 8 Keys to Stress Management
- A Brief History of Anxiety
- Anxiety
- Anxiety
- Anxiety Disorders
- Anxiety, Phobias, and Panic
- Been There, Done That? DO THIS!
- Calm Beneath the Waves
- Elsewhere
- Exercise for Mood and Anxiety
-
31 more
- Getting Control
- Helping Students Overcome Depression and Anxiety
- Just Checking
- Mind-Body Workbook for Anxiety
- Monkey Mind
- My Age of Anxiety
- Overcoming School Anxiety
- Panic Disorder
- Passing for Normal
- Phobic and Anxiety Disorders in Children and Adolescents
- Repressed Spaces
- Self-Coaching
- Stress
- Stress Survival Guide
- Textbook of Anxiety Disorders
- The 10 Best Anxiety Busters
- The Age of Anxiety
- The Anxieties of Affluence
- The Dutiful Worrier
- The Emotional Eater's Repair Manual
- The Male Stress Survival Guide
- The Places That Scare You
- The Stress Cure
- The SuperStress Solution
- Treating Affect Phobia
- Under Pressure and Overwhelmed
- Viniyoga Therapy for Anxiety
- When Words Are Not Enough
- Wish I Could Be There
- Yoga for Anxiety
- Yoga Journal's Yoga for Stress
-
Self-Help Groups
-
Links
-
Videos
- How to Manage ADHD and Anxiety
- What You Need to Know about Students with ADHD and Anxiety
- How To Make Room For Gratitude In An Anxious Brain
- How to Stay Calm When You Know You'll Be Stressed
- Anxiety and Teen Girls with Lisa Damour, PhD
- Identifying and Treating Anxiety in Kids and Teens
- Anxiety, Trauma and How Prolonged Exposure Therapy Works For PTSD
- How Weighted Blankets May Lift Anxiety
- Too Scared: Social Anxiety Disorder
- Treating Anxiety Disorders: A Unified Protocol
-
19 more
- Treating Youth Anxiety and Social Phobia
- Overcoming Anxiety in Children and Teens
- Treating Anxiety in Children and Teens with ASD
- Back-to-School Anxiety
- No More Shame: My life with Anxiety and Depression
- Adolescent Depression and Anxiety
- What is Social Anxiety Disorder?
- Living Without Fear
- What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?
- What is Generalized Anxiety Disorder?
- School Anxiety! Activities To Help Kids and Teens Manage It
- Recognizing and Treating Problematic Fear and Anxiety in Children
- How To Stop Overthinking When You Have Anxiety
- My Anxiety Is Making Me Anxious!
- Evidence-Based Treatment Planning for Generalized Anxiety Disorder Video
- Managing Anxiety in Youth: More Action Than Talk
- Treatment of Social Anxiety Disorder
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Anxiety
- Recent Advances in Anxiety - Children/Adolescents
-
More Information
- Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with David Barlow, Ph.D. on the Nature and Treatment of Anxiety and Panic Disorders
- Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Dr. Michelle Craske on Anxiety Disorders Research and Treatment
- Wise Counsel Interview Transcript: An Interview with Richard Heimberg, Ph.D. on Anxiety Research and Treatment
Topics
-
Related Topic Centers
-
Addictions
-
Aging & Elder Care
-
Assessments & Interventions
-
Career & Workplace
-
Emotional Well-Being
-
Life Issues
-
Parenting & Child Care
-
Abuse
-
ADHD: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
-
Adoption
-
Autism
-
Child & Adolescent Development: Overview
-
Child & Adolescent Development: Puberty
-
Child Development & Parenting: Early (3-7)
-
Child Development & Parenting: Infants (0-2)
-
Child Development & Parenting: Middle (8-11)
-
Child Development & Parenting:Adolescence (12-24)
-
Child Development Theory: Adolescence (12-24)
-
Child Development Theory: Middle Childhood (8-11)
-
Childhood Mental Disorders and Illnesses
-
Childhood Special Education
-
Divorce
-
Family & Relationship Issues
-
Intellectual Disabilities
-
Learning Disorders
-
Oppositional Defiant Disorder
-
Parenting
-
Self Esteem
-
-
Psychological Disorders
-
Anxiety Disorders
-
Bipolar Disorder
-
Conversion Disorders
-
Depression: Depression & Related Conditions
-
Dissociative Disorders
-
Domestic Violence and Rape
-
Eating Disorders
-
Impulse Control Disorders
-
Intellectual Disabilities
-
Mental Disorders
-
Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
-
Personality Disorders
-
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
-
Schizophrenia
-
Sexual Disorders
-
Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders
-
Suicide
-
Tourettes and other Tic Disorders
-