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Anxiety rates are spiralling, especially among women and young people, with an 'epidemic of mental illness' among adolescents, according to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. A third of the world's population live with an anxiety disorder at any one time and in the UK more than 8 million people will experience one. The factors behind the anxiety crisis seem obvious; social media addiction, climate despair and economic inequalities, leading to paralysing anxiety, alienation and despair. But while we wait for politicians and tech companies to do the right thing to alleviate anxiety's societal causes, what can we do as individuals to live well, alongside it?
This is a book that looks at anxiety, differently. Instead of allowing it to keep us stuck and lonely, it suggests we turn towards it, ceasing to see it as a problem to solve and instead as a truth to acknowledge, accept and work with. If we let anxiety have power over us, we are fixed and static, with no room for questioning, no opportunity for change and renewal. But if we recognise anxiety as our alert system, telling us that something isn't right, rather than allowing it to destabilise us, if we listen to what it is telling us, rather than quietening it, then it can propel us towards action. It's letting intuition guide us, not fear. It's seeing anxiety as a tool, not a trap.
With less than half of the people living with an anxiety disorder likely to seek support, this guide features helpful advice from experts and tools and tips based on years of Sian's original research to help readers understand, learn from and live alongside our anxiety, rather than trying to banish it or allowing it to spin us out of control.
If you have failed to free yourself from your anxiety, despite trying everything, if you are done with trying to get rid of it, then this is the book for you.
About the author
Dr Sian Williams is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist practising in the NHS in the UK. She helps emergency service staff manage anxiety, stress and trauma and works with The Royal Foundation to bring attention to mental health in first responders. Sian also has her own private clinic delivering psychology and coaching to on- and off-air media professionals and business leaders. She's worked with the BBC, ITN, Sky, ITV, the Guardian and Google and has written on mental health for major newspapers and publications including the Daily Mail, the Daily Telegraph and Good Housekeeping magazine. Sian is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and delivered their annual keynote lecture in 2024. Sian is also an award-winning broadcaster, having spent a quarter of a century presenting some of TV's most popular shows, including over a decade at the helm of 'BBC Breakfast' and hosting many prime-time series on the BBC, ITV and C5. She now presents BBC Radio 4's 'Life Changing' which has had more than ten million downloads and presents a daily Classical Unwind radio show on BBC Radio 3 . Her first book 'Rise: Surviving and Thriving after Trauma' was described by the Daily Mail as 'the book every woman
MUST read'. Anxiety is her lifetime companion.
