Anxiety for Beginners

Eleanor Morgan has written and interviewed extensively for the Guardian, the Observer, The Times, the Independent, GQ, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue and the Believer. She worked as Senior Editor at VICE UK, where she helped to manage the output of an ever-expanding editorial team at one of the fastest-moving media organizations in the world, and has become one of the sharpest, best connected young voices in today's media landscape. She has written about her experiences with anxiety and depression in Anxiety for Beginners.

A powerful and beautifully written account of Morgan's experiences with anxiety and depression, and a rigorously researched examination of why they happen and how they can be managed. As well as speaking to fellow sufferers, Morgan consults psychiatrists, psychologists, OCD specialists, gastroenterologists and nutritionists, and bones up on Kierkegaard, Freud and Hippocrates (the latter was the first to describe a patient with social anxiety).It is with a mixture of humanity and clear-sightedness that she analyses genetic and environmental influences, trauma, hormones, fertility, parenthood, medication, social stigma and language, all the while linking back to her own stories and those of fellow sufferers.In assuming the dual role of memoirist and investigative journalist, Morgan gradually comes to terms with her own anxiety disorder. She offers no firm answers or miracle cures, and is careful to remind us that, when it comes to mental illness, no two cases are the same. Her willingness to share what so many others strive to keep hidden, to thoroughly demystify her condition, is courageous and compelling

• Unit - PART ONE: SOMETHING'S WRONG Chapter - 1: A Tornado in a Toilet Cubicle Chapter - 2: 'Two Litres of Pus' Chapter - 3: Taking Root Chapter - 4: Cracking Chapter - 5: Paddling Chapter - 6: A Mind on Fire Chapter - 7: 'A Total F***er' Unit - PART TWO: WHAT IS ANXIETY Chapter - 8: A Price Tag on Freedom Chapter - 9: Appropriate Responses Chapter - 10: Computers in Skin Suits Chapter - 11: 'Flavour' Chapter - 12: More Than a (Gut) Feeling Chapter - 13: Diagnosis: Shame Chapter - 14: Giving the Beast a Name Unit - PART THREE: WHY DOES ANXIETY HAPPEN? Chapter - 15: Blame, Time and Place Chapter - 16: Betty Chapter - 17: Grey Matters Chapter - 18: Grey Matters Chapter - 19: Female Hormones: A Bloody Mess Chapter - 20: Calming the Tide Chapter - 21: Needles, Eggs and Freezers Chapter - 22: Blue Curtains Chapter - 23: Stigma, Language and How We Codify Things Chapter - 24: Words and Pictures: How the Media Feeds Our Heads Chapter - 25: Faces and Names Chapter - 26: Thinking About What Other People Think Unit - PART FOUR: WHAT CAN WE DO? Chapter - 27: Drugs, DSM, Dilemmas Chapter - 28: Asking For Help: What Do We Get? Chapter - 29: Helping Ourselves: Where Do We Start? Chapter - 30: Mindfulness: A Mindblowing Industry? Chapter - 31: Exercise, Trees and Hippocampi Chapter - 32: Pamela Chapter - 33: Helping Someone With Anxiety Chapter - 34: Future Treatment Acknowledgements - i: Acknowledgements Section - ii: Bibliography Index - iii: Index