What Happened to Make You Anxious?: How to Uncover the Little “t” Traumas that Drive Your Anxiety, Worry, and Fear by Jaime Castillo

Published: June 1st 2022 by

Publisher: New Harbinger Publications

Length: 192 pages

My Rating:

Blurb:

Listen up! It’s time to change the way you manage your anxiety—by working with it rather than against it. This revolutionary guide provides the key to understanding the root cause of your anxiety, so you can break free from its grip.

Let’s face it: anxiety can interfere with every single aspect of your life, from work and family to relationships and finances. Left unchecked, the cycle of anxiety reinforces and perpetuates itself over time, and can leave you feeling paralyzed with fear. You’ve probably attempted to “get rid of” or “outrun” your anxiety, only to find your symptoms growing even stronger. What you need is a new way to deal with anxiety: one that emphasizes listening to what your anxiety is trying to tell you.

In What Happened to Make You Anxious?, anxiety expert Jaime Castillo offers a whole new approach; one that focuses less on avoiding or extinguishing anxiety, and more toward understanding and working with it to create a fulfilling, meaningful life. You’ll learn how your anxiety is connected to what Castillo refers to as “little ‘t’ traumas”—seemingly small, unhealed traumas from your past that drive your fear and worry, so you can get to the root of your anxiety and start healing.

Your anxiety works overtime communicating perceived threats; this book will show you how to listen to anxiety,  discern which threats are real,  which don’t fit the actual facts of the situation, and which are triggered by past events. Once you and your anxiety are on the same page, anxiety will loosen its grip—freeing you up to live with clarity, confidence, and serenity.

You’ve tried managing it on your own. You may have even received treatment. If you’re at your wit’s end when it comes to your anxiety, this book will show you a new path toward lasting relief.

My Review:

Here is another anxiety related self help book that I have read recently. Most of the books I have read have used Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy but this book has a fresh take. It focuses on Internal Family systems and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. These techniques are becoming more widely used in therapy and I am a particular fan of internal family systems.

This book brings you back to when your anxiety started. The initial trigger as such. Instead of blocking your anxiety the book helps you to accept your anxiety. With understanding comes less fear. This is a great read if you are looking for something new.

I received an arc of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.