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Hope and Help for Your Nerves (Signet) (Paperback)
by Claire Weekes
| Category:
Anxiety disorders, Mental heath, Stress management, Self help |
| Market price: ¥ 98.00
MSL price:
¥ 88.00
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Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
A true God-send for anyone suffering from panic and phobia. |
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Author: Claire Weekes
Publisher: Signet
Pub. in: September, 1990
ISBN: 0451167228
Pages: 224
Measurements: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.7 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA01015
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0451167224
Language: American English
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- Awards & Credential -
From bestselling author of Peace from Nervour Suffering, this highly recommended book on anxiety and fear has sold 350,000 copies. |
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- MSL Picks -
Dr. Claire Weekes has written a good book for those who suffer from depression, panic disorder, insomnia, or other related things she terms "nervous illness" or "nervous attacks".
Alas, her terminology was one of the two problems I found with the book. In some places it was just odd and puzzling - such as use of the word "brainfag" (I tried to find that one in Webster, and couldn't) or descriptions of symptoms like "scalp ache" or one's head swinging back and forth on the pillow like a pendulum as he falls asleep. In other places it was just annoying and dated - "nervous illness" or "nervous attacks".
However, possibly in the author's defense is that the copyright on the book I read was 1969, and mental health terminology has definitely changed since then. She is also Australian; some of the things I'm deeming oddities may simply be regional variations in language. Dr. Weekes also seems to recommend shock treatment quite a bit, also likely due to the date of writing.
This unfortunately does not explain why the author failed to better describe one of the techniques heavily mentioned in her book - that of "floating". She advises an individual with agoraphobia to simply not resist their fear of exiting their home, but just "float" on out the door. Astonishingly, Dr. Weekes gives numerous examples of patients in whom this suggestion to "float" has suddenly worked wonders, with patients exclaiming how they're now "just floating" into all sorts of situations they previously feared.
To a reader who has been suffering from a complex illness, Dr. Weekes' obscure technique and advice may seem oversimplistic. She doesn't adequately describe floating, yet recommends it repeatedly. A frustrated reader would likely be justified in thinking that if their problem were as simple as just deciding to float, then they would not be battling it or reading a book to find answers.
Still, Dr. Weekes has much good advice throughout the book, which she thankfully goes into in greater detail than she did with her floating technique. It's mostly along the lines of panic and anxiety attacks and how resisting fear, stifling it, and battling it usually only serves to increase anxiety levels. She goes into a good description of what's happening on a physiological level, and shows the reader it's not "all in your head". Many, if not most, "nervous" disorders come down to exhaustion and resistance combined with fear. Learning about that alone makes this book a worthwhile read.
(From Liora Hess, USA)
Target readers:
Anyone who is suffering from anxiety, panic attacks and agrophobia.
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Dr. Clare Weekes is the author of the bestselling Peace from Nervous Suffering, also available in a Signet edition. In addition, Dr. Weekes, best known for her pioneering work in the study of nervous illness and anxiety, has lectured at psychiatric hospitals in Britain and in the United States.
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From Publisher
"My heart beats too fast." "My hands tremble and sweat." "My stomach churns." "I have terrible headaches." "I can't sleep." "Sometimes I can't leave home, even to do a routine errand." These common symptoms of nervous illness are "mirror" only to the people who don't suffer from them... but to the thousands of people they effect, these problems make the difference between a happy, healthy life and one of the crippling fear and frustration.
Now, Dr. Clare Weekes offers the results of years of experience in treating her many patients - including some who thought they'd never recover. Like them, you can learn how to overcome your battle with the anxiety that causes your distress. You can understand and analyze your own symptoms... learn how to break the cycle of fear... and relax.
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1
The Power Within You
If you are reading this book because your nerves are "in a bad way," you are the very person for whom it has been written, and I shall therefore talk directly to you as if you were sitting beside me.
I shall show clearly and simply, and yet with all necessary detail, how such nervous illness begins and develops and how it can be cured. The advice given here will definitely cure you, if you follow it. This will take perseverance and some courage. You may notice that I have not asked for patience. A nervously ill person is rarely patient, because "sick" nerves are usually agitated nerves - that is one reason why he is bewildered by them. To wait patient in line can be almost intolerable misery for such a person. However, there is a substitute for patience, and this I shall present to you later.
It will not be difficult for you to read this book: it is about you and your nerves, and for this reason you will read it with interest, whereas to read an ordinary book or newspaper may seem an impossibility or, should you succeed, may leave you more distressed than when you began.
I use the word "cure" and this may surprise you, because it implies an illness and you may think of yourself as more bewildered than ill, lost in a maze, trying to find your way back to being the person you used to be.
On the other hand, you may be so depressed and exhausted that you may readily agree that you are ill. Whether or not you consider yourself ill, more than anything else you want to be yourself again. You probably look at others in the street and wonder why you can't be like them. What is this "terrible thing" that has happened to you? What is the meaning of these terrible feelings?
Such feelings may have possessed you for a long time, even for years. Indeed, you may have reached a point of such desperate suffering that you could be thinking of ending it all, or may even have attempted to do just that. And yet, however deeply involved you may be in nervous illness, however long you may have suffered, you can recover and enjoy life again. I emphasize however deeply and however long. The main difference between a person ill for many years and someone ill for a short time is that the one who suffered for long has had more time to collect disturbing memories, especially the memory of much defeat, so that he despairs easily. But there is nothing altered within this person determining that because he has been ill for so long, he cannot possibly recover now... |
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| View all 9 comments |
Ann Landers (MSL quote), USA
<2007-10-20 00:00>
A revolutionary new method for overcoming fear and tension... I recommend it with my whole heart. |
J. Clay (MSL quote), USA
<2007-10-20 00:00>
Suffering with this disorder for over 3 years really bewildered me into having no idea what was going on anymore. Here I am, 3 years later feeling alot more relieved that I think I've felt in a very long time. I never relized why my moods were continously going on and off all the time. Why one day i'd be anxious, then next I wouldn't be. Dr. Claire Weekes book really is my light of hope. I first ordered her audio cds, which were a blessing in itself. I then decided to order her book, which has been more indepth and just as helpful. It really puts into perspective just exactly what it is your mind and body is going through. I'm glad I choose to go to her first and nobody else. I pull out her book each night, or anytime I feel slightly anxious. I was so elated after reading her book one night, I actually began to cry. Tears of joy that is! When you have such anxiety and panic, you really feel like there's no way out. It's not fun - and nobody should ever have to experience it. She really made me understand everything and help me feel alot better about myself. I've been following her method ever since... and I will continue to do so... most likely the rest of my life. God Bless her! |
R. Okarski (MSL quote), USA
<2007-10-20 00:00>
This book was a GOD send for me. I was suffering with crippling anxiety for the longest time, and I was at my wits end. Life had no meaning other than fear. I felt like fear and terror defined my very being. I hated life and I developed problems with depression.
This book calmed me down right away simply by the fact that she went into detail explaining the hows and whys of anxiety and its symptoms. Her reassuring style and clear kindness and understanding also helped me. It was like she truly truly cared.
There have been some who seem to dislike how simple some of her suggested methods sound, but I have to say that in my case, the simplicity of it all was a plus. If it had been long, drawn out and complex, it would have terrified me at that time in my life. If not for this book, to this day, the quality of my life would nonexistent.
And for those who are confused by the word when you get to it in her book, the word "Brainfag" means simply "exhaustion that affects mental keenness".
If you suffer from any kind of anxiety disorder, do yourself a favor and read this book. It changed my life for the better. |
Barry Winiker (MSL quote), USA
<2007-10-20 00:00>
Buyers of "self help" books about anxiety, of which I am one, are serious customers. They are not buying to amuse themselves with a tale of espionage or high drama. They are not buying to inform themselves of the complexities of world politics. If they've reached the point where they feel they must buy a book to "help" themselves, then the book they buy is not a book at all. It's a "religious" tract to save themselves from the daily torment that serious anxiety (GAD, PTSD, OCD, etc.) may bring. It's a serious purchase filled with hope that the next book holds the secret to normalcy. A life without anxiety. I've bought literally dozens of books on anxiety and find they are well meaning, well informed, and mainly (not always) ineffectual. Along these lines I have developed an invaluable tool which reliably predicts the relative value of a self help book: It's called "underlining". In this regard, Claire Weekes is without peer. The well worn, tattered and underlined books of Claire Weekes are well known to those who read her little books (Mainly: Hope & Help For Your Nerves and Peace Through Nervous Suffering) And why? Because you sense in every line she writes a person who understands the mind of an anxious individual and who more importantly can transmit a positive message that affords the anxious mind a comfort that no other book can. Is the book dated? Yes. No GAD-OCD-PTSD But that's part of its charm. Instead, she uses the language of comfort. And that's a word that a serious customer can relate to.
I"ve read in these revuews some pros and cons, to which I'd like to respond:
1. Con: This is a book about dealing with anxiety. It's not about trying to solve the problem that initiated the anxiety. For that, Dr. Weekes, talks about "need[ing] a wise counselor" who will give to a "point of view" that you can "glimpse" to get a "new perspective".
Pro: YOu may trivialize this approach, but the anxiety problem becomes an issue in and of itself, and sometimes drawfs the original problem. Sometimes, as in the case of a Panic Attack, there may be no reasons causing you to be nervous, just body physiology and biochemical interactions. In either case, the anxiety becomes the issue. You may feel anxious for no special reason, and then attribute whatever you were thinking or whereever you were with "danger". You feel fear, and then you feel fear about feeling more fear. And try to avoid that thinking or situation for fear of duplicating that experience. She calls this "second fear". It hits the nail right on the head.
2. Con: It has a quaint anarchronistic approach:
Pro: Enough can't be said about the tenor of the book. No anxiety book I have ever read has taken a non-clinical way of describing a problem. This factual approach may describe the problem and profer a solution, but reads like a veritable textbook.I wonder how many of you out there started reading a self help book, and came away with a jumble of facts, and more nervous than before, Claire Weekes wrote a book. Factual yes, but couched in such a way to think you were listening to a wise old Grandmother at he fireplace. I can't underestimate how reassuring this is.
3, Con: It's not sophisticated enough. It's superficial and does not benefit for advances in psychology:
Pro: I've read the book literally dozens of time. You can hardly pick up a page that doesn't have a nugget of wisdom. It really feels -and I can't overemphasize this- that's she KNOWS what you're thinking and how frantic you are to find someway out of this maze. Her answer to this is always simple, enlightening and to the point.
4. Con: She doesn't differentiate between the various anxiety disorders.
Pro: These anxiety problems all have the same thing in common: anxiety! This is their common thread. The individual has conditioned themselves to superstiously associate anxiety with a person, place or thing. And nobody views the issue of anxiety with more insight than Dr. Weekes.
5. Con: She doesn't talk extensively about depression
Pro: She does but not in an comprehensive way, true. If you are suffering just from depression you may look somewhere else (David Burns for example), However, if the depression is secondary to anxiety than the chapter on depression (which she likes to call "depletion") can be your guiding light. |
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