Anxiety for Beginners: How It Feels to Live With Anxiety and How To Make The Best Of It - Hardcover

Former VICE journalist Eleanor Morgan follows up her piece “This Is How It Feels to Live with Severe Anxiety”—read over five million times in the span of a few weeks—with a deeper and more personal look at one of the world’s most common mental health issues

Anxiety for Beginners offers a vivid insight into the often crippling impact of anxiety disorders, conditions that are frequently invisible, misunderstood and shrouded in shame. Combining her first-hand experiences (rendered in emotive detail) with extensive research by experts (neuroscientists, psychiatrists, psychologists and fellow sufferers, including some familiar faces), Eleanor Morgan not only explores the roots of her own anxiety, but also investigates what might be contributing to so many of us suffering around the world. The result is a compassionate and clear-eyed guide for those who live with anxiety disorders and those who live with them by proxy.

Anxiety for Beginners is, at its heart, a book about acceptance, as Morgan reveals how we can live in ways that are not just manageable but enjoyable, learning to accept anxiety as part of who we are. A “powerful and beautifully written account” (The Guardian) of coming to terms with anxiety, this honest, wise and revealing book demystifies a condition too often hidden and invites a crucial new understanding.

When Eleanor Morgan published a first-person account of her struggles with anxiety as part of the online series the VICE Guide to Mental Health, the response was staggering. Within four days, the article was read by five million people in fifteen countries, prompted tens of thousands of reader responses and was endorsed by numerous high-profile celebrities, including Caitlin Moran. 

In Anxiety for Beginners, Morgan digs even deeper, combining her own experiences—rendered in achingly honest, often hilarious detail—with extensive research and input from experts: neuroscientists, psychiatrists, psychologists and fellow sufferers, including some familiar faces. With her brilliant wit and warmth, Morgan not only examines the roots of her own anxiety, but also investigates what might be contributing to the suffering of so many of us around the world. At its heart, Anxiety for Beginners is a book about acceptance, as Morgan explores how learning to accept anxiety as part of who we are, rather than wasting years being ashamed of it, can help us live lives that are not just manageable but enjoyable.