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CBT is a type of psychological treatment that can help you manage your anxiety by changing negative or unhelpful thoughts and behaviour.
Claire B named her inner critic Frank and tells him to F**k off all the time, too - each to their own. Whether breakdown be mild or severe, the basic cause is fear. Conflict, sorrow, guilt or disgrace may start a breakdown, but it is not long before fear takes command. Even great sorrow at the loss of a loved one is mixed with fear, the fear of facing the future alone. Sexual problems are most likely to cause breakdown when accompanied by fear or guilt. Guilt opens the door to fear. Anxiety, worry, dread are only variants of fear in different guises. (p. 19). This is a book I revisted after two years. I have been recommended the book by an old lecturer/professor in my Mental Health Studies class at university. She said it was helpful for her own struggles and felt that I would appreciate it too with what we had discussed. Sadly I had never ended up finishing her copy and then when I got around to buying mine, I never ended up touching it and soon forgot about it.Taking steps to enjoy a healthier lifestyle can help boost both your physical and mental health which can also help combat feelings of anxiety. If you are reading this book because you are having a nervous breakdown or 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.” You might be skeptical of a self-help book dating from the 80s and ask yourself if the guidance is still relevant. I can testify that it is, and that the slightly old fashioned tone of the book made me feel like a wise and educated woman was imparting advice to me. The guidance you need is in this small book. The perseverance and courage you can, with help, find within yourself. The strength to recover is within you, once you are shown the way. I assure you of this.” – Dr Weekes.
Claire W is also an Aussie! Yay. And there is a new bio coming out about her. She must have been a breath of fresh air to patients. She is considered now to be the pioneer of modern anxiety treatment via Cognitive Therapy, and she even has a little rule; Claire B turned it into an acronym faffle. When I read At Last A Life, it totally changed my life with its unorthodox (or so I thought) approach to anxiety that actually worked. It didn’t contain the usual exhortations that I just needed to eat right, meditate and be mindful and then my anxiety would be ‘managed’. Instead it just had some very simple advice: stop trying to get better, let the suffering wash over you, stop fearing your own fear, and let your body heal itself. I am definitely not a stranger to anxiety and depression and so for a long time I have been actively searching for ways in which these 'illnesses' can be 'cured' or made less intense. This book has definitely helped me in the sense that it has given me a completely different perspective compared to what I had before reading this book. Stress and depression can cause you to be a lot less open minded than you perhaps used to be and being accepting of new ideas and view points may seem very daunting, however, when ideas are presented in this book Dr Weekes gives examples about how the sufferer may be feeling once presented with an idea (personally I found her to be pretty spot on) and so you are given a sense of relief that someone out there knows what you are going through and that she has helped many people in similar situations. I think this is an essiential read for any sufferers of anxiety, especially complicated by health worries and a constant fear of panic. Really never found an author to put into words the awful feelings of nervous illness and anxiety. The heart worry and the feeling of tension is all explained and in my mind, it has calmed me to know I am just one of many sufferers of a difficult feeling that can indeed be put to rest. I really hope many read this as it is far beyond modern knowledge and gives a perfect calming insight into both the struggle and the remedy in facing these feelings and floating past them as if they are just part of the process of recovery. I hope one day I can be truly free of these feelings but for now, it is good to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
CBT aims to help us learn to recognise these unhelpful patterns, and break down and approach problems in a different way to improve how we feel. Does CBT work? When practised with a therapist, CBT has been shown to be clinically effective in improving anxiety, low mood, stress and sleep problems, as well as many other mental and some physical health conditions. You may find relaxation and breathing exercises helpful, or you may prefer activities such as yoga or pilates to help you unwind. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) only recommends trying treatments based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
If we have unhelpful thoughts and feelings, this can lead to unhelpful behaviour, which can turn into a vicious cycle of further negative thoughts and so on. Needless to say, I'm glad I still held onto it. I felt like I was able to better understand how to cope with a lot of things that I never knew how best to cope with. There are so many ways to look after your mental health and well-being that I have always had the tendency to overthink it. In the past year, I had been working on a lot of things I know needed working on (i.e. overthinking). Anyhow, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and for what it read as. Largely common sense and parts of it were pretty eye opening. Self Help for Your Nerves” is a good self-help book for all types of readers. “Claire Weekes” is the author of this beautiful book. This author has all the skills and knowledge to make your life better. The author does an incredible job of making the book applicable. It doesn’t do it in a step-by-step manner, but asks the questions we should be asking ourselves when we come across a choice. It creates a lot of thoughts. In this book, the author tells how we can make ourself more productive and achieve anything in life. It helps you to manage your time, business, relationships, and even life. This book goes in details on how to help cope with over thinking which can lead to numerous health problems. I recommend this to anyone who suffers with anxiety, nerves, or is experiencing what seems like a ‘nervous breakdown’. Dr Weekes talks directly to you, the reader, and is endlessly sympathetic and encouraging. This is shown from the very beginning:
What is anxiety?
There's a part about how if you face your "terrible feelings" and try to make them worst you will find that you cannot. We shrink from feelings for fear of making them worse but by facing them we lose some of the fear and it may actually have a calming effect. So much of living with anxiety is the anticipation, the nerves are intimidating and feel over-powering. Support groups can often arrange face-to-face meetings, where you can talk about your difficulties and problems with other people. Self Help for Your Nerves’ helped me through a really tough time in my life. I bought several other ‘self help’ books during this time (in an attempt to avoid the inevitable trip to the doctor), but all of them seemed insincere, synthetic and unhelpful. Dr Claire Weekes’ book became a light in an interminable darkness. It gave me the courage to seek professional help for my anxieties and stress - for which I shall be forever grateful to her: Drinking too much caffeine can make you more anxious than normal. This is because caffeine can disrupt your sleep and also speed up your heartbeat.
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