It's Not All in Your Head: How Worrying about Your Health Could Be Making You Sick--and What You Can Do about It - Hardcover

Asmundson, Gordon J. G.; Taylor, Steven

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1593851464 ISBN 13: 9781593851460

Publisher: Guilford Press, 2005

Synopsis

Where do you go for help when no one believes you're really sick? The doctors can’t explain your symptoms, but you know there’s something wrong because you can sense it in your body. Living with the specter of an unresolved health issue isn't just painful, it's isolating. The preoccupation and stress it causes can disrupt your career or interfere with personal relationships. If you continually experience symptoms of illness, or worry a lot about disease, you may be suffering from health anxiety--a condition that can produce physical effects of its own, including muscle tension, nausea, and a quickened heart rate. In this compassionate and empowering book, noted psychologists Gordon J. G. Asmundson and Steven Taylor provide simple and accurate self-tests designed to help you understand health anxiety and the role it might be playing in how you feel. Concrete examples and helpful exercises show you how to change thought and behavior patterns that contribute to the aches, pains, and anxiety you're experiencing. The authors also explain how to involve friends and family--and when to seek professional help--as you learn to stay well without worry. Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) Self-Help Book of Merit

About this title

Review:

Full of useful scientific information, engaging anecdotes, solid advice, and no small measure of humor, It's Not All in Your Head will help put many health anxiety sufferers on the road to wellness and peace of mind. - Murray B. Stein, MD, MPH, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego

This is the most comprehensive and useful book available for people who worry a lot about their health. It is practical, easy to read, and packed with helpful exercises. Most importantly, the strategies described in this book are based on solid scientific research, with proven effectiveness. Anyone who worries about their health will likely benefit from reading this book, as will the people who care about them. - Martin M. Antony, PhD, coauthor of 10 Simple Solutions to Panic

Synopsis:

Studies show that one in five of us worries too much about our health. In fact, pervasive worry over preserving health or preventing disease can itself become a disorder, one with very real physical and emotional consequences. The condition is known as health anxiety, and it often leads people to misinterpret minor symptoms and normal bodily sensations as the warning signs of a serious disease. In "It's Not All in Your Head", health psychologists Drs. Gordon Asmundson and Steven Taylor encourage readers to consider whether excessive worry may be their greatest cause for concern. This straightforward and effective self-help program teaches sufferers how the physical side effects of anxiety - like muscle tension, nausea, or a quickened heart rate - may compound their sense that something is wrong. For anyone whose personal life or career has been disrupted by health anxiety - and for their caring yet frustrated loved ones - this compassionate, nonjudgmental, and practical book may be just what the doctor ordered.

About this edition

• Publisher: Guilford Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1593851464
• ISBN 13: 9781593851460
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 212