An important book told in a forthright and yet at times humorous way. If you've ever suffered from anxiety you'll be able to relate to every word. If you have somebody in your life suffering with anxiety, I really recommend you read this book as it'll help you to understand them better.

Readable, funny, honest and timely. I'm the mother of three kids, all of whom suffer from anxiety in one form or another. I wish I'd had this to read earlier in their lives, and I hope it finds those who need it in the future. I'm so encouraged that mental health is out there, being discussed, and I'm convinced this will bee seen as a seminal text in the area.

Having anxiety, like a huge majority of the world, I decided to start to take control and do some research about it, so when I saw this on NetGalley I was so glad when I was approved to review it.
This book took me months to finish, not because it was awful or slow or boring but because I used it as a tool; and for that reason I can’t thank Eleanor Morgan enough.
I would be on the bus, sweating from head to toe, about to shit myself, mid anxiety attack and I would whip this book out of my of bag. Not only did it distract me but it also made me feel normal and explain to me why I am experiencing these feelings. So many aspects of this book were relatable to me, many a time have I found myself leaning over a public toilet willing myself not to be sick and wondering what the hell is happening to me. I can’t put into words how much this book eased my insanity.
I loved reading about the biological aspects of anxiety not only the psychological and it was a daily topic of conversation between myself and my colleagues as I would update them on my newly found knowledge.
If you are suffering from anxiety or know someone who is, or if you are just interested in the background of anxiety you need to pick up this book. I found it to be engaging yet educational and for me personally it was incredibly useful.
4.5 STARS!

This is great because it is a first-hand account of someone suffering with anxiety. This shows how it is with hindsight we can see how and why the disorder started. This makes it relatable to the reader and makes you feel like you are not alone. We are humans with flaws. However, I didn't like how the author had to point out that she wasn't reserved or a wimp. She was 'normal' before this happened. Does personality reflect whether you get a disorder? Or is it simply that something that happens to us because of our biology or environment? Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book.

I'm really not sure what I think of this one.  It's not a book which is easy to categorise - the subtitle is 'a personal investigation' and that is what this is - it's very personal to Eleanor Morgan.  She discusses her experiences with anxiety dating back to being seventeen years old when her appendix burst.  She has since gone through university and forged a successful career as a journalist but anxiety remains a big part of her life.  Analysing her ups and downs with the condition as well as those of fellow-sufferers, Morgan attempts to achieve some form of understanding.

As a big confession, in common with around one in three other people, I also have an anxiety disorder.  As a child, I was called a worrier by almost every teacher who ever had to deal with me and I could have highly emotional meltdowns over apparently minor matters which nobody else really understood.  Like many people who suffer with dyspraxia, even as an adult I rely heavily on routine and more routine and flounder when this falls through.  I also have a tendency to worry excessively about other people's expectations which means that under pressure I have a tendency to descend into inarticulate sobbing about wanting to be good.  It's not always easy to explain to people I don't know and I feel lucky to have good people around me.

There are lots of things I do to help - reading can be calming, as can knitting and I originally started blogging following on from a period of depression due to some toxic friendships which had led me to lose sight of myself.  Similarly, blogging also helped me in a subsequent anxiety episode while I was trying to decide on a direction that would get me out of the teaching profession.  Still, there are also times when my knitting goes wrong and leaves me feeling very stressed and other occasions when I can become very anxious about keeping the website up to date.  Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hinders.  It's' a complex and fluctuating condition and it's not one that you can wave a magic wand at.

Morgan is a likable writer who manages to bring humour to an often difficult subject.  She has clearly engaged with a great deal of research on the topic and has talked to a lot of people.  It's just that - and I can't believe I'm saying this - the book feels very skewed towards readers of The Guardian.  To make this clear, I am one of the world's biggest fans of that publication and although other people tell me that it is no less biased than the Daily Fail, it remains my internet homepage.  But given that most of the people who Morgan interviewed were fellow columnists for the Guardian or people she had met while working for the Guardian, it did feel like we were in her personal bubble.  It felt odd - while I applaud the sharing of experiences, I wasn't sure how I was supposed to take all of this.  Are there experiences 'more' because they are famous?  Or was she just going for quantity?

This is not to say that there was not a lot of really interesting things in the book.  Morgan is absolutely right about the way in which the media depict mental illness, with the 'tired and basic' stock images for news stories on the topic generally depicting rain against a window or someone clutching their head in their hands.  The fact is that someone who is high-functioning may be very, very good at disguising their condition and this is where the problem can start.  Mental illness doesn't make for a good story because it doesn't go away - it just needs management.

I would also agree vigorously that social media does not 'make' anybody anxious.  Anxiety is something which attacks the brain and digs in.  When I am feeling anxious, I can get worked up over having an uneven number of bread rolls.  As Morgan pronounces, 'Brains are far too complicated to be tipped or swayed into a particular state by a single thing'.  However, since social media is 'the way we absorb everything that's going on in the world', it is naturally going to have a part to play.  Just remember that anxiety itself is in the driving seat.  Weirdly, I have really gone off posting on social media in the last little while because I feel happier keeping certain things private.  But I definitely recognise how social media can send you into a spiral that somehow one is not 'doing enough' or as Morgan describes it, the fear of not 'filling each moment with MAXIMUM LIFE' - it's good old fashioned Fear Of Missing Out.  It's this same Fear that can lead me to fret over the website, over being a good enough partner, relative, friend, colleague.  Wanting to be good.

I really wished that Morgan had talked more about how difficult that some people's anxiety really can pass unnoticed.  I once worked somewhere where heaven and earth was moved to support a colleague's anxiety and I was essentially told to grow up.  I have sat in the same room as someone when I felt like I was about to pass out and they didn't notice a thing.  The problem is that when things have been very bad, I have tended to shut down so the idea of me actually explaining how I was feeling was a complete non-starter.  GPs are not always best equipped to deal with anxiety - Morgan does pick up on this though, with one doctor telling her in surprise that she 'looked fine' when she went in to discuss treatment.  Unfortunately the NHS really does move too slowly to get the help that people require when they need it.  For that, as Morgan points out, we can thank the Conservative government who have failed to increase funding to mental health services.

I think that my main issue with Anxiety for Beginners is that it was a little too close to the rising genre of female comic memoirs for my liking.  Now I must admit that this is a very broad church - since Caitlin Moran wrote How To Be A Woman, there has also been Hadley Freeman on mainstream media and how to Be Awesome, then Emer O'Toole analysed gender issues in Girls Will Be Girls, and these are just a small selection.  Each of them have had their own area of specialty.  I just can't help but think that Morgan's was anxiety and although I appreciated hearing from her, the book seems to have been marketed as some kind of manual and it isn't one.  Some of it irritated me - the education curriculum is too overloaded for the feted talks on 'identifying emotions' which Morgan thinks sound so encouraging.  Schools are under pressure to produce good data, not well-rounded individuals.  It felt inappropriate to end the book on a happy note, as if Morgan had found some form of answer to the conundrum.  Coming down to it, I think I just found the book superficial - Morgan seems a nice person, her efforts to keep on top of her anxiety are commendable, but I think Anxiety for Beginners was not for me.

Eleanor Morgan has shared a lot of information in this book about her personal experiences with anxiety. These personal accounts are supplemented by plenty of information from professionals, and anecdotes from others, e.g. Adele suffering from anxiety to the extent of needing to vomit before going on stage. These anecdotes are likely to help normalise the experiences of anxiety for a lot of people. It is especially helpful that Eleanor has shared so much of her personal experiences, as this really helps the reader to relate and realise that anxiety is a common problem and one that can be managed. There is a wealth of useful information to lead to a better understanding of anxiety, which in turn can help with management of symptoms. A highly recommended read.

As someone who suffers from anxiety I was interested to read this book. It was good to read about someone else's experiences of anxiety and I can empathise with the Author's searching for a cure and being disappointed that dealing with anxiety is an on-going issue. I liked the section of the book which discussed treatments and new findings in relation to how the brain works although I so wish there was a magic pill to make anxiety go away.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this review copy.

As someone who has an anxiety disorder, this book leapt out to me. I’m interested in anything that will keep my anxiety under wraps, or at least just bubbling on the surface. I can’t say that I always follow what these books tell me to do, but they are interesting to read nonetheless.

The author has been dealing with anxiety since she was a teenager. The book covers everything from how anxiety comes about, treatments, living with anxiety and how you can deal with it in the future. There are lots of facts and figures about it also. It’s interesting to read it from the perspective of someone who has lived and is still living with anxiety, rather than written from a professional. You can relate to Eleanor’s story and hopefully by doing this try and relate to your own experiences. It was easy to read and totally understandable. Five stars!

Excellent