Anxiety can be debilitating. Here’s a collection of books exploring anxiety: what it is, the forms it can take, how to cope and how to grow from it.
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Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist
I read this book with a sense of disbelief. How was it that Shauna pegged my current way of living so perfectly? It’s like she saw right through the pages and into my mind and heart, inviting me to truly live her words into being and choose present over perfect. I’ve never read ANYTHING that so perfectly captured my day to day struggles with busyness, perfectionism and yes, anxiety. And because I felt seen and understood, I devoured the book in a way that I couldn’t otherwise. I explored many hard lessons that I’m still grappling with today and gained many incredible insights that instantly changed how I think about my purpose. Filled with my sticky notes, this is a book that will sit front and center in my office so I am reminded of the magic within it.
Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman
Turtles All the Way Down by: John Green
This book was an eye-opener for me. As someone who has always struggled with low levels of anxiety, I connected with this character in ways that I might otherwise have not. But John Green took me much, much deeper into the mind of someone fighting to find her own way with her own voice out of her debilitating anxiety and ruminating thoughts. This book gave me great appreciation for the human mind and challenged me to better relate to and respect those dealing with a serious mental illness.
Finding Audrey by: Sophie Kinsella
Audrey can’t leave the house. she can’t even take off her dark glasses inside the house.
Then her brother’s friend Linus stumbles into her life. With his friendly, orange-slice smile and his funny notes, he starts to entice Audrey out again – well, Starbucks is a start. And with Linus at her side, Audrey feels like she can do the things she’d thought were too scary. Suddenly, finding her way back to the real world seems achievable.
Yours Truly by: Abby Jimenez
Dr. Briana Ortiz’s life is seriously flatlining. Her divorce is just about finalized, her brother’s running out of time to find a kidney donor, and that promotion she wants? Oh, that’s probably going to the new man-doctor who’s already registering eighty-friggin’-seven on Briana’s “pain in my ass” scale. But just when all systems are set to hate, Dr. Jacob Maddox completely flips the game . . . by sending Briana a letter.
And it’s a really good letter. Like the kind that proves that Jacob isn’t actually Satan. Worse, he might be this fantastically funny and subversively likeable guy who’s terrible at first impressions. Because suddenly he and Bri are exchanging letters, sharing lunch dates in her “sob closet,” and discussing the merits of freakishly tiny horses. But when Jacob decides to give Briana the best gift imaginable—a kidney for her brother—she wonders just how she can resist this quietly sexy new doctor . . . especially when he calls in a favor she can’t refuse.
Notes on a Nervous Planet by: Matt Haig
The societies we live in are increasingly making our minds ill, making it feel as though the way we live is engineered to make us unhappy. When Matt Haig developed panic disorder, anxiety, and depression as an adult, it took him a long time to work out the ways the external world could impact his mental health in both positive and negative ways. Notes on a Nervous Planet collects his observations, taking a look at how the various social, commercial and technological “advancements” that have created the world we now live in can actually hinder our happiness. Haig examines everything from broader phenomena like inequality, social media, and the news; to things closer to our daily lives, like how we sleep, how we exercise, and even the distinction we draw between our minds and our bodies.
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by: Gail Honeyman
Meet Eleanor Oliphant: She struggles with appropriate social skills and tends to say exactly what she’s thinking. Nothing is missing in her carefully timetabled life of avoiding social interactions, where weekends are punctuated by frozen pizza, vodka, and phone chats with Mummy.
But everything changes when Eleanor meets Raymond, the bumbling and deeply unhygienic IT guy from her office. When she and Raymond together save Sammy, an elderly gentleman who has fallen on the sidewalk, the three become the kinds of friends who rescue one another from the lives of isolation they have each been living. And it is Raymond’s big heart that will ultimately help Eleanor find the way to repair her own profoundly damaged one.
