My Age of Anxiety Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind [Paperback]

AWashington PostNotable Book
ASeattle TimesBest Book of the Year

Drawing on his own longstanding battle with anxiety, Scott Stossel presents a moving and revelatory account of a condition that affects some 40 million Americans. Stossel offers an intimate and authoritative history of efforts by scientists, philosophers, and writers to understand anxiety. We discover the well-known who have struggled with the condition, as well as the afflicted generations of Stossel's own family. Revealing anxiety's myriad manifestations and the anguish it causes, he also surveys the countless psychotherapies, medications, and often outlandish treatments that have been developed to relieve it.
        Stossel vividly depicts anxiety’s human toll—its crippling impact, its devastating power to paralyze. He also explores how individual sufferers—including himself—have managed and controlled symptoms. By turns erudite and compassionate, amusing and inspirational,My Age of Anxietyis the essential account of a pervasive and too often misunderstood affliction.

“Scott Stossel has produced the definitive account of anxiety. . . . This story has needed to be told.” —Andrew Solomon, author ofThe Noonday Demon

“Enlightening, empowering. . . . Brave and . . . potentially therapeutic.” —The Washington Post

“Sheds light not just on a particular disorder but on the human condition that gives rise to it.” —The Wall Street Journal

“Brings to this story depth, intelligence, and perspective that could enlighten untold fellow sufferers for years to come.” —Elizabeth Gilbert, author ofEat, Pray, Love

“A carefully reported, wryly funny, and admirably honest historical and personal investigation.” —Elle

 “[An] erudite, heartfelt, and occasionally darlC&