MY ANXIETY HANDBOOK by Sue Knowles was not quite as useful a tool as I had hoped it would be. It is available for purchase individually or as part of Jessica Kingsley Publishers' Can I Tell You About . . .? 24-Book Set from Follett. Most of those other titles seem geared a bit younger than the teen/young adult focus for MY ANXIETY HANDBOOK. This title (for ages 12 to 18) explains anxiety, talks about "avoiding avoidance" and negative thoughts, plus has a section on being mindful and getting a good night's sleep. Since it is exam week for our students, I spent some time looking at the chapter devoted to school, college and exam stress. The advice there and in other parts of the book is solid, but very "wordy" and I do think that including images and exercises would have been more helpful and engaging for students. That's my mistake in expecting a "handbook" to be more like a "workbook." There is a small section at the end of MY ANXIETY HANDBOOK for creating a personalized anxiety plan, followed by a useful information (with a UK focus) and bibliography section.

I think that "My Anxiety Handbook" will be a very handy book for any teenager who suffers from Anxiety. As aimed at young adults as well I think this book might be trying to cover a bit too much ground. Anxiety in young teenagers will be quite different from Anxiety in a late teens, beginning of twenties somethings. 
That aside I think this book is interesting enough, that it will draw in anyone who struggles with anxiety, simply because it provides you with a tool belt to deal with your anxieties. Also, this book strongly validates that anxiety is a real thing, in a world where most people will suggest that you just need to pull yourself together. It lays out the ground work of techniques you can try on your own, in order to overcome (ar at least cope) with your anxiety.
What I call "the psychology part"-of the book, might be a bit too heavy for some younger teens, but I think that anyone who suffers from anxiety and want to do something about it will keep through. 
The book also have some interesting stories from people who experience anxiety on a daily basis, and I think that this is a much needed perspective. It can be very soothing and liberating to read that you are not the only one who suffers, because when you have anxiety it can really feel like you are suffering alone. I am saying this as someone who is a very angsty person with social anxiety, and I really enjoyed this book and reading the stories of other people. 
For me, I think this book might be the best fit for someone in their mid-teens, but I would not say that someone from outside of that group shouldn't read it.

My rating: 3.75/5 ( or maybe 4, I don’t know to be honest)





Thank you Netgalley for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, I’d like to say that this review is entirely up to me. It’s my feelings, my thoughts, and my way of dealing with things. So this book may not help you, or maybe you think that it’s pointless, or barely explaining things, but we all have our ways to deal with anxiety, and two people cannot have the exact same form of anxiety. So please, respect my opinion.

“You don’t have to do this alone”

When I started this book, I was like “Meh, it’s for young people, I don’t think it’s going to help but let’s try anyway”. And then I read, and I read, and I was like “omg was someone spying on me or something because I can relate to this book way too much.”

And it feels great. To see that you’re not alone (I knew that but you know my brain is dumb sometimes and he forgets things) that there might be a solution to all this situation going on.

My story with anxiety is quite peculiar. I experienced things at a young age, that a child should not experience in my opinion. Also I was bullied for many years, and one doesn’t forget things like that. It played on my mind, I was feeling bad and anxious everyday, but I couldn’t put words on what I felt.

I realized that I was suffering from a strong anxiety disorder only 2 years ago. I realized also that I wasn’t the one having a problem, but that a lot of people actually had the same problems than me and you cannot imagine how it feels great to see that you’re not alone and that there’s nothing wrong with you. I realized that “it’s OK not to be OK” and that I shouldn’t think what I was feeling wasn’t normal or right.

I knew I was anxious with exams and all, but I didn’t realized that all the things I felt anxious for in my every day life were actually linked to this anxiety. I mean I knew I was anxious, but to suffer from anxiety disorder is something different. (at least for me). This helped me, because I was able to put words on what I was feeling, and so I was able to find solutions.

The thing is, I knew I was dealing with anxiety, but I didn’t have a clue what to do to cope with it. Nor to recognize it, because it took me so long to recognize my feelings as anxiety. (I’m rambling am I?)

I read a lot of reviews about this book, and at least 50% of them weren’t as positive as mine.

I think this book explains things very well, and is suited for young readers. However, it may not be helpful for everyone. I’m 21 (22 in June) and this book helped me understand, but it may be too simplistic for other people. It only tackles school and college and not work, so maybe another chapter on this subject would have been great.

I really liked the division between chapters, because if you ever want to read some tips or you need something from one of the chapters, it’s really easy to find in the book.

This book might help some people, and I really hope it will. 

"'Don't be anxious it will only make things worse.' If that worked we wouldn't be writing this book."

This book is aimed towards a younger audience, but there are still some good coping strategies for adults too. It is written conversationally so doesn't sound like it is talking down at people.

Oh dear.

I know the intentions of this book were good and I hate that I didn’t like it but man I really didn’t. It was repetitive and kept referring to other chapters which makes it rather clunky for an e-book. The ‘real stories’ don’t feel real due to the words of the contributors, in particular, the 12 year olds account. The vocabulary used in the account just doesn’t sound like a teenager.

I really wish I had better things to say about this book.

My Anxiety Handbook: Getting Back on Track by Sue Knowles Bridie Gallagher and Phoebe McEwen is available now.

For more information regarding Jessica Kingsley Publishers (@Jessica_JKP) please visit www.jkp.com.

I'm a bit torn on this book. On the one hand it's great to have a resource aimed at young people to help themselves, because help isn't always available. On the other hand as someone who has worked in the mental health area I wonder if we ought to be encouraging young people to deal with their mental health difficulties through workbooks. I think, like many other reviewers it seems, that the book tries to do too much, and to cover too wide an age range and unfortunately it ends up not really delivering for any of it's target audience. I would much rather see a simple book for 10-13 year olds to explore their anxiety with a trusted adult or a more challenging book for the 13-16 age range for the same purpose.

I thought that this was helpful and I feel I now know more about anxiety and how to control it. I did find parts a bit repetitive, but overall I found it useful.

I'm not sure what I was supposed to get out of this book. As someone with anxiety I didn't really find it helpful, or even very interesting.

Was excited to get into this and was into it the first few chapters. However, while I understood that the goal is to target young readers and increase awareness and extend help to them, I felt like the author simplified some things a little too much, and that the book was, to use one of today's millennial terms, ~reaching in terms of explaining what to understand and how to deal with anxiety.

" 'Don't be anxious it will only make things worse.' If that worked we wouldn't be writing this book." YES!
I’ve found this book extremely useful, even if i am a long experienced anxiety manager since age 10. However, thou i thought i know it all about anxiety, this was extremely helpful and interesting, there’s so much to learn especially for younger readers.
It’s a bit repetitive sometimes but overall, i’ve loved the description of anxiety through the different stages of life in a very easy and reliable way.
if you are looking for a guide to help you with anxiety or yo help someone you know that has recently started suffering from anxiety or you are just curious to learn more about it then this book is perfect.

I received this as an arc. I think it does a lot of what other books do in the way of explaining anxiety. It gives good examples and would be good for someone who has no idea what anxiety is.

It also made me feel weird because it’s said to be targeted towards a younger demographic, but for the age group it is for it might be a little dry. It reads like one of my psychology texts instead of a guide for making a survival through anxiety.

This book is geared toward younger teenagers. It starts by explaining what anxiety is and its effects on the body. . It includes various tips on how to change anxious thinking and achieve a more peaceful mindset. Personally, I think that it could be really a helpful book for young people, rather than using Google.
As a person who suffers from mild anxiety, I think this book was great. Oh and the cute drawing scattered throughout the book was a nice touch.

I wish I would've had this book growing up. I am a long time sufferer of anxiety but wasn't diagnosed until my late 20s. Growing up, I thought feeling anxious was just a normal emotion like feeling happy or sad or mad. I didn't realize that what I was experiencing with all my anxious feelings was the beginnings of high functioning anxiety. Had I had a book like this back then, it would have been super helpful.

That being said, I found this book to be very I formative. It described anxiety in a clear and concise way. I also really enjoyed the pictured and diagrams.
I would recommend this book to anyone who has anxiety or has a loved one with anxiety. It is a really well thought out book for teens, but I think this book works well for people of any age too

Thank you Net Galley for giving me the opportunity to read this book. I selected this title after reading Turtles All The Way Down and I think My Anxiety Handbook is a great supplemental not fiction read to that book. I like how the handbook is written to meet the needs of a wide selection of ages; so many middle school and high school aged students would find this title beneficial. I think that the additional drawings within the book bring greater appeal to the younger demographic as well. Overall a good book for teens.

This is a unique book in that it helps you put together an actual plan for your anxiety. As someone who suffers from anxiety, I find it hard to really develop a plan to overcome it. This book helped me with that. If you have anxiety, this is the book for you.

I've been living with anxiety for a few years now and I've gone to many therapy sessions and I've taken medication to help deal with it. There are a lot of people that say they have anxiety but dont actually have it. You will not know how bad a anxiety attack is until you experience one first hand. It literally feels like you are dying. This book is really good for young readers that are newly diagnosed with anxiety. It is not for someone that has been through hell and back trying to combat anxiety and that knows everything about it.

This is a nice book with many tips for the reader about dealing with anxiety. I definitely agree that this is for the younger teen readers. I think that it is well organized and could be a helpful tool.

For the target age group, this is a book worth its weight in gold. If this were carried in school libraries everywhere it would do a great deal to demystify anxiety and make people more comfortable with confronting it. In an age group where anxiety can seem like a rare condition that only you suffer from, My Anxiety Handbook puts a figurative arm around the reader and says, 'Hey, its way more common than you think! There's nothing wrong with you, but here's how to manage it!" I think this is also a valuable tool for anyone who wants to understand anxiety and the people in their lives who have it. Sometimes people with the best intentions can make anxiety worse if they don't properly understand it. The personal stories add a nice touch and makes this book immediately more relatable as well! My only quibble is that this seems a bit juvenile for anyone over 17. Perhaps if a college age student had no exposure to this topic and wanted a very entry level text, it would suit them. Otherwise, I think the very simplistic and repetitive tone could isolate older readers.

This book is supposed to be a self-help book on anxiety for ages 10-21, which is just too broad of an age range to hope to serve with a single book. There is such a tremendous difference between a pre-pubescent 10 year old, a 15 year old in the middle of adolescence, and a 21-year old entering adulthood in terms of reading ability, vocabulary, development, and the types of pressures and situations they are dealing with. In attempting to serve much too broad of an age range range, the authors have produced a book that serves none of them very well.

In some parts the writing is too advanced for a 10 year old, and almost all of it would seem patronizing to a 21-year old. I would say it most closely serves 11-14. Then book does a fairly decent job of explaning what everyday anxiety is and some ways to cope with it, but what really concerns me is the way they downplay and minimize serious anxiety disorders. They seem dismissive of the whole idea that someone can have an anxiety disorder, and that it is all just "normal" anxiety. This is clearly contrary to what most of the medical and psychiatric community believe, and not only does a disservice to those who may have severe anxiety disorders, but could be dangerous and cause people not to seek help and think they just need to tough it out.

I can't help but wonder what the authors' qualifications are, as they were not mentioned in the digital ARC I received. This book reads more like a well-researched term paper supplemented with a little personal experience than one written by someone who is truly a credentialed expert.. I found it a trite and patronizing.