This book was filled with reminders of ways to combat my daily struggles with anxiety. I have told several friends and also several clients about this book and recommend it to others who are feeling overwhelmed with anxiety.

The author does a great job in sharing techniques and methods to help cope with anxiety. While the author doesn't try to cover up the illness, but rather he puts it in a new and different perspective.

I would recommend this book.

I  received a free digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

In all honesty, this book didnt quite cut it for me. It didn't really read like most self help books I've seen before. There were a lot of theories in here. I didn't really care for it but just because it's not my cup of tea doesn't mean it isn't yours.

While the book introduced/reinforced some aspects of anxiety management and mindfulness, I did not find it a very useful self-help book.

First, the writing style is difficult for a self-help book. When I read a self-help book, I want it to read like a recipe book for self-help (the For Dummies books are a sample of a successful self-help book formula to me). This book had too much theory and too much clinical details about some of his clients. Though this may sound selfish when I read a self-help book, I want to know how the information in the book will be useful to ME.

Secondly, the examples of the people who used his techniques successfully were receiving professional psychological help (not that there is anything wrong with that). I felt the severity of these people's problems probably required professional help. However, I think of self-help books as being for used for people who don't necessarily need/want to go for professional help.

Many of the concepts of the book I had previously come across. While the mirror analogy may be unique to the book, I have read other books on anxiety where there was the thesis was that an anxious person should OVERIDE and not listen to their anxious feelings.

Though the title of the book states that it is about anxiety, it also has sections about depression and addiction. The section on addiction I found moderately interesting because the author states that unlike the inner dialogue regarding depression and anxiety, the voice in our head encouraging us to use our bad habits can be highly seductive. Our bad habit inner voice is like a charming person who leads us to harm.

In addition, the author provided some information on grounding techniques which I found useful. I have seen those techniques discussed in other places but never really explained.

Despite some worthwhile material, I think most readers will have a very hard time using the techniques described in this book on their own. Better self-help books for anxiety have been published.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest reviest.

Being a ball of anxiety almost all the time, this book certainly appealed to me. It presents the "Two Screen Method", a simple mental device to help people stop intrusive thoughts interfering with their lives too much.

It's based around mindfulness, which is a topic I've researched on and off over the years and pretty much boils down to 'yeah you just need to think in the moment! Then you won't worry about the past and the future!' Thanks, I'd never thought about just not worrying before, that's super helpful. /s

The Two Screen Method is way more concrete in creating mental steps you can take to actually deal with these worries, while accepting that they're still going to be there. This seems far more likely to work than other methods I've come across, certainly for me.

The real value in TSM for me is that is doesn't rely solely on some of the most popular mindfulness techniques like breathing exercises and focusing on the feelings in your body, which actually make things worse for me. Symington offers a range of alternatives for anchoring yourself in the present, including doing things that will add value to your life, or committing to doing loving actions. This really resonated with me because I like to be doing things and actively working on solving problems. This isn't always possible, but using the TSM I can leave my problems on the side screen and focus on doing good things, even if it's not exactly what I want to be doing.

Fortunately I've been having a streak of good weeks since I received this book for review, so I can't say how helpful it would be in a serious crisis, but I have used the technique several times during low-level issues and it's been very successful.

The book doesn't just show you how to use this method to deal with anxiety, as the title seems to imply. It also has uses in addiction, depression, and to some extent in OCD.

There are a couple of quibbles I have with the book, but they're fairly minor. One is that spirituality occasionally cropped up. I get that spirituality is important to a lot of people but in what appears to be a well-researched science-based book it's a little jarring and alienating to me. It opens with a quote about God and I did wonder if I'd accidentally requested to review a Christian self-help book and nearly put it down.

The other problem is that the anxiety section uses typical examples of 'eek I have had a mild stomach ache for 5 minutes, I must have cancer' or 'Bob didn't say hello to me today, he must hate me now'. While these are familiar anxious thoughts that aren't that easy to deal with, as usual this book totally ignores the fact that actual problems exist and need to be dealt with too. Maybe that's a different subject entirely, I don't know.

Ultimately I found this book contained a lot of valuable information and would recommend it to anyone struggling with some of the more well-known ways to mindfulness.

Anyone who suffers from anxiety (or knows someone who does) will find Freedom From Anxious Thoughts And Feelings by Scott Symington a beneficial read. The Two-Screen Method for dealing with anxiety is realistic and eminently doable. There are real life situations in the book that the reader can relate to such as anxiety over freeways or first day on the job jitters. Utilizing the methods that Symington writes about, such as Focused Breathing Awareness, will aid the anxious individual in redirecting their attention from the intense feelings at that moment to a less stressful response. Another tool is recognizing the triggers of anxiety and anticipating the corresponding behaviors that impede one's ability to take corrective action. The ability to flip these anxiety triggers into an opportunity for a loving influence (actions for the betterment of those around the anxiety sufferer) can be an empowering tool. This creates an opportunity to not dwell on the negativity. Applying these techniques is, more often than not, easier said than done, yet taking each step as part of a learned behavior pattern for the benefit of those suffering from anxiety is a positive step in the right direction. This book does read like a text book and can be a dry read. That being said, self help is not an exciting proposition. It is achieved through reflection and an honest assessment of oneself. If you want an easy read, it's probably not the book for you; however, if you want a book that will aid in putting applicable life skills in place, then you won't be disappointed.

Couldn’t finish- not written to my taste. Very slow and technical. Might be good for some but I found the writing confusing.

This book is genuinely good with respect to giving a doable approach to lower anxiety. There's a specific theory that it talks about called the Two-Screen Method that is easy to understand and comprehend, and actually works as a good model to build the rest of the book on as it progresses to give some insightful and helpful tips. There's mindfulness being talked about and of course, breathing techniques like breath meditation. Even spirituality is being sprinkled at some places. An interesting bit was mindfulness through the daily, usual activities that one does like driving and washing dishes and how that builds up to complex situations so you can better handle those. It even n=includes real experiences and stories to guide the readers better. Overall, definitely a good read for someone looking for a more approachable anxiety guide.