Cover Image: Relax, Dammit!

Relax, Dammit!

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Member Reviews

The amount of research is impressive and the hour by hour structure is interesting and effective but ultimately in my head I already know 85% of the things I worry about don’t come true so this didn’t really ‘work’ for me as a way to fight anxiety. But it is a good and very entertaining read nevertheless.

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Caulfield consults with experts and looks at scientific studies in an attempt to combat some of the things that cause us anxiety in everyday life. Caulfield definitely writes from a white male privilege perspective, but if you keep that in mind, so much of this is great. Also funny.

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"Decision-making is a complex, messy activity that can lead to significant stress. But it doesn't have to. One of the goals of this book is to remind us not to fall prey to the numerous social forces that increasingly turn making a decision into an unnecessarily anxious process."

When I first saw RELAX, DAMMIT! I was very excited to read it. As someone who suffers from anxiety on a regular basis, I was looking forward to reading about how to mitigate stress and live a more carefree lifestyle. However, that's not what I took away from this book. While it wasn't what I expected (or, in the end, wanted to read) I appreciated the amount of research that went into this book, and know many left-brained people who would love it.

This book is structured the same as someone's daily routine: 6:30AM - Wake Up, 7AM - Breakfast, 7:50AM - Get to Work, 12PM - Lunch, 2PM - Another Coffee?, and so on. It walks you through many of the normal decisions you'd make on a daily basis, and why they do or do not matter.

Yes, drinking multiple coffees a day is fine. Yes, statistically, your kids are fine walking to school by themselves (you're more likely to get in an accident driving them). No, you shouldn't look at your phone first thing in the morning or before bed.

The author did an incredible amount of research and interviewed countless experts on all of these topics to get their opinions and outline the facts. So, logically, you don't need to worry about most things, and ideally, once you know that, you should be more relaxed and less stressed. If only everyone's anxiety worked that way!

For me, and I'm sure many others, my anxiety is rooted in feelings and emotion, and no amount of logic is going to change my mind. I understand that, statistically, I don't need to worry about a lot of things that I worry about, but my anxiety brain does not care and will continue to spiral. I've been working on this for years with my therapist and wish a logical approach would work.

Even though this book wasn't for me, I did appreciate the amount of research, loved the way it was structured, and laughed at many of the jokes throughout. If you're looking for something filled with endless "fun facts" I'd suggest picking this one up.

Thank you to the publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, for a digital ARC of this book via NetGalley.

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5/5 stars

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

In Relax, Dammit!, health policy expert Timothy Caulfield takes readers through a hypothetical regular day, from the moment someone wakes up to when they go to sleep, and presents the underlying science behind our actions and habits. Caulfield shows that many of the things we believe to be healthier, safer, or just better, simply aren’t.

This book is a definite must-read! I loved everything about it. I found that the hypothetical day format was very unique and easy to follow along as a reader. This book also has a ton of useful and accurate research sprinkled throughout it. There’s also a lengthy section at the end of the book that is a reference list of all the sources cited. Something I also loved about this book was the personal aspects and stories of Caulfield’s life incorporated with the factual research. There was a lot of humour and eye opening information. This book was excellent!

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This was a very interesting read for me, as someone who has experience with anxiety this was a helpful read for me and I liked how it took the reader through a day of decision making and talked about the healthy decision making and how there are many miscommunications about what is healthy and goes into the history of that as well.

I received an ARC of this through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

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This book couldn't have come at a better time - a book about anxiety, while self-isolating with 2 small children? Yes please! I loved the way this book was broken down into a typical day and all the different anxieties we sometimes experience from the moment we wake up. There were some controversial takes on things, lots of humour and some real food for though. Definitely made me stop and think many times! It's too bad this one doesn't release until December as I feel like a lot of people could benefit from this today!

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I really enjoyed this book. Parts of it reminded me of Factfulness by Hans Rosling.

The format of going through a typical daily schedule made this really easy to read and refer back to. I chuckled quite a few times so this book is funny + informative which is a great combo!

His statement "Arm yourself with tools that will help you recognize misinformation" is key. He gives quite a few tips on this and all are very good..In the land of fake news and celebrity "influencer" marketing it is always a great idea to research/seek out actual facts.

I will be recommending this book when it is published later this year (and it is coming out right before Christmas so will make a great gift for those in my life who truly need to relax).

Thank you to the author, publisher and to Net Galley for the chance to review this book in advance.

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