Cover Image: The Anatomy of Anxiety

The Anatomy of Anxiety

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Member Reviews

Very helpful on my own journey to better understand my anxiety. Dr. Ellen Vora does a great job detailing the embodiment of anxiety. Dr. Vora shares how it impacts our whole bodies, what we can do, and what we have done.

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In The Anatomy of Anxiety, Dr. Ellen Vora describes the myriad of sources that can cause anxiety in the body. She describes the difference between true and false anxiety and why it is important to make that distinction.

The author encourages her patients to take an introspective approach to alleviating their anxiety. We all know that we should eat healthy foods, get enough sleep, and cut back on social media. However, Vora details the physiological reasons why altering certain daily activities would be helpful. She also gives valuable concrete examples of how to modify anxiety-causing behaviors.

I found The Anatomy of Anxiety to be an informative book, and I plan to incorporate some of her ideas into my daily life. People who enjoy books like The Body Keeps the Score may also appreciate this one.

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Thank you for an advance copy of this book. The Anatomy of Anxiety is a valuable resource and a must read for those who struggle with anxiety. I found this book immensely valuable as someone who struggles myself.

Anxiety affects more than forty million Americans—a number that continues to climb in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While conventional medicine tends to view anxiety as a “neck-up” problem—that is, one of brain chemistry and psychology—the truth is that the origins of anxiety are rooted in the body.

In The Anatomy of Anxiety, holistic psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora offers nothing less than a paradigm shift in our understanding of anxiety and mental health, suggesting that anxiety is not simply a brain disorder but a whole-body condition. In her clinical work, Dr. Vora has found time and again that the symptoms of anxiety can often be traced to imbalances in the body. The emotional and physical discomfort we experience—sleeplessness, brain fog, stomach pain, jitters—is a result of the body’s stress response. This physiological state can be triggered by challenging experiences as well as seemingly innocuous factors, such as diet and use of technology.

The good news is that this body-based anxiety, or, as Dr. Vora terms it, “false anxiety,” is easily treated. Once the body’s needs are addressed, Dr. Vora reframes any remaining symptoms not as a disorder but rather as an urgent plea from within. This “true anxiety” is a signal that something else is out of balance—in our lives, in our relationships, in the world. True anxiety serves as our inner compass, helping us recalibrate when we’re feeling lost.

Practical, informative, and deeply hopeful, The Anatomy of Anxiety is the first book to fully explain the origins of anxiety and offer a detailed road map for healing and growth.

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I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

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I thought this book was interesting but also difficult. I do not think there is one cure all for anxiety and I also think that so many people struggle differently. I found this book to be extremely similar to other books I have read on the topic, but if you are interesting in learning more about anxiety and are trying to deep dive into the disease it is worth looking into.

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THE ANATOMY OF ANXIETY by Ellen Vora provides a unique insight into "Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response." Vora, who is board-certified in psychiatry and integrative holistic medicine, begins refreshingly by noting that she is less concerned with making a definitive diagnosis about a specific disorder and "more interested in exploring the particulars of each patient's life and habits in order to start them down a path to recovery." Next, she explores the contrast between true (related to an actual event like a death in the family) and false anxiety (perhaps driven by caffeine or sleep patterns) and then describes avoidable and purposeful anxiety in more detail. Later sections of this text explore concepts like techxiety (and social media use), the influence of women's hormones, and role of diet and food. THE ANATOMY OF ANXIETY is well-written, accessible, and filled with practical suggestions; Vora includes extensive notes and a helpful index.

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Dr. Ellen Vora sets forth that anxiety is not just a mental problem, but one of the whole body. Once the physical symptoms are taken care of, then the mental ones can be taken care of. Dr. Vora believes that "true anxiety" are the mental symptoms that are left after the physical symptoms such as exhaustion are taken care of. This is a new look at how we should be treating and dealing with anxiety.

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As someone who suffers from anxiety and depression- this book had incredible insight into how anxiety works and how you can control it. I was also stunned to realize how anxiety affects your body & health. Reading about anxiety definitely did give me some anxiety, but overall this was an informative read for anyone wishing to better understand their anxiety or a friend/loved one. Definitely one of the best compilation of anxiety research and information I’ve read to date.

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This is an incredible resource for anyone struggling with anxiety. It is full of fantastic information and easy to implement strategies and ideas to help anxiety. This is one I'll return to again and again. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

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A must read for all of us- anxiety sufferers and those that do not. The author tackles such subjects as sleep health, gut health, screen time usage, the ever present job worries in a manageable and approachable way.

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Thank you Netgalley for this ARC for an exchange for an honest review.

This is very helpful and interesting book.

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