Book Review by Richard Skaff
Armchair Interviews


The Worrywart's Companion:
Twenty-One Ways to Soothe Yourself and Worry Smart

by Beverly Potter, Ph.D.


Published by McGraw Hill


The Worrywart’s Companion is an excellent guide for the anxious in heart. It is filled with practical ideas to overcome the worries that keep you awake at night. Potter includes 21 strategies to mitigate your anxiety and help you reduce your worries. It teaches you how to worry smart, and not worry yourself sick.

Following Potter’s suggested principles would calm your mind and appease your soul, and help you think clearer when dealing with the worry at hand.

Practicing the tips in the book like–under-reacting, saying a prayer, imagining a happy ending, doing a good deed, even taking a warm bath–might sooth you and help you conquer your fears.

For fun, you can take the quiz in the beginning of the book, which will provide you with insight, and allows you to rate yourself and figure out your score on the worry scale.

The book is light, positive, pleasant, commonsensical, and simple. It delves into the root causes of worrying, and elucidates the importance of understanding the cognitive distortions that perpetuate the worrying process. It will also help the reader realize that worrying is a learned behavior that becomes an ingrained habit, rather than a hopeless and uncontrolled contracted virus.

The Worrywart’s Companion is a good self-help book that might give you hope when you’re feeling stuck in a chronic state of worry, agony, and anxiety. It will help you unlearn the negative patterns that have kept you trapped in your web of self-torment.

It is a must read for every person who’s negative thinking and worried thoughts dictate every moment of his or her life.

Armchair Interviews says: Ideal “guide” for anyone who worries excessively.




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