Anxiety Rx: A New Prescription for Anxiety Relief from the Doctor Who Created It Paperback – October 9, 2020

At the beginning of this year (2023), in the middle of the night, riddled with insomnia and emotional terror, I searched the word "anxiety" in Spotify, hoping to find a podcast episode that would comfort me back to sleep. I came across an interview with Dr. Kennedy on the Mel Robbins show. I hadn't heard of either person, but was hooked by the description: "Everything you think about anxiety is wrong." And, "...this interview today is so revolutionary, it's forever changed the way I think about my anxiety and my relationship to it."I was not disappointed by the interview. I soon fell asleep, soothed and curious about this new method, and in the morning purchased Anxiety Rx.It took me about two and half weeks to read the book, along with reviews here and there, plus episodes of Kennedy's podcast. Yes the book is repetitive, but in the end I am thankful for that. Without being steeped in the concepts and drilling them over and over, a real shift in a lifetime's worth of negative thought patterns would not be possible. (The suggestion I would make for a revised edition would be to state from the introduction that there will be repetition—and to explain the importance of it—in order to manage reader expectations.)Like a lot of other satisfied readers, I highlighted vast swaths of the book. Also like a lot of readers, I am familiar with other books, teachings and modalities in the emotional suffering and healing world: The Power of Now, Radical Acceptance, yoga, Buddhism, Byron Katie, Gabor Mate, mindfulness meditation, psychedelic psychotherapy and so forth. I also take an SSRI, completed over a dozen years of counseling, adopted a low-carb, high protein diet, and even became a personal trainer and nutrition coach because of the anti-depressant effects fitness and diet have on my emotional state.Having done all that, the "alarm" still would find its way through to terrorize me, and I believed the cruel, negative thought loops to such a point that I wanted to die.What Anxiety Rx did for me was to distill wisdom I had learned from other sources into actionable steps that I could implement immediately.Dr. Russ teaches (among other things):-All anxiety is separation anxiety from childhood. In adulthood, we become separated from ourselves.-Believing negative thoughts is what causes the pain, not the thoughts themselves.-Approach healing from the neck down. The mind lies. The body never lies.-JABS = judge, alienate/abandon, blame, shame. JABS are the negative thought loops that lead to depression, paralysis, despair.-When we were abused or abandoned by our caregivers, we still looked up to them. We could not blame them so we figured we must be to blame. We turned on ourselves as unlovable.-When alarm strikes, ask yourself three questions: am I safe right NOW, what am I thankful for, where in my body am I safe?-ALARMS is really what our inner child is feeling. (Abandonment, Loss, Abuse, Rejection, Maturing too early, Shame. Dr. Russ loves his acronyms. I have every one of these letters from my childhood, and had to skip parts of the ALARMS section because it was too overwhelming.) The inner child needs to feel safe and protected. Alarm is triggered in the present by experiences that recall the initial wound. (For me it's also triggered by high morning cortisol.)-Tune out of the fiction mind and into reality: physical sensations. Hand on your heart, set the intention to protect your inner child. She is safe now. She can rest.-In the millisecond after the body feels the alarm, the mind scrolls through the rolodex of potential fears to justify the panicked feeling. These thoughts are never true. Don't engage with the thoughts. Keep to the body.-Trying to heal negative thoughts with more thoughts is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.I LOVED creating visualizations and having conversations with my inner child. It helped me detach in a creative and magical way from incredibly paralyzing thoughts. With an inner child ally, it becomes easy to see that the negative thoughts cannot possibly be true. They can't apply to an innocent child, and we ARE our innocent inner child. Now, every time a negative thought threatens me, I call up my inner child and we dismantle the thoughts together through visualizations and self-compassion.Since reading the book, I have found a true ally within myself. I have learned that the "ego dragon" is an ancient protective mechanism that warped into a terrorizing demon who also needs to be heard and loved. By telling myself that I am a terrible person it keeps me from taking risks or living in the uncertainty of the present moment, and that uncertainty, as an abused child, was more terrifying than the familiarity and strange comfort of self-hatred. That was a huge revelation that I am so thankful for.Another revelation for me was the slipperiness of the ego dragon. Over the years, in addition to self-flagellation, my ego dragon fed me enticing fantasies of rescue, which Kennedy associates rightly with victimhood. I used to have great hopes of fame and fortune, along with all-consuming romantic infatuations. I now see that my ego was playing a long con on me—building up the hope of rescue through external and grandiose validation only for the fantasy to never manifest, leaving me feeling humiliated, rejected and inevitably despondent. Now, along with my inner child practice and the ABCs, I remain not only vigilant for self-hating thoughts, but also for fantasies of grandeur, knowing that they are the cunning work of the ego dragon. This helps me stick to the present moment, slow down and lean into the sometimes painful but never deadly uncertainty of life.This is probably the longest review I've written here, thank you for reading. I know this book will not resonate with everyone but for me it was a true gift. If Dr. Kennedy ever creates a teacher certification program I would definitely sign up, because it would be incredibly meaningful to help others overcome decades of emotional pain.Thank you for this wonderful technique and wisdom.

Author shares his journey about anxiety...seperate thinking mind from body...different then other methodes that pretty much align with meditation and different methods.

Even though it’s a bit repetitive, I has a lot of information different from the usual, about how to deal with anxiety. I highly recommend this book to everyone who’s dealing with anxiety.

This is quite a volume. Way more info then I expected. His personal stories were interesting and helpful in understanding the issues. One issue - it needs chapters! It has no chapter breaks.Many reviewers said it was repetitive and it was in places. And yet - I couldn't put my finger on what was not new.The best part of the book is the last Part. That's where it gets really helpful. So my suggestion is to read from the beginning until you get a good understanding of the issues and then move to Part 4. That is dense with helpful, usable information.

I picked up this book “by chance”at my local Public Library. What a lucky break!Like Dr Kennedy I have struggled with anxiety all my life. In spite of numerous types of therapy, Buddhist practice and all the knowledge that years of professional practice as a psychotherapist have brought I was unable to break the alarm/worry cycle. Dr Kennedy provides the missing link, that alarm starts in the body and needs to be addressed right there. Trying to do it through thinking our way out of it is a fools errand. We have to learn to tune out of thinking and into awareness of the body. I agree with him that if you have not processed your experiences of childhood issues it makes sense to find a therapist to help you work through the insights and practices this book provides. If like me you have already done the therapy journey and have been searching for the missing piece of the puzzle, Go for It! These practices, diligently applied with curiosity, determination and compassion have been an eye opener, giving me a new path of discovery and healing. Be prepared to put your own slant on it, being creative about adapting the practices to your own life experience and response to what you read in the book and above all experiment, this helps to get out of the “frozen” mind space our worries get us locked into.

I was diagnosed with a panic disorder at 7, and have struggled for two decades, I'm 27. Been in therapy for years and while my therapist is an amazing woman she recommended this book. This book has been life changing on how I view the experience, and effectively put into words decades of failed practice on my part (stopping the ALARM as he calls it before it gets to the head). In a way that makes sense and I believe I can work towards implementing, there's so much more to read. I both cried and laughed reading this which is great. Also the story of the author is far too relatable, as I too was raised by a parent who was schizophrenic and it severely impacted my ability to connect, and my constant fear of 'losing my mind' like her. Which the author expresses similar fears, as well as the suicide, as I too have experienced that due to schizophrenia. Every time I read, "it's not your fault, it's no one's fault." My heart breaks and I cry and I say ya, it wasn't anyone's fault and it's like healing a part of me that hurts. Anyway I wanna thank the author for sharing this, because I think I needed it. Thank you.