On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety

First-time author Andrea Petersen pulls off a remarkable achievement: a deeply reported, deeply human examination of the science of anxiety, which afflicts some 40 million Americans. To bring that unimaginable number into focus, Petersen employs a classic journalistic technique: telling one person’s story to illuminate a complicated topic and an epic toll.In this case, the story is hers.Petersen chronicles her illness, its terrifying symptoms and her search for answers, as she explores the physiology and psychology behind her web of disorders and the therapies emerging to treat them. She reveals intimate and often harrowing detail: the sudden impulse to jump from a high-rise parking garage, her dad just behind her; agonizing that anxiety and its medications brought her first pregnancy to a devastating end; learning that anxiety drove her grandmother to try to kill her young children–Andrea’s father among them–by setting the house afire.Andrea and I have been friends for years; I have talked her through panic attacks, pregnancies, aches and pains, sleep deprivation, deadline pressure, breakups and makeups. (Full disclosure: You’ll find me in the book.) And yet, I have never understood why a nicked finger prompted a trip to the Hospital for Special Surgery, or why she would beg me to walk with her because she couldn’t breathe.I get it now, which is why ON EDGE is so powerful: so will those who struggle with anxiety, and the people who know and love them.

After reading this book I was able to relate and have a better understanding of me. There were times in the book that I felt Andrea was truly writing about me. Great book

As a psychologist specializing in the assessment and treatment of anxiety disorders in children and adults, I especially appreciate the extensive and excellent research Andrea Petersen applies to her book. This makes On Edge more than just a memoir, but also a helpful resource for the millions of people suffering from anxiety. Andrea covers the science of anxiety and importantly, which treatment modalities are likely to be effective and which are not. Very few books, geared toward non-mental health professionals, do as good a job presenting such up-to-date and complex data in such an accessible, readable manner. Anxiety problems tend to start in childhood, worsen without adequate treatment, and exact high costs on sufferers and their families. Readers can use the wealth of information in this book to understand anxiety, identify effective treatment options for themselves and loved ones and feel empowered in the face of fear and worry. I enthusiastically recommend this book to the millions of Americans who suffer from anxiety and to parents of anxious children, all of whose lives can be positively changed with proper treatment.

This book is well done for sure. There is a lot of research which shows how hard the author worked to gather all this data. But I really related to her personal experiences. If you’re struggling with anxiety, you need to feel validated. And this did that for me!

This book has some interesting insights about anxiety. The material is more intrigung when focused on the personal memoir portions depicting Petersen's own experiences. Found the scientific research to be detailed and well organized, but somewhat dry. Some of the studies of "anxious" children seems to reinforce a pervasively ingrained idea in American culture. One study suggests that anxious, "inhibited" children are "maladaptive", and that they could be socialized out of this behavior - with therapy medication, etc - and into a more desirable "uninhibited" approach to life. I kept thinking in terms of extroverts and introverts. How many anxious people are merely introverts? Society seems to extol extroversion as the higher ideal, and yet introverted and/or "anxious" people are perhaps just more "finely tuned", re: more sensitive to environments, stimuli, socialization, mood, etc. I'm not suggesting that an anxious person should limit their life to conform to their fears, or that an agoraphobic should embrace being housebound, but perhaps the anxious/introverted person would find relief in embracing their unique inherent, temperament as something positive, and not something that needs to be changed into something else that more closely resembles "healthy" extroversion. If one is inclined to worry, rumination and seeks solitude, we now know that these propensities are merely how the introverted may perceive and process the world around them. It's the "labels" that concern me. If a pensive, shy inward-focused child exhibits anxiety, it may be simply who he or she is in terms of personality. I do agree that anxiety appears to have a hereditary component. Where once the focus was outward, it seems now that biology and genes can account for how many of our medical and psychological issues will manifest.

I highly recommend this excellent book, which is very well written, compelling and helpful. The author seamlessly weaves her personal experiences and struggles into a larger context of the causes and effects of anxiety. She clearly wants her book to help readers understand and manage their own anxieties, and to be able to better empathize with, and be supportive to, the anxious people in their personal or work lives. The book itself provides information and wisdom that is not at all stress-inducing, but in fact helps the reader approach the topic more calmly, mindfully and knowledgeably. It took a lot of courage to write this open and vulnerable book, and I commend the author for doing so and setting a compelling example of how anxiety can be faced, understood, and ultimately mastered (if not fully defeated).

Provides an excellent first-person account of what it is like to live with anxiety and a solid overview of research and a variety of treatments. I would recommend to patients. The only caveat is that sometimes she accepts the words of scientists too easily.

Not for me ,boring reading ,far too much emphasis on past and now obsolete therapies.