A Brief History of Anxiety (Yours and Mine) (Hardcover)

Novelist and nonfiction writer Pearson (When She Was Bad) was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder at 23 in 1987; she had suffered a nervous breakdown after discovering that her lover was sleeping with another woman. In a rambling fashion, she traces the roots of her anxiety to a youth spent in tumultuous New Delhi, where her diplomat father was posted when an Indian-Pakistani war broke out over Bangladesh. Genetically, she traces her anxiety to a grandmother whose famous biting wit was likely, she surmises, a manifestation of anxiety and depression. Pearson quotes a range of sources, including the 2002 World Mental Health Survey and angst-ridden Kierkegaard, Keats and Whitman. Pearson's anxieties constantly shift according to the stresses in her life, and an adverse reaction to antidepressants once caused her to make sexual advances to her daughter's friend's mother. Citizens of affluent U.S. and Canada are more prone to dread and panic than Mexicans, says Pearson, who herself grew up in a privileged Canadian family with a grandfather who was prime minister and a Nobel Peace Prize winner. Although often self-indulgent and overwritten, Pearson's quirky memoir should strike a chord with some of the 40 million American adults suffering from clinical anxiety. (Mar. 4)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

“Pithy, revealing, often funny, and highly intelligent. . . . Hothouse flowers like me will find themselves nodding vehemently, underlining passages, reading parts aloud to loved ones, even finding comfort and calm in Pearson’s deeply penetrating view into our version of the human condition.”
–Elle

"Eye-opening, affecting, lucid and constructive, A Brief History of Anxiety is everything you wanted to know about anxiety, but–naturally–were afraid to ask."
–Quill and Quire

“Pearson’s deeply felt examination of anxiety disorders begins with her own and goes on to encompass all of society’s. The book is informative and insightful, but also darkly humorous throughout.”
–The Globe and Mail

“Insightfully probes one of the oldest and least-understood psychological conditions. . . . A wholly satisfying mix of memoir, cultural history and investigative journalism.”
–Kirkus

“Like 40 million Americans, Ms. Pearson suffers from anxiety, which she pithily calls ‘fear in search of a cause.’ Her own case fascinates her, and quite rightly. It presents her with the opportunity to examine modern civilization and its discontents, as well as her own miseries, which she does, thoughtfully and incisively.”
–The New York Times

“Pearson’s facility for humour keeps the laughter impulse always close at hand, even as we’re drawn deeper into some very dark places. . . . A witty and insightful read, this is one of the stronger non-fiction releases of the season.”
–Edmonton Journal

“A genre-busting page turner: a portrait of Pearson’s lifelong struggle with anxiety, melded with a journalistic investigation of what ails her, and me and us.”
–Salon

“Exhilarating. Finely crafted. Pearson makes plenty of intriguing and arguable observations. If you’re anxious all the time and you think about that anxiety a lot, this collection will provide you some companionable relief.”
–Slate

“[S]he is a daredevil on the page; her prose somersaults and vaults, keeping the readers entertained by her wit and amazed by her dexterity as an investigative journalist.”
–The Miami Herald

“[Pearson] offers readers a learned hand through the fraught world of anxiety politics. . . . This book offers the anxious reader a recipe, one that is sure to quiet.”
–Newsday

“Splendid.”
–London Observer

“Pithy, revealing, often funny, and highly intelligent. . . . Hothouse flowers like me will find themselves nodding vehemently, underlining passages, reading parts aloud to loved ones, even finding comfort and calm in Pearson’s deeply penetrating view into our version of the human condition.” ——Elle magazine

“Enlightening and very funny.”
–Marie Claire

"If only more psychology were written with the literate intelligence of this book. It is a weaving of stories that accomplishes a great deal: cultural analysis, psychological insight, and personal reflection. You will enjoy it and learn from it. If you are ever afraid of the dark, crowds of people, heights, and the insanity of your fellow humans, as I am, you may find comfort here."
–Thomas Moore, bestselling author of Care of the Soul and A Life's Work

"I was worried – almost in a panic – that I wouldn’t enjoy this tour of anxiety past and present. But here is a bubble bath of a book to lift your spirits and make you laugh. Pearson’s wry and illuminating insights into this modern state of mind are better medicine than Effexor."
–Marni Jackson, author of Pain and The Mother Zone

"In this meditation on anxiety, shot through with insights and shafts of illumination, Patricia Pearson has subtly interwoven her personal story with the history of anxiety in a manner that left this reader revisiting both the text and my memories of it long after I had finished it. This short book deftly conveys a sense of where we have come to, offers succor to anyone afflicted with nerves, and may yet take a place beside some of the cultural landmarks in the field."
–David Healey, psychiatrist and author of Let Them Eat Prozac