Summary of Judson Brewer's Unwinding Anxiety

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Judson Brewer's Unwinding Anxiety in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.

We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638155102

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights from Introduction and Chapter 1

#1

Anxiety is defined as a feeling of unease relating to situations with uncertain outcomes. Anything can happen in life, so there are endless possible circumstances that can lead us to feel anxious.

#2

Anxiety disorder includes phobias, which are irrational fears; obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD, which is chronic obsession or repetitive behavior; and generalized anxiety disorder or GAD, which is excessive worry about daily things.

#3

Symptoms alone are not enough to conclude whether or not a patient has an anxiety disorder. Doctors need to make links between facts, behavior, and mental states before they can move on to the next step.

#4

Anxiety can either slowly cook up throughout the day to eventually erupt at night, or it can appear through intermittent periods of panic.

#5

Being unaware of the source of our anxiety will lead us to depend on temporary distractions or short-term fixes. This creates bad habits that magnify anxiety rather than reduce