Summary of Russell Kennedy's Anxiety Rx

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 When you are attached to a parent in a healthy way, you develop a sense of knowing yourself because your parent expresses an interest in knowing you. In secure attachment, parts of your brain develop so you can self-soothe and see the big picture.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Aug 18, 2022
• ISBN: 9798350016260

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.

Book preview

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When you are attached to a parent in a healthy way, you develop a sense of knowing yourself because your parent expresses an interest in knowing you. In secure attachment, parts of your brain develop so you can self-soothe and see the big picture.

Insights from Chapter 2

#1

I lost my father, who was bipolar and schizophrenia, in 1987. I was a nervous wreck throughout that year. I had finished my neuroscience degree, and I was not yet a doctor or a medical student, but I felt vulnerable and inferior. I was barely eating or sleeping.

#2

The biggest challenge I have faced in my life is dealing with uncertainty. Those of us with excruciating uncertainty in our childhoods will do just about anything to maximize our sense of certainty in adulthood, but as you’ll see, worrying is a habit that gives the illusion of certainty but comes at a great cost.

#3

Uncertainty is a huge unconscious trigger for many people who experience anxiety. We struggle to control and limit uncertainty, which is why we don’t go out, avoid places, or engage with things that may create an undesirable reaction in us.

Insights from Chapter 3

#1

As a child, I never felt like I mattered. My father’s illness and recovery took most of the family’s energy and attention. I adopted the role of caregiver for my parents, and received some positive affirmation and identity that way. But as I grew up, I began to take care of others before myself.

#2

I had begun to burn out as a doctor early on. I was helping people, but I was also hurting myself, as I was unable to help some of my patients. I didn’t want to walk away, as being a doctor was part of my identity.

Insights from Chapter 4

#1

Worrying can be helpful, but it can also be extremely harmful. It gives us a sense of control, but in reality it only makes us feel better for a short period of time. It is difficult to let go of worrying, even when we know it is not helping us.

#2

I was a doctor, and I was helping others, but I was also hurting myself. I was trapped in a feedback loop of overthinking and over-feeling, and I was unable to see that I was hurting myself by treating everything with pharmaceuticals.

Insights from Chapter 5

#1

Awareness is the skill of observing your thoughts and feelings with nonjudgmental curiosity. Without this skill, you are unable to separate your thoughts from who you are. With practice, you can become aware of your thoughts as mere expressions of the mind.

#2

Awareness is the first step to breaking free from the negative thinking that has ruled your life for a long time. Without awareness, you cannot see how you are reaching back to your past and throwing it onto your future path.

Insights from Chapter 6

#1

If you are constantly anxious, you are probably in a victim state. You are unknowingly victimizing yourself in an attempt to protect yourself. This takes place through an unconscious habit of allowing your mind to continuously conjure up stories, which you then automatically believe without questioning.

#2

We all have the ability to see ourselves as victims, and that is how we perpetuate the victim cycle of anxiety. But awareness also gives you the ability to see what anxiety is and what it is not.

Insights from Chapter 7

#1

Anxiety is not a disease, and it is not a character flaw. It is a normal coping mechanism that has gotten out of control. It is not there to harm you, but in its constant warnings, it makes you feel unsafe.

#2

anxiety is not real, but it is a thinking process that generates projections, expectations, stories, and thoughts of the future. It is