A self-help memoir that takes an unflinching look at a young man's undiagnosed anxiety disorder and OCD. "'THIS IS WRITING AT ITS MOST FEARLESS.' Matt Bright, Everybody's Reviewing 'WESTOBY GIVES A VOICE TO TEENAGERS UNABLE TO COPE WITH EVERYDAY LIFE... THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL READ.' Paul Taylor-Mcartney, Writers in Education Chris Westoby takes us inside his past self, a teenager from a small English town. He's trying to be a good friend, student, son and boyfriend, but he struggles to be in company without wanting to hide. And things only get worse: it's nearly impossible to take the bus to college without catching the next bus home. His obsessive germaphobia begins to destroy his life. How can one boy overcome all this? Chris offers am unflinching, raw account of his troubles and offers what he's learnt. This book an outstretched hand to those fighting these same battles, or to anyone who's watching someone else go through the same. The Fear Talking does not promise to solve your problems, but it shows you that you're not alone. That's all Chris ever wanted, really; to unflinchingly capture the warmth and darkness of the teenage years. Some Expert Reactions 'Read this book, and you will never forget it. As a narrative it's fascinating. As the memoir of a life lived with anxiety, it's incomparable.' Peter Draper, Emeritus Professor of Nursing Education, UNIVERSITY OF HULL 'Anxiety is the most common form of mental distress and of course overlaps with normal human emotion. Yet it can be overwhelming and disabling and a gateway to other mental ill health notably depression and self-medication with alcohol and other substances. This engaging account throws a spotlight on how anxiety impacts on everyday life and relationships.' Patrick McGorry, Professor of Youth Mental Health, UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE 'In The Fear Talking, Chris Westoby achieves the well-nigh impossible, giving us a fully immersive account of adolescent anxiety, allowing the reader to feel and experience with the narrator. If one of the main aims of the memoir form is to induce empathy in readers, Westoby's memoir succeeds brilliantly. The reader comes away with a new and profound understanding of what mental illness feels like from within.' Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor Creative Writing, UNIVERSITY OF LECEISTER

Discusses how to reduce or overcome fear of death for those who hold a variety of beliefs on death including: the belief that there is no afterlife, that the there is an afterlife and it is something to be feared, that there is an afterlife and that it is something to look forward to, and that there is reincarnation after death.

A revolutionary guide to acknowledging fear and developing the tools we need to build a healthy relationship with this confusing emotion—and use it as a positive force in our lives. We all feel fear. Yet we are often taught to ignore it, overcome it, push past it. But to what benefit? This is the essential question that guides Kristen Ulmer’s remarkable exploration of our most misunderstood emotion in The Art of Fear. Once recognized as the best extreme skier in the world (an honor she held for twelve years), Ulmer knows fear well. In this conversation-changing book, she argues that fear is not here to cause us problems—and that in fact, the only true issue we face with fear is our misguided reaction to it (not the fear itself). Rebuilding our experience with fear from the ground up, Ulmer starts by exploring why we’ve come to view it as a negative. From here, she unpacks fear and shows it to be just one of 10,000 voices that make up our reality, here to help us come alive alongside joy, love, and gratitude. Introducing a mindfulness tool called “Shift,” Ulmer teaches readers how to experience fear in a simpler, more authentic way, transforming our relationship with this emotion from that of a draining battle into one that’s in line with our true nature. Influenced by Ulmer’s own complicated relationship with fear and her over 15 years as a mindset facilitator, The Art of Fear will reconstruct the way we react to and experience fear—empowering us to easily and permanently address the underlying cause of our fear-based problems, and setting us on course to live a happier, more expansive future.

“Take a wonderful journey through and beyond your fear with Thom Rutledge.” — Melody Beattie, author of Choices “An insightful, moving and gracious book!” — John Shelby Spong, author of A New Christianity For A New World “An insightful and clear guide that shows how to turn fear into a powerful resource in our lives.” — Gavin de Becker, best-selling author of THE GIFT OF FEAR and FEAR LESS

“A tremendously empowering book of reflection and discovery . . . invites the reader to engage in practices that nurture the joy and fulfillment of living.” —Michael White, PhD If you find yourself running away from fear, you’re running in the wrong direction. Fear demands that we move toward it, face it, and hear its messages. When we fail to do this, the price is high—chronic anxiety, sleeplessness, damaged relationships, skyrocketing pharmaceutical use, and more. In her enlightening book Joy from Fear, clinical psychologist Dr. Carla Marie Manly explains that fear is not the enemy we thought it was; fear, when faced with awareness, is the powerful ally and best friend we all need. Dr. Manly’s work is firmly based in science but goes far beyond presenting the dry facts. Joy from Fear offers page after page of real-life examples, insights, easy-to-use tools, and life-changing exercises. Coining the term transformational fear, Dr. Manly illuminates the importance of embracing fear’s messages for a transformed life filled with freedom and lasting happiness. “She shows a way, clearly and with certainty, to shift from fear that can tear a life apart to reimagining the role of fear in life.” —Thomas Moore, New York Times–bestselling author of Care of the Soul “An incomparable guidebook for those who wish to achieve lasting mental and emotional transformation.” —Dr. Orchid D. Johnson, PhD, LMFT, LPCC, and Board Certified PTSD Clinician “The concept of ‘transformational fear’ offers a depth of understanding that has been missing . . . Thank you, Dr. Manly, for bringing fear out of the darkness, to its place in the light where it belongs.” —Denise L. Wagner, PsyD, LCSW

Fear of Dying is a hilarious, heart wrenching, and beautifully told story about what happens when one woman steps reluctantly into the afternoon of life. Vanessa Wonderman is a gorgeous former actress in her 60's who finds herself balancing between her dying parents, her aging husband and her beloved, pregnant daughter. Although Vanessa considers herself "a happily married woman," the lack of sex in her life makes her feel as if she's losing something too valuable to ignore. So she places an ad for sex on a site called Zipless.com and the life she knew begins to unravel. With the help and counsel of her best friend, Isadora Wing, Vanessa navigates the phishers and pishers, and starts to question if what she's looking for might be close at hand after all. Fear of Dying is a daring and delightful look at what it really takes to be human and female in the 21st century. Wildly funny and searingly honest, this is a book for everyone who has ever been shaken and changed by love.

Between the late 1970s and the mid-1980s, the people of Guatemala were subjected to a state-sponsored campaign of political violence and repression designed to not only defeat a left-wing, revolutionary insurgency but also destroy Mayan communities and culture. The Mayan Indians in the western highlands were labeled by the government as revolutionary sympathizers, and many Mayan women lost husbands, sons, and other family members who were brutally murdered or who simply "disappeared." Based on years of field research conducted in the rural highlands, Fear as a Way of Life traces the intricate links between the recent political violence and repression and the long-term systemic violence connected with class inequalities and gender and ethnic oppression––the violence of everyday life.

Our world has increasingly become fear based, but we don't understand the sources of this fear so that we can heal them. We have collective fears we each hold, such as dying from a pandemic, and we have individual fears we hold, many of which we are not aware of because they arise from conditioning and deeply embedded beliefs. We are meant to live in joy, not fear, and A Book About Fear will help us do this by taking us on a treetop journey through quantum physics, psychology, philosophy, spirituality, and more. When we see how our belief systems were created, how they limit us, and what we have become attached to that creates fear, we will come to know ourselves at a deeper level. Then we can make different choices to transform our fears, which will uncover our intrinsic joy.

Now in paperback: A striking, widely praised work of experiential reportage on surmounting paralyzing fear

AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER FINALIST FOR THE 2021 HUBERT EVANS NON-FICTION PRIZE A personal story about not only facing but conquering fears. In 2015, Eva Holland was forced to confront her greatest fear when her mother had a stroke and suddenly passed away. After the shock and grief subsided, Holland began to examine the extent to which her many fears had limited her, and wondered whether or not it was possible to move past them. This sent Holland on a deep dive into the science of fear, digging into an array of universal and personal questions: Why do we feel fear? Where do phobias come from and how are they related to anxiety disorders and trauma? Can you really smell fear? (Yes.) What would it be like to feel no fear? Is there a cure for fear? Or, put differently, is there a better way to feel afraid? On her journey, Holland meets with scientists who are working to eliminate phobias with a single pill, she explores the lives of the few individuals who suffer from a rare disease that prevents them from ever feeling fear, and she immerses herself in her own fears including hurling herself out of a plane for her first skydive (and in the process, learns that there are right and wrong ways to face your fears). Fear is a universal human experience, and Nerve answers these questions in a refreshingly accessible way, offering readers an often personal, sometimes funny, and always rigorously researched journey through the science of facing our fears.