It's Not All in Your Head: How Worrying about Your Health Could Be Making You Sick--And What You Can Do about It

by Steven Taylor and Gordon J.G. Asmundson

Book Overview

Health anxiety is a condition, which often leads people to misinterpret minor symptoms and normal bodily sensations as the warning signs of a serious disease. This book encourages readers to consider... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1572309938
• ISBN13: 9781572309937
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Guilford Publications
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 7.0" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

Very Powerful Book :)

If you suffer from health anxiety or hypochondriasis, you may benefit greatly from reading this book. For a while, I thought I was literally going to lose my mind. I worried a great deal about every little thing that was going on in my "noisy" body. The book is written by two experts in the field. They are authorities on this subject and they really hit on all of the issues that people might be facing. This is a thorough book with stunning insight, options, brilliant self-help plans and it is clearly written with compassion for the sufferer. After many, many years with health anxiety and getting little or no help from therapists, I turned to this book and also to the authors' other book entitled, Health Anxiety. These books helped me, comforted me and fostered my self-awareness in ways that health professionals could not. A+ And if you are a sufferer, please know that there is help awaiting you. And you are definitely not fighting alone.

Should be standard material for anyone who has Health Anxiety Problems!

This book has been a tremendous help to me! The book is well organized and is designed for logical thinkers. One section was especially helpful for me; a section that explains how no amount of checking or reassurance makes your health any better. When I read that section, I STOPPED checking and reassuring myself for good! Why did I stop? Because the book makes logical sense and is written by two psychologists who really know what they are talking about. I use to be horrible at checking my blood pressure and blood sugar, but now I only have my pressure checked at the doctor's office. I have also gone to the doctor less often after reading this book. Anyone who has health anxiety problems or know someone who does should get this book! The book should be used by Clinical Psychology students in ALL grad schools in my opinion. For ALL Therapists: The book allows your patient to became pro-active in treating their health anxiety. You can work with them during your sessions to help them overcome their Health Anxiety. For ALL Patients: Don't just read the book. Put what you are reading into action and it should work for you. First and foremost, don't read the book in a negative (Oh this book will never work for me) mindset. I don't know why this book has not received more attention than it has actually. Bad marketing possibly?

Patients will like this book

This book does an excellent job of not blaming patients. It simply asks them to focus on improving their accuracy rate of whether something is physical or anxiety related. Dr. Asmundsom and Taylor get the right feel to the balance of encouraging patients to consider what is physical and what is cognitive. Patients, and families, have responded well to this book in my experience. And this book is greatly needed for patients who are highly anxious, terrorized at times, of the danger of their physical concerns.