Title: Anxiety: Overcome It and Live without Fear
Author: Sonali Gupta
Format: Kindle and Paperback
Pages:256
Publisher: Harper Collins India
The book strikes you with its white cover and opens with an insightful foreword by renowned Indian Writer Jerry Pinto who has earlier edited and curated an anthology of mental health stories titled Book of Light. His understanding of this sensitive issue certainly stands out and the foreword in itself seems like an essay on mental health that has been written with elan and poise. When he says, "You have a right to be anxious.We all are.", it sets the tone of the book as a conversation about mental health rather than a preachy sermon.
The author Sonali Gupta is a Mumbai-based clinical psychologist with16 years of experience in the field of mental health. She writes a weekly column for Mumbai Mirror titled 'Terms of Engagement'. She currently runs a private practice in Khar and South Bombay.
On her website she says about the book:
Anxiety is a mental health crisis that has gripped over three crore Indians. In my debut book Anxiety: Overcome It and Live Without Fear, I delve into the condition, using case studies to identify how anxiety can be triggered at work, in relationships, and by social media. I have attempted to share a unique glimpse into this mental health condition in India, especially among Gen Z and millennials.
Gupta lives up to what is promised by the book successfully and brings the mental health conversation to an Indian context. The book is about routine issues of an average Indian and how that is related to anxiety and also has a lot of tips and methodologies about how to deal with them. Hence the book becomes not just a book but a kind of WORKBOOK with ample DIY activities that help in self-care and self-analysis along with an entire last section dedicated to managing anxiety. The book is interactive with its readers and has columns to write things as you go. This not only makes it fun but also helps the reader to understand his/her own unique issues better.
In an interview with Women's Web the author says:
“The problem with anxiety is that it’s so normalised that people don’t talk about it. Just because something is normalised doesn’t mean it is okay that people have to live through it. It is a problem we need to address it at a systemic level.”
In the book she speaks about not just anxiety but other related issues like BURNOUT saying:
“Most millennials who start jobs by age twenty-one reach their first burnout when they are about twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. Their second burnout is generally between age twenty-nine and thirty-years. This is usually the time when most people reach out for help and almost believe in its legitimacy since they now feel that a decade of work has taken a toll on them.”
The tone is crisp and the material absolutely well-researched and supported with loved experiences and professional observations.
Definitely a must-read for any Indian who has any interest in understanding mental health better.
This post is part of #Bookchatter and #CauseAChatter with Blogchatter.