Description
Book SynopsisConquer Your State of Anxiety with Inspirational insight“Her description of her escalating illness is irreverent, brutally honest, and compelling, her successes are inspiring.” —Booklist
Receive practical and insightful anxiety relief and comfort from someone with first hand experience struggling with a specific type of OCD.
Discover what anxiety looks like. Kirstin Pagacz tells the riveting story of how she discovered her disorder. By high school, she was anorexic and a substance abuser—common "shadow syndromes" of OCD. By adulthood she was holding onto jobs and friends through sheer grit. Help came in the form of a miraculously well-timed public service announcement on NPR about OCD—at last, her illness had an identity.
Learn what anxiety feels like. "It's like the meanest, wildest monkey running around my head, constantly looking for ways to bite me." That was how Kirsten Pagacz described her OCD to her therapist. After learning how to conquer her specific type of OCD, Pagacz wants to share her insight with you in hopes that you banish those intrusive thoughts, conquer your anxiety, and live a better life.
Inside you'll gain insight into:
- The benefits of meditation and yoga
- Cognitive behavioral therapy
- Medication and exposure therapy
If you learned from guides like Anxious for Nothing, The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, or The Anxiety and Worry Workbook, then you’ll want to read Conquering Your State of Anxiety.
Trade Review“Her description of her escalating illness is irreverent, brutally honest, and compelling [and] her successes are inspiring.”
—Booklist
“Ms. Pagacz, over a period of years, has poured heart, soul, and sinew, into this book, and the result is remarkable. She describes the torment of OCD from the inside. Fellow sufferers will feel understood; families and friends will gain unique insight into what their loved one is experiencing. Her compelling narrative abounds with powerful metaphors. Employing a creative scrapbook format, and using photos, Illustrations, and original poems, Ms. Pagacz enhances the text with a power only art can convey.
Beyond the descriptive narrative, however, is a compendium of useful information about the disorder and how to best manage it. Drawing on what worked for her, and based on researching expert advice, chapters contain a summary of useful tips and key points to remember. The result is educational and inspirational.
This memoir of her recovery is a highly valuable, unique gift to the OCD community.”
—Dan Kalb, PhD, psychologist and OCD specialist
“This compelling narrative is one woman’s story of her battle with obsessive compulsive disorder. Pagacz’s harrowing account demonstrates how OCD can scar and misshape a life and provides for readers effective tools for healing and growth.”
—Jeff Bell, author of Rewind Replay Repeat: A Memoir of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
