The Gift of Anxiety by Diante Fuchs
published by TCK Publishing, 2024.
Review by Kathy Labriola, Counselor/Nurse
It seems like an odd choice to name a book "The Gift of Anxiety," since most people experience anxiety as extremely uncomfortable and even unbearably painful. For many people it is a truly debilitating condition. But New Zealand-based clinical psychologist Diante Fuchs considers anxiety a kind of gift because it encourages us to examine our true needs and desires and change our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors to enhance our effectiveness and happiness.
Fuchs writes that she spent many frustrating years treating anxious clients by utilizing the psychotherapy "best practices" she had been taught. However, she felt she was not helping them at all, as their anxiety remained as pronounced as ever. Her desire to help her clients recover from their severe anxiety compelled her to create what she has found to be a more effective program. She calls it the EASE Method, which is an acronym for Empower, Accept, Shift, and Engage.
In my private practice, I work with clients in wildly differing situations who are experiencing anxiety for many different reasons. The current treatments for anxiety--mainly Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and anti-anxiety medications, are very useful and do help a lot of people. I also use hypnosis with many clients and this is also a very powerful tool in helping clients with anxiety, especially if I can teach a client how to do self-hypnosis on a regular basis to reduce their anxiety. However, I would agree with Fuchs that many clients do not find these treatments helpful enough, and her EASE method is an exciting new way to help clients manage and reduce their anxiety.
One of the important insights of Fuchs' book is her distinction between what she calls "ordinary anxiety" and "stuck anxiety." She correctly points out that an Anxiety Disorder is the only mental health condition that does not have a separate name from the emotion that is most associated with it. For instance, "sadness" is the emotional experience, but "Clinical Depression" is the diagnosis, whereas "anxiety" is both the emotion and the diagnosis. This makes it very confusing for both clients and therapists to discern the difference between normal or "ordinary anxiety" and what Fuchs describes as "debilitating anxiety." Ordinary anxiety is a natural and normal reaction to a real stressor or danger, and an anxious response to such a situation is functional and can even be life-saving. So it would be unhealthy and dangerous to "turn off" our "ordinary anxiety." However, "debilitating anxiety" is so intense and so out of proportion to the actual physical or psychological danger of a situation that it can undermine our ability to function, make decisions, solve problems, and interact with people. For some people, anxiety can make it difficult or impossible to hold a job or maintain relationships. So I believe Fuchs' distinction between ordinary anxiety and debilitating anxiety is extremely useful in helping clients normalize and validate their anxious responses but to be able to see when their anxiety is excessive or not appropriate to the actual situation.
My experience is that there is no "one size fits all" approach for anxiety. Anxiety caused by a challenging love relationship is very different than the anxiety caused by losing your job or being a new parent or receiving a cancer diagnosis or anxiety that is a symptom of PTSD after a sexual assault or due to serving in combat in the military. Because anxiety can stem from so many sources and situations, each person deserves a personalized approach that is thoughtfully tailored to meet their needs as well as to be culturally appropriate. And whether you are an individual trying to manage your own anxiety or a therapist hoping to better support your anxious clients, the more tools you have in your toolbox, the better. As a result, I believe Fuchs' book can be extremely useful and is a worthy addition to your mental health bookshelf.