Face Your Fears: A Proven Plan to Beat Anxiety, Panic, Phobias, and Obsessions

by David Tolin

Overview

Reclaim your life from crippling anxiety with this revolutionary step-by-step approach

Nearly a third of all people will suffer from severe or debilitating fears—phobias, panic attacks, obsessions, worries, and more—over the course of a lifetime. Now Dr. David Tolin—a renowned psychologist and scientist at the Institute of Living and Yale featured on such programs as The OCD Project, Hoarders, The Dr. Oz Show, and Oprah—offers help for nearly every type of anxiety disorder. Dr. Tolin explains what fear really is, why you should face—not avoid—your fear, and how to beat your fear using gradual exposure techniques. Practical action steps and exercises help you learn this unique approach to facing fear without crutches or other unhelpful things found in many other programs in order to achieve a life that is free of debilitating anxieties.

• Self-help guide that gives you the tools to take charge and overcome your fears
• Written by a leading authority on anxiety and based on the latest research
• Provides a practical, step-by-step plan for beating many different kinds of fears—including social anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorder, and phobias

Face Your Fears will change the way you think about fear and what to do about it. This up-to-date, evidence-based, and user-friendly self-help guide to beating phobias and overcoming anxieties walks you step by step through the process of choosing courage and freedom over fear.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118016732
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	01/01/2012
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Dr. DAVID TOLIN is the founding Director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Yale UniversitySchool of Medicine. In the last few years, he has been a guest on Good Morning America, the Today show, and The Dr. Oz Show and also appeared on Oprah. Also the coauthor of Buried in Treasures, Dr. Tolin hosted the eight-part VH1 series The OCD Project and was a featured expert on the A&E series Hoarders. He has served as a scientific reviewer and principal investigator for the National Institutes of Health.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Part I. The Face Your Fears Program to Beat Anxiety

1 Faces of Fear 3

2 What Is Fear? 27

3 Why Face Fears? 46

4 The Principles of Exposure 69

5 Planning Exposures 80

6 Conducting Exposures 102

7 Eliminating Safety Behaviors 113

8 Addressing Scary Thoughts, Examining the Evidence 132

Part II. Facing the Different Kinds of Fear

9 Beating Fears of Specific Situations or Objects 157

10 Beating Fears of Body Sensations 168

11 Beating Social and Performance Fears 182

12 Beating Obsessive Fears 192

13 Beating Excessive Worries 203

14 Beating Post-Traumatic Fears 214

Part III. Face Your Fears for Life

15 Tracking Your Progress 229

16 The Long Run 242

17 Supplementing the Face Your Fears Program 259

Appendix 275

Notes 277

Resources 279

Index 283

Editorial Reviews

An expert in anxiety disorders, Dr. Tolin has drawn on his extensive scientific knowledge, clinical wisdom, and experience to make the most effective treatment for fear and anxiety accessible in this terrific user-friendly self-help book. If you suffer from problems with panic, anxiety, or phobias, look no further—this is the book for you. Use it on your own or work through it with a therapist. You can beat anxiety and fear by facing your fears.” —Jonathan S. Abramowitz, Ph.D., author of Getting Over OCD; Professor and Associate Chair of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

“Exposure therapy really works for people with anxiety. Dr. David Tolin explains why it works but more importantly, he shows how to make it work for you in this clear, step-by-step guide to facing your fears so you can get better from anxiety.”—Elizabeth DuPont Spencer, LCSW-C, and Caroline DuPont, M.D., coauthors of The Anxiety Cure and The Anxiety Cure for Kids: A Guide for Parents

“Filled with powerful, clear, and evidence-based strategies to alleviate fear and enhance life satisfaction, this book will change lives.” —Lizabeth Roemer, Ph.D., coauthor of The Mindful Way through Anxiety, Professor of Psychology, University of Massachusetts Boston

“Dr. David Tolin is a master at helping people understand why they are afraid and helping them overcome the problem. This easy-to-read guide blends compelling personal stories with up-to-date methods for assessing fears and obsessions, understanding them, and fixing the problem at its source.” —Gail Steketee, Ph.D., author of Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things, Dean and Professor, Boston UniversitySchool of Social Work

From the Publisher