Hijacked by Your Brain: How to Free Yourself When Stress Takes Over

by Julian Ford, Jon Wortmann

Overview

What do you do when stress takes over your life, and nothing you do to feel better seems to work?

When you...

• Melt down over the smallest things
• Get angry at the people you love
• Choke under pressure
• Feel tense and worried all the time
• Procrastinate or give up in the face of a crucial deadline
• Use food, alcohol, gambling, or other addictions to cope
• Dwell on the past when you just want to move on

Hijacked by Your Brain is the first book to explain how stress changes your brain and what you can do about it. Stress is not the enemy. In order to reduce stress, you have to understand why your brain causes you to feel stress and how you can take advantage of it to handle the high-stress people and situations in your life.

This groundbreaking book reveals the step missing in most stress reduction guides. We can't stop stress, but we can control the effect stress has on us.

Hijacked by Your Brain is the user's manual for your brain that shows you how to free yourself when stress takes over.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781402273285
Publisher:	Sourcebooks
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Pages:	240
Sales rank:	1,004,072
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Julian Ford is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and Director of the University of Connecticut Health Center Child Trauma Clinic and Center for Trauma Response Recovery and Preparedness (www.ctrp.org), the creator of the TARGET© treatment model for adult, adolescent, and child traumatic stress disorders, and CEO of Advanced Trauma Solutions, Inc., the exclusive licensed provider of the TARGET© treatment model.

Jon Wortmann is an author, minister, and consultant to educational, non-profit, start-up, and Fortune 100 organizations. His first book, Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence (McGraw-Hill, 2009) spent six months as one of MGH’s top fifty books in Asia. His second book, The Three Commitments of Leadership, will be published by McGraw Hill in October of 2011.

Table of Contents

Author's Note vii

Introduction ix

Part I Stress and the Brain 1

Chapter 1 The Survival Brain 3

Chapter 2 The Learning Brain 21

Chapter 3 The Goal: Cultivate an Optimal Brain 41

Part II The Missing Step in Stress Management: Focusing 57

Chapter 4 A Brief Introduction to SOS 59

Chapter 5 Step Back: Replacing Reactivity with Self-Regulation 69

Chapter 6 Orient: Regaining Your Inner Compass 77

Chapter 7 Self-Check: Reading Your Body's Dashboard 91

Chapter 8 When You Can't SOS: Recognize Triggers 109

Part III Three Ways to Orient before Stress Takes Over 125

Chapter 9 Empower Your Emotions 127

Chapter 10 Exercise Your Core Values 143

Chapter 11 Determine Your Optimal Goals 159

Part IV An Optimal Life 171

Chapter 12 Optimize Your Choices 173

Chapter 13 Make a Contribution 185

Chapter 14 Anticipating the Pitfalls on the Way to an Optimal Life 203

Appendix A Further Reading 213

Appendix B A Summary of SOS 217

Appendix C A Summary of the FREEDOM Skills 221

Acknowledgments 223

About the Authors 224

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"A PTSD expert explains how stress sets off your brain - and how you can learn to diffuse it." - ELLE

Editorial Reviews

"[Ford and Wortmann] teach the average person how to prepare for stressful life events through preventative actions—standing back, orienting, and self-checking—and pave the way for a productive response to the stressor. ... will be readily absorbed by the average person who needs assistance with tension." — Library Journal

"A PTSD expert explains how stress sets off your brain - and how you can learn to diffuse it." — ELLE

From the Publisher