Coward

Subtitle: Why We Get Anxious & What We Can Do About It

Author: Tim Clare

Genre: Non-fiction, Self-Help

Format: Digital Purchase via Kindle

Publish Date: May 2022

Read: April 2023

Favorite Quote: Anxiety works by anticipating and inhibiting. It says: Don’t do that, you’ll get hurt. Don’t do that, you’ll be disappointed. Don’t do that, you’ll embarrass yourself. Anxiety likes routine. It likes predictability. It likes knowing outcomes.

Synopsis: Coward: Why We Get Anxious & What We Can Do About It is, quite simply, a book about anxiety. Clare, a sufferer of anxiety, shares his journey of attempting to overcome his chronic anxiety and panic attacks. Through a variety of techniques, including magic mushrooms, light electroshock, and hypnosis, Clare works through anxiety on a personal level while explaining it for his readers. Covering things from childhood trauma, diet and exercise, and genetics, Clare attempts to find the root cause of human anxiety to help other sufferers.

Why does this book beguile? In Coward: Why We Get Anxious & What We Can Do About It, Tim Clare’s writing is dry, sarcastic, witty, and approachable. I laughed out loud several times throughout the book. Clare makes a formerly-taboo topic, like anxiety, discussion-worthy, and even endearing. I appreciate Clare’s candor regarding his personal experience with anxiety and his rigor in interviewing specialists from around the world. Not only does he interview renowned doctors, he even mentions where he thinks the doctors’ biases are or where they contradict themselves. Coward: Why We Get Anxious & What We Can Do About It is a helpful, funny, well-researched book to encourage readers to better manage the ever-present health struggle of anxiety.

Rating: 5/5

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Book Club Reading Guide: Coward: Why We Get Anxious & What We Can Do About It by Tim Clare