Customer Reviews

False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear

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We live in a media-saturated culture, and that media is increasingly given to exploiting the most fantastic, the most gruesome, and the most dire in an effort to get ratings. If it bleeds, it leads. Similar impulses tend to dominate political speech - rhetoric for calling people to war on terrorism, war on drugs, war on whatever the 'glamour' issue is can tend toward the worst-case scenario being heightened as the most likely occurrence. However, the truth is that the worst case scenario rarely happens, and even when it does, it pales by a realistic comparison to the way the world is as a whole.

For example, author Marc Siegel discusses the media and popular panic over the outbreak of SARS - one would think that this is the next worldwide pandemic just waiting to break, and public and governmental pressure was brought to bear to deal with this. In reality, few people died from SARS, it turned out that SARS was not that infectious, and in fact more people die of the regular flu virus annually than did of SARS. This is but one example of how we as a culture tend to get distracted by a high-profile issue.

The fear of people in the West about terrorism is a similar false alarm, in Siegel's estimation. It is still true that one is far more likely to get killed or injured in traffic accidents or workplace accidents than by any terrorism related; to devote one's resources (physical and psychological) toward an event unlikely to happen to the exclusion of dealing with the likely events is a problem our society increasingly faces.

Siegel's plea is that we as a society and as a global community pay attention to those things that are more likely to happen (even if they aren't glamourous and don't play well in front of the camera) and not spend all our time and resources on the things we cannot change - a bit like the serenity prayer writ large (change the things we can, accept the things we can't, and have the wisdom to know the difference).

This is an important book.

Yea, we're all afraid of terrorism, diseases, death, and violence... but who would have guessed that the real threat to our health was the fear impulse spurred on by these nebulous and rare events? This book introduces us to the real stories behind the terrors - a welcome message in the midst of alarmist media and drug company marketing ploys. Siegel masterfully introduces us to the reality of the situation, and reminds us of the real issues that Americans face today - a message sorely missed and needed in our culture. An excellent read - and a welcome relief - for anyone living in today's culture of mass media sound bites and goverment issued terror alerts.

Dr. Marc Siegel teaches us that something has gone wildly wrong with our national psyche when we begin to believe that if something could possibly happen, then it is likely to happen. This epidemic of fear, as Siegel exposes, is often market driven--if it bleeds it leads, if it smells it sells.

Two primary negative results flow from the false alarm syndrome. First, we place all our national energy, money, and resources into emotionally hyped issues that provide little bang for the buck. Second, the chicken little, the sky is falling phenomenon causes us to become cynical about real warnings. The tragedy of ten of thousands refusing to evacuate the gulf coast during Katrina is proof positive of this negative result.

Reading this book should alert all of us to our need to stay alert. We must think for ourselves, and not let politicians and the self-serving media drive us into overdrive. We need to bring rationality to our emotionality. "False Alarm" offers the intellectual medicine and emotional prescription necessary to return us to national mental health.

Reviewer: Dr. Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming, "Beyond the Suffering."

There is a lot to learn from historical perspective - if only we could learn it while the history is happening. This book helps accomplish exactly that. Siegel examines personal and societal fear through a physician's eye - first studying and understanding the mechanisms which we experience as fear, and then examining and diagnosing how we've been using those mechanisms. The perspective and lessons are insightful and useful, making this a worthwhile read. It is also an easy read, peppered with case studies and stories which make it enjoyable while addressing this serious subject.

Dr. Siegel has performed a true service, not only to the people most susceptible to fear and hype, but the real culprits in this convoluted game of media hysteria, the fear mongers themselves. They have frightened scores of us with their hypothesis, calculations and scenarios. Then commensurate to dancing on the backs of the bruised, they offer no solace or guidance when questioned. This fatuous reporting serves only to heighten fears and creates fragmented and unconstructive reactions. In this thought provoking, calming and ultimately factual accountings of popular focal points of frenzy, he has systematically been able to present the "evidence" in a succinct, albeit realistic fashion. This book should be required reading for all, especially those who find themselves gripped with the purposeful sense of hopelessness ingrained by our media outlets. Thank you Doctor Siegel for your reassuring words and true accountings. Finally an outlet that champions the effort to once again breathe the sweet air stemming from peace of mind.

With all the sensationalism and relentless obfuscation of the realities of life by the media I found this an exhillarating and thought provoking book. There's more..., but I'm sure you'll read and revisit this book again and again once it's prominently displayed on your bookshelf. Worth every penny....

Every time I watch news on television I think about this book, and the lessons Dr. Siegel teaches about critical analysis. We see the parades of experts hyping the problems that they study, without disclaimers about their potential conflicts of interest. Politicians want to look strong in the face of a crisis, whether or not the resulting actions are a rational use of resources. Hysteria draws people to watch the 24-hour news channels obsessively. (People with no particular ties to the Gulf Coast have told me they watched around the clock before, during, and after Katrina and Rita, and they looked haggard.) Marc Siegel doesn't deny that bad things happen, but he puts things in perspective. This book is an extremely well-written users' manual for dealing with fear. The author is a physician, and he draws on that expertise, but the prose style is very accessible. Recommended for anyone who wants to be well informed but not overloaded by false alarms.

A refreshing commentary on what fear of the improbable has cost our society. I loved the advice on taking aspirin instead of every overhyped new drug that comes along. Our health is vastly better than that of our ancestors, yet if anything we're more worried about our health than they were.
Siegel missed talking about what I think is one of the most oversold fears in modern America: sexual predators attacking children. This is not to say that children don't get molested; they sometimes do. But teaching them that they are in danger whenever they go anywhere alone is pointless and harmful. My own husband is terrified of letting our eight-year-old play outside or walk to school unsupervised because "something might happen." Hundreds of kids at his school are driven there, even though they live within a mile of the school, because parents are so fearful. Unfortunately, children are selected as victims precisely because they are vulnerable. Vulnerability is part of their nature. The actual science on the subject that I've seen tends to show that the most effective measures tend NOT to involve scaring children, or indeed talking about molestation at all, but rather to build the social skills of children. I would hope that we could take a similar approach to handling other similarly overhyped fears.

This book is about fear. I'm writing this as Hurricane Rita is headed towards the Gulf Coast somewhere. Hurricanes happen. They come in all along the Gulf Coast. Katrina came in to New Orleans, well, actually it didn't hit New Orleans but the high water came. (Politicians don't like to spend money on things like maintenance of the levies.)

Now comes Rita. Last night Rita was headed to Galveston. A million people left. Now Rita is projected to hit somewhere quite a ways east of Galveston. The western side of a hurricane is usually beautiful weather. The million people will decide that they shouldn't have gone through the effort (a normal 2 hour drive took 12 hours). Over the next few years the whole thing will have faded into the past. Ten years from now, another hurricane will come in that way. People won't leave.

Dr. Siegel says that our fears come from three sources:

The Government - if politicians can create a crisis and then fix it ....
The Media - the hype about Rita today is nothing less than fantastic.
The Big Drug Companies - How many ads have you seen on TV lately about illnesses that you never even heard of before?

Terrorism, yes it killed about 3,000 people one day in 2001. But we kill about 4,000 every month in automobile accidents. Why are we so concerned about terrorism (making airline flights impossibly difficult - go pay cash for a one way ticket and watch what happens to you) and there are no thoughts at all about making the cars and the roads safer?

It's a funny world, and Dr. Siegel tries to bring a bit of sanity to our lives. I'd write more, but I've got to go see my doctor about this drug I saw advertised last night.

The nation's media sells fear in almost every aspect of our lives from the next thunderstorm to the war on terror. Dr. Siegel's book is prime reading for the defense of the onslaught of predicated fear. Our nation's military industrial complex was fueled by decades on the fear associated to the "cold war" and how the Soviet Union was going to conquer America. Now, to replace that global fear we are bombarded with fear about terrorism. This superlative book is the antidote for America's new culture of the promotion of fear.