Hope and Help for Your Nerves [Hardcover]

Claire Weekes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1969

Dr Claire Weekes offers a practical programme for replacing fear and anxiety with understanding and self-confidence. It should be of interest to those suffering from panic attacks, stress, agoraphobia, stage fright and shyness.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 183 pages
• Publisher: Hawthorn Books Inc. (1969)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0006BYSQ0
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (145 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #626,813 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

311 of 345 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I WAS AT A BREAKING POINT! This 25 Cent Book SAVED My Life!, February 21, 2005

By 

Peter V. Cannice "Peter Vincent Cannice of Sc... (Scottsdale, Arizona USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Hope and Help for Your Nerves (Signet) (Paperback)

I was in my early 20's and experiencing severe anxiety that consumed me. I had a medical education but was never taught about panic attacks or severe anxiety states. As a matter of fact, the medical school that I attended seemed to cover just about everything there was to know about psychiatry (at least at the level that I was currently at) with the exception of the sort of anxiety that can consume you and destroy your life.

I was having these attacks of severe anxiety, odd thoughts would race around my mind, my heart would race at rates as high as 200 beats per minute, I'd sweat profusely, my arms and legs would go numb, at times I would fall to the ground and pass out, and I felt as though I was coming out of my own skin. And the people around me couldn't usually tell that anything was going on. I became an expert at hiding this illness that I had no definition for. I would have done anything to find a cure for this "illness" I had. There were numerous times that I was convinced that I was having a heart attack. I'd run to the clinic at the school I was going to and be seen by a resident who would assure me that my heart was fine. Perhaps I had a flutter in my heart or something wrong with my thyroid gland or my adrenals. Tests showed I was fine. One after another, test after test, I'd be told that everything checked out just fine.

But I was dying inside. I felt crippled in a horrible way. It became so bad that I feared some public places. Mys favorite pizza place where I'd visit about 3 times per week, at the local mall in Des Moines, was always a place of joy and respit for me. The food was great and it was so enjoyable to be around fellow Italians. All was fine at the pizza parlor until the day I had a panic attack while waiting in line for my order. I fell to the floor and begged my friends to take me out of the mall. I just had to get outside to get some air. I thought I was losing my mind.

After a very long battle and after many visits to therapists, psychiatrists and other healtcare providers, I went to a meeting that was listed in the paper for people with anxiety. I could barely make it to the door, but was assisted by a friend who was trying to help me. The meeting was no very enjoyable, however on the way out of the meeting place I saw a book that was on the table. It was on sale for just 25 cents! I read the back of the book, entitled "Hope and Help for Your Nerves", by Dr. Claire Weekes, and found enough information to grab my attention. I was at the end of my rope. I had no idea that this 25 cent investment would change my life forever.

I've never read a book so fast in my life. I started to read it on the way home from the meeting I attended for people with anxiety. I was happy to get home as home was my "safe place" and the breeding grounds for my agoraphobia. By the end of that night I had read the book 2 times. I connected with absolutely everything in the book. Medicine hadn't worked. Psychotherapy didn't help me. Religion wasn't paying off. Meditation couldn't touch my severe panic states.

Claire Weekes is to be commended for many things. I wish, deep down in my heart, that there was a way for me to contact her to let her know that she saved my sanity and probably my life too. The book was filled with information that made total sense to me. She described what was causing the anxiety states and precisely what was happening in my body. She also repeated that I'd never die from a panic attack. Actually, not a soul has ever died from a panic attack. It sure feels like you're about to die or lose your mind. But have faith as help is around the corner.

I would never suggest a book to help cure an illness unless I knew 100% that the information was true and helpful. I'm telling you that this book saved my life, saved my relationships and kept me from even thinking I was crazy. Less than one week after reading the book, I realized I had not had any panic attacks. I feared that they would sort of pop out of the blue and grab me when I wasn't watching out. But Claire Weekes even described this type of pre-panic anxiety states. Months later I had mastered how to deal with anxious situations and how to breathe through and accept my panic-should it happen again.

It doesn't matter how long you've been suffering from your anxiety disorder or panic state. It's not a situation where the length of time you've spent with the illness will determine the length of your recovery time. This is one of those special freebies in life. Everyone wins by reading Hope and Help for Your Nerves. I still find time to read it and I'm reminded each time that I'm going to be fine and that I will never die from one of these panic attacks and my fear of having an attack in public isn't realistic now that I've read the book.

I suggest this book for anyone who is suffering. Suffer no longer and purchase this book or check out a copy at the library. If money is a real issue, please email me and I will see if I can find a used copy for you. And for those people out there who have loved ones with anxiety problems or panic attacks-this book is perfect for you. There is plenty of information that will explain what your loved one is experiencing. It will also help you take care of yourself and allow you to not feel responsible.

Clearly, this is one of the best books I've ever read. It is the best of true non-fiction and has saved the sanity of more lives than I can imagine. I would never pitch anything I didn't believe in. And this small book has added more to my life than I could ever have dreamed of. I went from being agoraphobic and locked in my home, to hosting telethons in front of thousands of people. It really works and I wish you all the luck in the world. No matter what your situation, you will find peace in reading this book.

Please feel free to email me or start a discussion through Amazon.com. I know what you are going through. I, too, was where you are today. Take a deep breathe and know that this will pass, what is happening is natural and can be controlled and healed forever.

My warm wishes to all. And if anyone knows of a way for me to meet Dr. Claire Weekes, the author who saved my life, please let me know.

I sure hope this review helped in some way.
Peter V. Cannice
Scottsdale, Arizona
Email: [e-mail]

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very helpful, August 7, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Hope and Help for Your Nerves (Signet) (Paperback)

This book should be extremely helpful to anxiety-disorder sufferers. I would like to mention, though, that the "feelings of unreality" chapter is a little misleading, in that it suggests that the feelings will fade faster than they actually might. Weekes suggests feelings of unreality (also known as depersonalization neurosis) will fade in a few months if one remains active, despite the symptoms. (Remaining active despite the symptoms is the key.) It tends to take longer than a few months, and the symptoms tend not to fade, but lift in "layers." The symptoms will fade only very little, but then there will be a dramatic thinning of the symptoms all at once! It often takes a number of layers to lift before you are back to feeling normal. So don't get discouraged if you haven't seen progress despite being active. Because tomorrow may be the day when a layer lifts! Anyway, this book is very helpful for people. I would like to mention that the comedian/actor Steve Martin (as he's related in a 1980 "Playboy" interview and elsewhere) suffered from panic attacks for years when he was a writer for the "Smothers Brothers Show." He wouldn't go to movie theaters for years out of fear that he would suffer a panic attack in the theater. But then he read up on panic disorders, and was able to cure himself of them. He was cured of them so totally, that he was then able to go on and become a top comedian and then a movie star. If Steve Martin can cure himself of a crippling anxiety disorder, then so can you! And this book should help.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A timeless gift to those who suffer from the tormet of this illness. To all who struggle with serious anxiety/panic, please read, March 8, 2010

By 

SMSeattle (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hope and Help for Your Nerves (Signet) (Paperback)

My first episode of deep anxiety came upon me when I was 18 years old. There was much I didnt realize about myself, namely, that I had a far more sensitive conscience and a very powerful sensibility to right and wrong that my lifestyle was at deeps odds with. For 3 days I did not sleep, eat or have a moment of peace. Pure panic would not leave, ebbing and flowing in terrible ways. I thought this was perhaps what losing ones mind felt like and that a hospital was the next step for me. There was an immense amount of self-pity and if-onlys that moved through me. More than all else, no one could understand what I was saying. I would use words like anxiety and see people try to access stressful moments in their life only to realize they had no idea what this felt like.

Over the years these episodes have continued and for so long I used modern terminology to describe them, such as major depressive episode and other DSM terms. I would spend days and days searching the internet, reading blogs, articles and more and NEVER NEVER finding anything that sounded like what I was going through. I heard a lot about disorders, like GAD and it all pointed to mental illness. I have tried to avoid anti-depressants my whole life as wish to see if this pain has a purpose, and I do not wish to block it, but recently had decided to begin on a series due to how exhausted I was with a recent episode that has been on and off for a month. For so long I waded through my sub-concious, sought therapy, dug into my childhood, analyzed and analyzed and analyzed everything desperate to discover the cause and the root of this demon within. Just when I felt like I understood something, some new aspect of the problem would present itself and it was all back to the beginning.

For me, I never related to the panic attacks that I heard a lot about. There seemed to be a blurred line, but I never felt like I was dying, or like my heart was going to explode. I had cold sweats, and racing pulse, and heart beating out of my chest, but it lasted for hours, not minutes and panic attacks didnt sound like what I had, although MENTALLY I was in a full on panic often. This book clarifies the difference and the reasons why they are the same.

I offer this story because I believe after reading this book, that I was never alone. Due to the complexity of terms now and the fact that so much is simply labeled mental illness and disorders there is no help to be found for FACING our problems and our anxiety, just new ways to label things and new medications to help us not feel. The truth is that often times those who suffer from this illness are beautiful souls who feel the depth of beauty in this world more acutely than many others and this sensitivity is why they love so deeply, feel the pain of others as if it were their own and why they are the poets, artists, dreamers, inventors, who taste the stuff of God in every breath, yet these powers when out of balance can create madness and chaos because of our sensitivity. Understanding that this illness is all about the sympathetic nervous system being out of balance and fueled by thinking patterns that are destructive was huge for me. To learn to let a thought float, to accept it, and pass through it, no matter how uncomfortable it was was pure poetry to understand.

This book stands apart from ANYTHING else I have yet found. I am sure there is other useful material out there, but please get this book if you struggle with any kind of deep anxiety. We know how much this can hurt, and how it can be truly living hell to endure. Please begin the process of getting the help you need from a doctors whose life work lives on in each of us. Her love is plain, her concern so deeply felt even in the way she writes. She knows what it is to endure this, somehow she knows and more than this she gives the way out for those who are able to realize the truth of her words.

You are not alone. Remember it is often your beauty which can turn too deeply inward and creates over-sensitivity which when met with a serious problem/conflict can result in a nervous explosion. This is the way out, along with love from others, and the help of God where faith is already in place.