The Sky Is Falling: Understanding and Coping With Phobias, Panic, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders [Hardcover]

Raeann Dumont (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1996

This work provides an account of the lives, thoughts and struggles of people who suffer from phobias, panic attacks and obsessive-compulsive disorders. Using cognitive therapy and supported exposure techniques, the author identifies anxiety-producing thoughts and shows how they can be managed.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Professional therapist Dumont writes for those millions of people whose lives are being "blighted by irrational fears." Whether a person suffers from some unnamed terror, an incapacitating anxiety, or a behavior they can't stop, Dumont believes that all are victims of "magic thinking," in which a conclusion has been formed without a rational thought process. She details this type of thinking and how it can come to dominate people's lives. Case studies of sufferers are presented, including a woman who experiences panic attacks in public places; a man terrified of driving over bridges; and a teenage boy who stops eating for fear of being poisoned. The last section gives pragmatic advice for recognizing fallacious thinking and setting both short-term and long-range goals to relieve these debilitating reactions. This book should also be quite helpful for those trying to aid someone with these problems. Brian McCombie

Review

A warm, informative and practical book. . . . Eminently useful to anxiety sufferers and therapists alike. (Valerie Raskin, M.D. ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (January 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393038483
• ISBN-13: 978-0393038484
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,280,689 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars continues where "the boy who couldn't stop washing" left off, November 24, 1996

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sky Is Falling: Understanding and Coping With Phobias, Panic, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (Hardcover)

For the person who suffers from the anguish of panic, horrific images, anxiety attacks, obsessive - compulsive ideation, and uncontrollable fear, here is a book which not only presents a sensitive perspective on these highly disruptive personal problems, which complicate our daily lives, here also is a "help" the sufferer can use without being only dependent on medication only, or many, namy expensive hours in a theraphists office. Raeann's insightful presentations and worksheets, help people to identify specific "triggers" that set them off, then using several different methods learn how to manage the fear, panic and anxiety those "triggers" produce. As a lifelong sufferer of Anxierty, Panic and Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder, here for the first time is a book which truely talks to the sufferer. I can't recoment this book highly enough

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Misinformation about OCD, January 7, 2007

By 

Emma - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sky Is Falling: Understanding and Coping with Phobias, Panic, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (Paperback)

I found this book troubling, because right from the start it presents inaccurate information about the treatment and cause of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Early on in the book, the author writes the following about the "in vivo" therapy she does with clients with OCD. This therapy exposes the client to a feared object/situation/etc. with the support of the therapist.

"The idea was that I, as the therapist, could demonstrate that there really was no objective danger in any of these things or situations, and help the fearful person to confront each of the items on the list and see that nothing terrible happend. When we had worked all the way through the list, the person would see the folly of these fears and no longer be fearful." And then she goes on to say how most of the time this works to cure the fear.

Exposure to feared objects/situations is an accepted and highly regarded part of treatment for OCD. However, the purpose is not to show the client that their fear is irrational or unecessary and knowing this does not cure OCD. In fact, in most cases people with OCD recognize that their fears are excessive and unecessary - but despite this knowledge they remain powerful, disturbing, and sometimes disabling. Therapy through exposure is intended to give the client opportunities to learn to live with the extreme anxieties of these situations and to learn healthy ways to cope with them. You CANNOT convince someone with OCD that their obsessive anxieties are in error and thereby cure them. That is not the nature of the disorder or the intent of the widely-used exposure therapy many Cognitive-Behavioral Therapists employ.

The second major red flag you will run into right away in this book is how the author keeps giving examples of OCD "caused" by faulty parenting. (Her first example is that her mother's excessive washing of her as a child caused her to have OCD and the second is about a mother who inadvertantly taught her daughter that thinking about someone dying could make it happen.) Though the exact causes of OCD are still uknown, it is NOT an accepted theory in the modern-day that faulty parenting can cause OCD.

Though I am sure there are interesting aspects to this book, I would recommend you look elsewhere for more accurate information on Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raeann Dumont is able to convey...., March 25, 2002

By 

L. Quido "quidrock" (Tampa, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Sky Is Falling: Understanding and Coping with Phobias, Panic, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (Paperback)

the elements of her therapeutic practice with those suffering from anxiety disorders in a way that helps the sufferers and their families understand what they are going through.

Dr. Dumont coins the term "magic thinking" to convey how sufferers grow convinced that a disaster in the making is real, is happening to them, without the benefit of rational thought. Phobias and obsessive compulsive disorders are brought to the forefront through case studies, and in each, Dr. Dumont not only describes the behaviors, she describes the accompanying thoughts.
It is an interesting book to explore, because she has been able to put into words how some people can depart from reality, despite their intellectual capacity. She helps make their fears real, not only for them, but for their support systems.

There is an excellent part of the book that is devoted to a tolerance and treatment program; and also a description of the role of medication and other resources for those afflicted by anxiety in this fundamentally life-shattering way. It is an excellent introduction for those who need the treatment to understand why a therapist trained to help them will be able to help them break through the barriers, but it is also a realistic awakening that this is a life-changing regimen that they will need to practice to insure that they gain control of their lives forever, and are not controlled instead, by the phobia or the OCD.

One of the very best books ever written to gain insight on panic disorders, Dr. Dumont expands our sensitivity and awareness to the need for cognitive behavior therapy.

Simply a must read for OCD-sufferers and their friends!