The Worry Cure: Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You (Hardcover)

by Robert L. Leahy (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
For "highly worried people," or those who suffer from the "what-if disease," Leahy (president of the International Association of Cognitive Therapy and author of Cognitive Therapy Techniques: A Practitioner's Guide) presents a systematic, accessible self-help guide to gaining control over debilitating anxiety. Leahy is an expert in changing thought processes, and he walks worriers step-by-step through problems in the way they think, with pointers on how to change these biases. For self-assessment, he provides several questionnaires to take your worry profile, including estimations of your, personal beliefs on self and relationships, and your ability to tolerate uncertainty. The author then outlines a seven-step worry-reduction plan: beginning with identifying productive and unproductive worry, progressing to improving skills for accepting reality, challenging worried thinking and learning to harness unpleasant emotions such as fear or anger. With numerous examples, Leahy also covers the broad life anxieties that may spark dysfunctional thinking: relationships, health, money and work. Following Leahy's steps involves keeping emotion diaries, answering a battery of questions to monitor and challenge worries and maintaining regular vigilance over your thoughts. Those who can summon the discipline and commitment to stick to Leahy's program might find some relief.
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Review
Selected as one of the top 8 self-help books of all-time in SELF Magazine

“Dr. Leahy’s The Worry Cure should have been titled, ‘Seven Simple Steps to a Stress-Free Life.’ This book offers practical and powerful tools to reverse your worry and transform the quality of your life.” —Anthony Robbins, author of Awaken the Giant Within and Unlimited Power

“Highly instructive and accessible . . . Worriers will find relief here.” —Janis Abrahms Spring, Ph.D., author of After the Affair and How Can I Forgive You?

“I heartily recommend this book to everybody who is worried . . . and that includes practically all of us. Eminent psychologist Dr. Robert L. Leahy has designed an easy-to-follow program pinpointing unproductive worries across the broad spectrum of relationships, work, health, and finances. In elegant style, he shows how to neutralize and even eliminate them.” —Aaron T. Beck, M.D., president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research and university professor emeritus of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania

“An excellent book. The self-assessment questionnaires narrow down each reader’s personal domains of worry, giving them a leg up on making life-altering changes, and the easy-to-understand step-by-step procedures for overcoming worry provide useful tools that are research-based.” —Monica Ramirez Basco, Ph.D., author of Never Good Enough and coauthor of Getting Your Life Back

“Clear and easy to follow . . . like having Dr. Leahy, one of the foremost psychologists in the world, as your personal therapist. His superb insights and understanding of worry allow him to reasonably and logically address this often unreasonable and illogical problem.” —Arthur Freeman, Ed.D., A.B.P.P., coauthor of Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda and The 10 ... --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Harmony (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1400097657
• ISBN-13: 978-1400097654
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #71,166 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Lives Up to the Title: "The Worry Cure", December 12, 2006

By	Rocco B. Rubino "Rocco R." (Ohio) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Worry Cure: Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You (Paperback)

Dr. Robert Leahy is an emminent cognitive-behavioral therapist who has written a number of highly-acclaimed professional texts on the subject, to include a workbook on techniques for the practioner, a work on overcoming resistance, and dealing with "roadblocks" in therapy.

That being said, The Worry Cure is a distillation of his works for mass-market publication, and in doing so, has performed a valuable public health service.

While Dr. Leahy does not distinguish between "worry," which is not a clinical diagnosis, and "anxiety," which is, I came away from this book feeling strongly that it would greatly benefit those who, like me, suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

Dr. Leahy begins the book by having the reader take a self-assessment. A number of questionnaires are designed to create your "worry profile, to include estimations of your, personal beliefs on self and relationships, and your ability to tolerate uncertainty.

Dr. Leahy then lays out a seven-step worry-reduction plan, which begins with identifying productive and unproductive worry, progressing to improving skills for accepting reality, challenging worried thinking and learning to harness unpleasant emotions such as fear or anger.

Leahy uses a number of case examples to cover the broad life anxieties that may spark dysfunctional thinking: relationships, health, money and work. Following Leahy's steps involves keeping emotion diaries, answering a battery of questions to monitor and challenge worries and maintaining regular vigilance over your thoughts.

This is not a typical, frothy, feel-good, self-help book that you can run through and "tada" feel better. You will need discipline and commitment to your recovery to fllow Dr Leahy's perscriptions.

Then, and only then can you expect relief to be on the way!

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars very very helpful to me, November 9, 2006

By	Caroline (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Worry Cure: Seven Steps to Stop Worry from Stopping You (Paperback)

I was going through a difficult time in my life and someone recommended this book to me. I must confess I let it sit on my shelf for three months---I think because I was afraid I would find it too hard to use. But when I began reading the book--especially the first chapter-- I knew immediately that Dr. Leahy understood what I was going through. His style of writing made it easy for me to see myself in a new light. I also learned a lot about why I worry---and I am thankful that people have done research on this. Just as he says, I assume that if I don't know something for sure then it must be bad and I am constantly jumping to conclusions. Dr Leahy gave me a seven step program to handle my worries. The first step that I immediately found helpful was to realize that there is a difference between productive and unproductive worry. This was a relief because he wasn't telling me to stop worrying and be happy. And he gives a list of things to do when my worries start coming to me. I began to use the seven steps and I began feeling a little better in a few days. and then I began feeling a lot better. It wasn't perfect--which is another thing I realized was behind my worry. Dr. Leahy also discussed a fascinating area of research on worry---that people who worry are actually avoiding emotion. I began to recognize myself in that step, too. I was afraid of having bad feelings--I was afraid that I would get so depressed I couldn't stand it. I realized that I might have some good reasons to feel sad or anxious at times--but I didn't need to worry to get rid of those feelings. Another thing that was helpful is the chapter on how to handle failure. Being a perfectionist I always was afraid of failure. The author gives twenty things to say to yourself when you think of failure.
I also enjoyed the direct and fun style of writing. I felt that he was sitting here talking to me and that he seems to have a sense of humor but also a sense of understanding how people struggle.
There are so many helpful techniques and ideas in this book that I actually bought the paperback after I had the hardcover because I wanted to carry the book around with me. I keep reminding myself that worry is something I've been doing most of my life (I'm 43), but that I now have a lot of tools that I can use. Thanks for writing this book.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Better than Dr. Phil, December 14, 2005

By	S. D Temple "SDTemple" (Iowa City) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Bob Leahy has managed to write something unique and important in his newest book. "The Worry Cure" is grounded in the science of psychology, while written in a breezy style that will be accessible to professional and lay audiences alike. Dr. Leahy's book succeeds in being wise and at times very, very funny. His profile of how to make your worry worse, for example, is based on the most current research findings about worry, but with a presentation that made me laugh out loud at times. Dr. Leahy cuts through the maze of scholarly studies and teaches the public practical strategies for coping with life's difficulties, without the added misery brought on by out-of-control worry. It is rare for a scholar to write so well for the general public; it is even more rare for today's many popular psychologists to ground their work in good science. Bob Leahy does both, and an increasingly worried public will benefit from this very fine work.