Book review
"Nearly 20 per cent of the adult inhabitants of the Land of Brave are as anxious as I am, in one way or another, to a clinically significant degree. Phobic, some of them; others, prone to panic attacks; generalized anxiety, which is my label; somatic hysteria, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder—an array of thorny cloaks to wear," writes Patricia Pearson in the first chapter of A Brief History of Anxiety [Yours & Mine].
And this before the recession.
Anxiety has been identified as both as symptom of menopause and a condition that can have a negative impact on managing those symptoms. And other than the odd self-help book it's not a topic that has received the same thoughtful investigation as other mental health disorders such as depression.
Part memoir, part cautionary tale, and part an investigation into the history and geography of anxiety, A Brief History of Anxiety is oddly—soothing.
Pearson is an experienced writer who ranges with ease from her own personal response to anxiety (nerves about the flu pandemic lead to the delivery of freeze-dried butter, as one example) and her desire not to pass her anxieties on to her children, to some of the bizarre ways societies have handled anxiety in the past and a look at cultures with lower rates of anxiety. She places anxiety within various cultural contexts and leads the reader to appreciate some of the stranger answers—like a 1338 trial in southern France where locusts were convicted of the crime of interfering with the human food supply chain.
It's this combination of seriousness and the absurd that makes A Brief History of Anxiety a very readable book. It's odd to say that a book about anxiety made me laugh, but it did—and that lead me towards the next thoughtful (and occasionally scary, particularly when reading Pearson's experience with medication) passage.
Pearson also examines our own society to ask the questions we might ask ourselves in the middle of the night were we not obsessively searching the Internet for whether our aches and pains are symptoms of cancer or perhaps an auto-immune disorder. Is the modern workplace a major cause of anxiety, especially for women? Have we cut ourselves off from the rites and rituals that used to calm our ancestors and which still lower anxiety in other parts of the world? And are drug companies too quick to offer a cure that may be worse than the disease?
For anyone interested in an insightful look at issues around anxiety, I recommend taking the time to join Pearson in her look at the condition. But buyer beware: This is not a self-help book—and those looking for simple answers or a step-by-step management programme will not find much help in its pages.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Pearson late last year and I asked her about responses to the book and also a bit about her own personal experiences. Here's the Q&A.
