About this item
You wish you didn’t spend as much time worrying as you do, but you just can’t seem to help it. Worrying feels like second nature. It’s what helps you solve your problems and prevents you from making mistakes. It’s what motivates you to be prepared—if you didn’t worry, things might get out of hand. Worry protects you, prepares you, and keeps you safe.Is it working? Or is it making you tense, tired, anxious, uncertain—and more worried?For more than twenty-five years, Dr. Robert L. Leahy has successfully helped thousands of people defeat the worry that is holding them back. The Worry Cure is his new, comprehensive approach to help you identify, challenge, and overcome all types of worry, using the most recent research and his more than two decades of experience in treating patients.
About the Author
I guess I was destined to become a psychologist---given the experiences that I had. My parents were divorced when I was an infant--my father was an alcoholic and he was unable to support us. We moved back to New Haven Connecticut, lived with my Italian grandparents, and then moved to an Irish working-class housing project. We were poor, but we always had kids to play with and we learned the values of honesty, perseverance, fairness, and keeping your eye on the prize. When I wasn't playing basketball, I was reading everything. My mom told me that she couldn't afford to send me to college, but I insisted I would get a scholarship. Fast forward--- I got my undergraduate degree and PhD at Yale. Later I did my postdoctoral training with Aaron Beck, the founder of cognitive therapy. I have been interested in helping people overcome depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and relationship issues. Someone asked me, "Don't you get depressed talking to depressed people? ", and I respond, "There's nothing more rewarding than helping people overcome depression". I've written and edited 27 other books for psychologists-- books on depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, etc. I lecture throughout the world and I am excited that several of my books have been adapted as training texts at leading schools. The great appeal of cognitive and behavioral therapy is that it actually works. People get better. There is hope--even if you feel hopeless.I have also been fortunate to be able to play a role in professional organizations that promote cognitive therapy. I am the President of the International Association of Cognitive Therapy, President-elect of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy and I serve on a number of international and national committees, boards, and journals. My colleagues and I are helping to coordinate the training of cognitive therapists in Beijing, China, and at The American Institute for Cognitive Therapy we are training psychiatrists and psychologists in cognitive therapy in the New York area. I began working on the popular audience book, The Worry Cure, a few years ago. I decided to write an "honest" and "informed" book---one that drew on the best work by the top people worldwide. I have identified seven steps to overcome worry-- each step reflecting not only my own ideas but the work of leading experts. I am honored that many of them in USA, Canada and the UK have told me personally how much they appreciate the work reflected in this book. I owe a great deal of gratitude to the leading researchers throughout the world who really made this book possible. The Worry Cure tries to provide you with a serious understanding about the nature of worry--- the intolerance of uncertainty, the over-valuation of thinking, the avoidance of emotion, procrastination, the sense of urgency, and the maladaptive beliefs underlying your worry. I try to provide you with a full-range of self-hel
