My Age of Anxiety

Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind

By: Scott Stossel

Narrated by: Michael Goldstrom

A riveting, revelatory, and moving account of the author’s struggles with anxiety, and of the history of efforts by scientists, philosophers, and writers to understand the condition.

As recently as thirty-five years ago, anxiety did not exist as a diagnostic category. Today, it is the most common form of officially classified mental illness. Scott Stossel gracefully guides us across the terrain of an affliction that is pervasive yet too often misunderstood.

Drawing on his own long-standing battle with anxiety, Stossel presents an astonishing history, at once intimate and authoritative, of the efforts to understand the condition from medical, cultural, philosophical, and experiential perspectives. He ranges from the earliest medical reports of Galen and Hippocrates, through later observations by Robert Burton and Søren Kierkegaard, to the investigations by great nineteenth-century scientists, such as Charles Darwin, William James, and Sigmund Freud, as they began to explore its sources and causes, to the latest research by neuroscientists and geneticists. Stossel reports on famous individuals who struggled with anxiety, as well as on the afflicted generations of his own family.

His portrait of anxiety reveals not only the emotion’s myriad manifestations and the anguish anxiety produces but also the countless psychotherapies, medications, and other (often outlandish) treatments that have been developed to counteract it. Stossel vividly depicts anxiety’s human toll - its crippling impact, its devastating power to paralyze - while at the same time exploring how those who suffer from it find ways to manage and control it.My Age of Anxiety is learned and empathetic, humorous and inspirational, offering the listener great insight into the biological, cultural, and environmental factors that contribute to the affliction.

©2014 Scott Stossel (P)2014 Random House Audio

Enthralling Magnum Opus

Absolutely essential listening or reading by anyone who has ever experienced the wide range of troubles call Anxiety.
It's an encyclopedic and engrossing story that is sometimes endearingly
Comic. Mr Stossel will remain a giant in this field by sharing his entire personal story - we can never thank him enough.

Fascinating read!

While I suffer anxiety, my case isn't anywhere in the ballpark as Scott's. but this book gave me hope and so much information that I highly recommend it to anyone who has experienced anxiety or phobias. Very interesting and well worth the time. I feel so educated. Thank you Scott, for being so open and honest.

as good as they get.

extremely well written, great narrator, comprehensive without being pedantic, applicable to real life. One of the best books I've read/listened to on this topic.

Best book I have ever read to date, Period.

the author touched on all subjects that greatly interest me, with me.myself suffering from anxiety. I would duely reccomend this book to anyone, especially rhose suffering from anxiety or those that can't comprehend it.

Good book about Anxiety

Very educating. good personal stories about the author. Easy to listen to. some great points about anxiety and variuos treatments

Exceeded expectations

This book was extremely well written and researched. I highly recommend to anyone who has struggled with anxiety.

Cheers for Scott Stossel

Beyond the depth of historical, genealogical, commercial, scientific, commercial, and social context, Scott Stossel's personal story frames the topic in human, eye-level terms.

I'm glad for the chance this book has given me to better understand pain, anxiety, depression from the longitudinal, anecdotal, and individual perspectives-- and from my own.

I feel much better equipped to continue learning how to process and manage my own stresses and stress episodes.

Extremely happy with this book

I came across this book and did not know what to expect. It has been very informative.

Complex, informative, personal

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely. I have a relative who struggles with depression and anxiety, and this book gives me much more empathy and understanding for people living with these afflictions.

make no mistake, this book is not just a clinical treatise; it is very personal in its depiction of finding relief from debilitating anxiety of flying, vomiting, and performance.

What does Michael Goldstrom bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I enjoyed this narration immensely. It neither added unnecessary "pep" nor lulled me to sleep. It was just a good straight-up reading of this book.

Any additional comments?

Well worth your time and credit!

Pretty good, just long and somewhat scattered

Overall, I thought this was a pretty good read on anxiety. The author makes lots of great and relatable points on the subject while simultaneously describing his own anxious past as well as citing all sorts of studies and other well-regarded, related works.

I especially liked his exploration of the history of mental health. He digs into the timelines of various classifications of diseases as well as the introductions of certain psychiatric medications. After reading, it seems fair to say that modern society and its health care system is, at the very least, not actually solving the problem of mental illness.

I’m deducting one star, however, because, in the end, I’m not totally sure what the conclusion is here. There’s a lot of good content on mental health, but it doesn’t really reach a “clean” endpoint. It’s also a bit long; I feel like if it were cut down a bit, it would’ve been even more effective.

Though it isn’t my first recommendation in the genre, it’s still a good, if not very good, read. If you have the time and the interest (and I stress the time part), check it out.

-Brian Sachetta
Author of “Get Out of Your Head”