My age of anxiety: Fear, hope, dread, and the search for peace of mind <i>By</i> ScottStosselNew York, NY: Alfred A Knopf, 2013. $27.95. ISBN 978‐0‐307‐26987‐4

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one in seven Americans suffers from a form of anxiety.A large body of scholarly literature has been investigating the clinical aspects of patients' lives with anxiety disorders.However, patients' personal accounts can sometimes convey the personal costs of a struggle with illness more effectively.Scott Stossel, well-known journalist and editor of The Atlantic Magazine, has given us a comprehensive, detailed look into the workings of anxiety and its effects on the lives of those for whom it has turned into a place of torment.Stossel relays an overview of anxiety from its early pre-psychology human experiences, through the emergence of psychology as a field, and on into the modern era of diagnostic manuals and SSRIs.Along the way, he shares personal stories of his own struggles with anxiety, providing hope for those who suffer from it.Stossel's message is one of persistence, that anxiety can indeed be managed with great effort and resilience.Structurally, the book is thorough in its approach.Stossel begins with a synopsis of what we consider to be an anxiety disorder and what separates it from the everyday stress and worries that people experience.He goes on to discuss the various ways anxiety manifests itself, physically as well as mentally, ranging from strange muscle pains, dizziness, and nausea to catastrophizing, a constant fear of death and, in some cases, even contemplations of suicide.Throughout these descriptions, we are given detailed examples from Stossel's own lifesuch as his overwhelming anxiety during his wedding where he describes himself covered in sweat and visibly shaking.In each chapter, conversations with the psychologists he has seen and the various drugs he has been taking (Xanax is mentioned often) or self-medicating on are interjected between his own cases and historical and medical facts about the disorder.Stossel devotes an entire section to the various types of medications and drugs that are often prescribed to treat anxiety.Covered in depth are also their effects on his mood and the varying degrees to which they work or failed to work to relieve his anxiety.In addition, the author provides sourced, statistical information on the effectiveness of various treatments.Stossel also acknowledges that medications can have varying effects on different individuals, noting that what may not have worked for his own anxiety may indeed work for others.In the latter half of his book, Stossel expands upon the influences of nature and nurture on anxiety in general but also in his own life.He recalls growing up anxious and the effects this had on his parents, friends, and family.These examples help to structure the complexity of anxiety disorders.For some, as was the case with Stossel, anxiety began early in life; for others, the disorder may not manifest until well into adulthood.The author explores various genetic and social influences, using the most recent findings from geneticists and from social psychology.He also expands upon his fear, not uncommon among anxiety sufferers, that his children will inherit his worrisome nature and he devotes several passages to describing what appears to be his daughter's emerging anxiety.In the final chapters, Stossel explores matters of hope and peace of mind, alluded to in the book's subtitle.While there is no definitive "cure" for anxiety, the goal isor at least ought

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