Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind

Unwinding Anxiety presents a step-by-step plan clinically proven to break cycles of worry and fear that drive anxiety and addictive habits. Judson Brewer explains how to address anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and accessible strategies. Anxiety encompasses everything from mild unease to full-blown panic, and also drives addictive behaviors and coping habits such as stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling, and social media use. Because anxiety resides in a part of the brain that resists rational thought, people become stuck in anxiety habit loops that cannot be overcome through thinking or willpower alone. Dr. Brewer teaches readers to map their brains to identify triggers, defuse them through curiosity, and retrain their brains using mindfulness and other practices proven effective in his lab. Drawing on more than 20 years of research and work with thousands of patients—including Olympic athletes, coaches, and leaders in government and business—this book offers a solution-oriented program for managing anxiety.