Dawn Huebner

Wow! This was very helpful. I'll admit that I'm a little to old for books like this, but my anxiety has been unaddressed and this really helped! An excellent stepping stone for worried people to grow!

Introduction: containment, externalization, and competing demands.
- Contain the anxiety to "worry places" or "worry times." Anxiety is like a gallon of milk where, if contained, is stable, but uncontained becomes messy.
- Externalize the anxiety as an object. Call it "Anxiety" or "The Worry" and tell it to go away!
- Competing demands says that no one can be relaxed and worried at the same time. Playing and other distractions are a tremendous help.

Chapter 1, 2, and 3: THE WORRY
- Worries are like a tomato plant. It starts as a little seed, but if you tend to it, giving it attention, then it will grow FAST and become a HUGE PILE OF PROBLEMS.
- A worry is a scary, bad feeling. It can have a cause or be a general feeling. The reasons for Worries often don't make sense, but they feel real. A hug or some reassurance sometimes make the worry go away, but other times the worry always stays, no matter how reassured. It's hard, but possible to make the worry go away.
-Worries can come from sad or bad things. Something fake like a scary movie or something real like losing a best friend. Some people are able to reassure themselves to feel better: talking to someone they trust or finding things to cheer them up. But some people find they can't be reassured even if they do those things.
-Worry can be genetic like eye color.
-Worries can happen all over your body, making you feel sick. Some don't even know that it's the Worries causing them to feel sick.
-Worries can stop people from doing things important or fun, like sleepovers or going to school. People who worry feel safe being around their mom, dad, or someone they know very well. But mom's, dad's, or the people they know very well might get mad at them for worrying so much, always asking the same questions, causing problems or always needing help.

Chapter 4, 5, 6, and 8: THE HEALING
-Put your worries into words. Talk to yourself or someone you trust. Then use logic to make the worry less powerful.
-Logic is thinking what's really true over what might happen; the tool that tell you that really bad things don't happen often; a certainty that even if something bad happens, you can get through it; and a means to build a plan that will make you calmer.
-If you have a worry, use logic, and figure out ways to mitigate it. If you're scared of dogs and go to a friends house, ask if they have a dog, tell them you're scared of dogs, and ask them to move the dog away or have them show you it's gentle.
-Worry Time! Schedule 15 minutes a day where you talk to someone you trust about your worries. You may feel VERY worried and need to say something outside of worry time, but just wait for worry time. Eventually, some worries will go away on their own, and the amount of worries you'll need to say will grow less and less.… (plus d'informations)