[Second update, a month or two after having finished the audiobook -- raising from 4, up to 5 stars]

So, I have understood and naturally implement much of the general gist of the book. I am remembering back to not very long ago when I was walking around the bookstore and looking for a book to help with anxiety. I feel so much better now. I do have little bouts of anxiety and for whatever reason (i.e. using whichever ideas/practices in this book that I now use) I relatively quickly manage to let that anxiety go and then I feel nice and good, and can go back to everyday life.

I definitely would love to go back through the audiobook and kindle book (bought both) again in the future for a deeper round of learning. There are a lot of good practices and ideas in there which I skimmed on my first round through. That said, I don't feel like a humongous need to go deeper, at least not right now...I have a lot more energy and attention to spend on other life endeavors...

All of this said, caveats I would share...I hadn't felt anxiety forever. I have experienced depression more often in the past. I also found over the years that various symptoms I had matched up to trauma, or Complex PTSD (not an official US diagnosis, but recognized in other places, and is definitely "a real thing" per my experience and reading). I had done enough "therapy that works with trauma symptoms" and done enough healing with that, and then over time was feeling a lot of anxiety for a while. This idea from polyvagal theory suggests that "the freeze response" can "lock down" your feelings of anxiety, and as the freeze response comes up, you are going to feel more of that anxiety from the past. Or that's how I understand it. In any case...for me, this book has helped let go of these anxiety loops, or whatever.

Highly recommend for anyone experiencing anxiety, short-term or long-term; of course I only have used it based on my past and life experience, so I can only guarantee that it worked for me! :)

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[First update, after initial review -- 3-4 days after getting the book, about 67% through it, raising from 2 up to 4 stars]
[initial title: Not clear to me that this book is really about ANXIETY... (updated, 2x)]

So, as I wrote this update, I was initially updating from 2 to 3 stars, but after I finished writing this update, I'm now updating to 4 stars. I suspect that I may come back to this in the next month, after more time with the book, and eventually update to 5 stars!

From earlier part of my review, I said he hypothesized [anxiety is actually caused by different "habits" you have] -- I did review the chapter where he made this case, and I understood this a bit more deeply, and was better convinced. And funny enough, I already forgot the rationale, but it made sense to me, I trusted it, and then tried "doing the work" a bit more...

And...as for the "doing the work" I began to see some habit/pattern I do that seems VERY LIKELY CONNECTED TO ANXIETY... Its a habit I've had for a while. And it goes something like this. TRIGGER: "Something happens and I feel some discomfort in my body" -- BEHAVIOR: "I either 'know how to fix the external problem that caused my discomfort' or 'have an idea of which book I should read to fix the external problem that caused my discomfort' and I immediately jump into action to fix or figure out the problem!" -- RESULT: "I might actually fix the 'problem', or I learn some stuff about how to have a better chance of fixing the 'problem' in the future, and I become more certain that 'I know how to fix things in general'"

And so...the self-perpetuating problem was that I kept trying to fix 'external problems' -- what I've noticed as I've begun trying to do what this book is talking about doing...is that I may be better able to tolerate "letting little things go" to a greater degree. Like...these are REALLY small things, here is a small example...

At the bookstore today, some employee told a lady there that she was not allowed to take pictures with her phone of the inside pages of a book, saying something about "copyright laws." Seems reasonable enough, but I felt a bit skeptical. My thought process went like this: "Hold on...is this guy saying that if I buy a book and take a picture of a page with my phone at home, then I'm breaking the law? If that's true...maybe I'd believe that...but is this guy going to be in my home to enforce the copyright law? No...so why does he believe he can enforce the law in the bookstore..." I mean...to be clear, I do find these questions to be super interesting questions to answer! And I initially thought I would google the answer(s) to these questions on my phone, out of curiosity... BUT, at the end of the day...did the answers to those questions matter? They sort of do...for curiosities sake, and understanding laws can help my future business and career success... But they aren't questions I needed the answer to.

And...if I WERE to google the question to that answer, I would have been perpetuating a cycle where "I feel discomfort...THEN I do something to alleviate that discomfort...THEN I might feel better..." and in the end that cycle keeps going, forever...every time I disagree with someone, I HAVE to look it up...and then I feel better. But the whole point of this book is to just...stop perpetuating the cycle. (Or that's how its looking to me!)

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[Initial review, wrote the first part of this 1-2 days after getting the book, and about 50% through the book -- initially rated as 2 stars]

His "hypothesis" (not calling it a "theory" since I don't see the evidence to support this) seems to be:
- anxiety is actually caused by different "habits" you have
- if you map you your habit loops
- and if you just feel/sense what happens in your body in these loops (what he calls "2nd gear" I think)
- then you will eventually feel better

unfortunately
- I'm not clear whether or not I trust these claims
- this "2nd gear" thing...just makes me want to lay down and be a zombie all the time (i.e. what I believe is "the freeze response" in trauma lingo). its unclear whether he's saying "oh just lay down in a freeze state forever and then your anxiety will eventually go away..."

in teh end, as others have said, this book seems to be about HABITS not ANXIETY...

Brand	N/A
Rating	4.6 (2523 ratings)
Price	$12.47
Category	Anxieties & Phobias

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