Why Am I Still So Afraid?

by John W. Barnhill

Nightmares...headaches...intense reactions you don't understand... Are you unable to "let go" of fear? Do you suffer from depression? Anxiety? Self-destructive tendencies? It can be a smell, a place,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440234646
• ISBN13: 9780440234647
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Dell Publishing Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.1" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Finallly An Answer!

I've been struggling with depression and fears that I haven't been able to overcome or understand since my childhood. I'm female, over 40 and still have trouble being comfortable around men. Now I understand why. This book is easy to understand. I really like the question and answer format. As the book explains, if a person is suffering from trauma and stress, there are many mixed up thoughts and feelings involved. The book goes into enough detail to explain fully the complicated issues involved in PTSD but simply enough for the lay person. It gave answers to questions I didn't know I had and even answered some questions that I found too embarrassing to ask my counselor. It was recommended to me by my Psychologist.

A good one

As has been stated, this is a basic book about a complicated subject. I guess I can see how some people would find it too simplistic or be disappointed that their ptsd wasn't cured by reading the book, but I found the concepts pretty sophisticated even if stated in a simple fashion. For example, one reviewer complained that the book shouldn't include the bit about the patient "falling in love". It seems to me that "erotic transference" is a pretty common experience in therapy, especially in people who have been traumatized, and I kind of liked the fact that it was discussed by the authors. I've read a bunch of books on the subject, and several gave very specific treatment suggestions that seemed--at least to me-- to reflect that the author had a specific ax to grind. While this author is a psychoanalyst, his suggestions seemed pretty commonsensical to me. The q and a format isn't my favorite, but it did make the text move along, and they covered the waterfront. I didn't expect my ptsd to get cured by reading the book, but I did want to understand it better, and I found it one of the clearer books on the subject. I'm not sure why there is so much of a mixed feeling about the book.

A great book

I've been struggling with depression, anxiety, and nightmares for most of my life, but I never really understood what it was. This book described my illness almost exactly. At times, it felt like the authors were reading my mind. At other times, they wrote about stuff that I'd never considered but which was still really helpful. It goes into some of the medical aspects of PTSD, but the book is always clear, even for us laypeople. I can't recommend this book highly enough.