The Anxiety Prescription: The revolutionary mind-body solution to healing your chronic anxiety

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I was paralysed with crippling anxiety for many many years. I am 23 years old and I discovered Dr Russell Kennedy's work last year by listening to the Mel Robbins podcast, for the first time I saw light at the end of the tunnel. I have tried talk therapy and CBT for many years but the effects didn't last long enough for me to move about my daily life without the Anxiety that was wearing me down. It was through this book I understood the most important facet for healing my anxiety. My anxiety was so severe that I lost sleep for 4 days straight. My mind will shut down but my body wouldn't come to terms with my mind. My digestion was out of place, I threw up everything I ate. It was horrible and I'm not exaggerating one bit and no, Dr Russ didn't ask me to type this but this one man's work transformed my life not on a whim, as he says, it's not going to happen soon and healing is very erratic but my symptoms have been going down and for the first time I have reconcealed with my younger child who faced trauma. I am lucky to live in this time space for getting a chance to read this book. Thank you for taking one for the team Dr Russ. It's a must read book for healing your trauma, anxiety and Dissociation disorders.

Had anxiety due to kundalini risingThis book was one of the things that helped me tremendously to go forward in my journey. Have me an understanding about my issues and showed me how to deal with it.

I have suggested this book to many of my clients. It beautifully explains the genesis, impact, protective nature and purpose of anxiety. It empowers them to reflect on their experiences - it begins to make sense to them. They feel supported and more importantly can finally see a way out.

I dont know how it worked but worked.. Getting into body is the best and easy process as explained by Russel. I have been suffering from anxiety disorders for over 30 years. Read lot books, videos and attended many coachings but all are for time being only.. Nothing helped permanently.. I saw change for the first time in my life. My tiredness reduced. Over sleeping reduced. my skin tone improved. I owe you Russel. May be i could meet you someday.. God bless you..

This book was extremely insightful to understand the origin of anxiety, how it's stored in the body and a step by step approach to work towards healing it. Dr. Kennedy's comedic prowess combined with his own personal experiences with anxiety and the journey of healing from it provides such a rich understanding of anxiety. I found his open mindedness as an MD towards different perspectives and modalities of working with anxiety refreshing. His book beautifully balances research, moving personal experiences and light humor skillfully. Hands down one of the most comprehensive book on anxiety I've read so far.

This book will heal you. It’s the best book ever on anxiety. Highly recommended for people suffering from anxiety and trauma

Reading Anxiety RX has been transformational for my mental health. The author's writing has made such clear sense of what my anxiety is and where it comes from and how to navigate it. I have cried through so much of the book, as I realised my inner child wounding, the crying being cathartic and finally acknowledging the wounding and promising never to abandon the child again. The book has made me realise that I am not alone in my struggles and created so many opportunities to reconnect with my innocent self for more peaceful living. I am pretty sure after reading this, anxiety will never be able to get the better of you, because you will have all the tools to calm it down.

This guy is phenomenal

O livro traz insights verdadeiros e pode ajudar quem sofre de ansiedade crônica. O lado negativo é que o autor exagera na repetição e nas referências pessoais, tornando o texto desnecessariamente longo e cansativo em algumas passagens.

At the beginning of this year (2023), in the middle of the night, riddled with insomnia and emotional terror, I searched the word "anxiety" in Spotify, hoping to find a podcast episode that would comfort me back to sleep. I came across an interview with Dr. Kennedy on the Mel Robbins show. I hadn't heard of either person, but was hooked by the description: "Everything you think about anxiety is wrong." And, "...this interview today is so revolutionary, it's forever changed the way I think about my anxiety and my relationship to it."I was not disappointed by the interview. I soon fell asleep, soothed and curious about this new method, and in the morning purchased Anxiety Rx.It took me about two and half weeks to read the book, along with reviews here and there, plus episodes of Kennedy's podcast. Yes the book is repetitive, but in the end I am thankful for that. Without being steeped in the concepts and drilling them over and over, a real shift in a lifetime's worth of negative thought patterns would not be possible. (The suggestion I would make for a revised edition would be to state from the introduction that there will be repetition—and to explain the importance of it—in order to manage reader expectations.)Like a lot of other satisfied readers, I highlighted vast swaths of the book. Also like a lot of readers, I am familiar with other books, teachings and modalities in the emotional suffering and healing world: The Power of Now, Radical Acceptance, yoga, Buddhism, Byron Katie, Gabor Mate, mindfulness meditation, psychedelic psychotherapy and so forth. I also take an SSRI, completed over a dozen years of counseling, adopted a low-carb, high protein diet, and even became a personal trainer and nutrition coach because of the anti-depressant effects fitness and diet have on my emotional state.Having done all that, the "alarm" still would find its way through to terrorize me, and I believed the cruel, negative thought loops to such a point that I wanted to die.What Anxiety Rx did for me was to distill wisdom I had learned from other sources into actionable steps that I could implement immediately.Dr. Russ teaches (among other things):-All anxiety is separation anxiety from childhood. In adulthood, we become separated from ourselves.-Believing negative thoughts is what causes the pain, not the thoughts themselves.-Approach healing from the neck down. The mind lies. The body never lies.-JABS = judge, alienate/abandon, blame, shame. JABS are the negative thought loops that lead to depression, paralysis, despair.-When we were abused or abandoned by our caregivers, we still looked up to them. We could not blame them so we figured we must be to blame. We turned on ourselves as unlovable.-When alarm strikes, ask yourself three questions: am I safe right NOW, what am I thankful for, where in my body am I safe?-ALARMS is really what our inner child is feeling. (Abandonment, Loss, Abuse, Rejection, Maturing too early, Shame. Dr. Russ loves his acronyms. I have every one of these letters from my childhood, and had to skip parts of the ALARMS section because it was too overwhelming.) The inner child needs to feel safe and protected. Alarm is triggered in the present by experiences that recall the initial wound. (For me it's also triggered by high morning cortisol.)-Tune out of the fiction mind and into reality: physical sensations. Hand on your heart, set the intention to protect your inner child. She is safe now. She can rest.-In the millisecond after the body feels the alarm, the mind scrolls through the rolodex of potential fears to justify the panicked feeling. These thoughts are never true. Don't engage with the thoughts. Keep to the body.-Trying to heal negative thoughts with more thoughts is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.I LOVED creating visualizations and having conversations with my inner child. It helped me detach in a creative and magical way from incredibly paralyzing thoughts. With an inner child ally, it becomes easy to see that the negative thoughts cannot possibly be true. They can't apply to an innocent child, and we ARE our innocent inner child. Now, every time a negative thought threatens me, I call up my inner child and we dismantle the thoughts together through visualizations and self-compassion.Since reading the book, I have found a true ally within myself. I have learned that the "ego dragon" is an ancient protective mechanism that warped into a terrorizing demon who also needs to be heard and loved. By telling myself that I am a terrible person it keeps me from taking risks or living in the uncertainty of the present moment, and that uncertainty, as an abused child, was more terrifying than the familiarity and strange comfort of self-hatred. That was a huge revelation that I am so thankful for.Another revelation for me was the slipperiness of the ego dragon. Over the years, in addition to self-flagellation, my ego dragon fed me enticing fantasies of rescue, which Kennedy associates rightly with victimhood. I used to have great hopes of fame and fortune, along with all-consuming romantic infatuations. I now see that my ego was playing a long con on me—building up the hope of rescue through external and grandiose validation only for the fantasy to never manifest, leaving me feeling humiliated, rejected and inevitably despondent. Now, along with my inner child practice and the ABCs, I remain not only vigilant for self-hating thoughts, but also for fantasies of grandeur, knowing that they are the cunning work of the ego dragon. This helps me stick to the present moment, slow down and lean into the sometimes painful but never deadly uncertainty of life.This is probably the longest review I've written here, thank you for reading. I know this book will not resonate with everyone but for me it was a true gift. If Dr. Kennedy ever creates a teacher certification program I would definitely sign up, because it would be incredibly meaningful to help others overcome decades of emotional pain.Thank you for this wonderful technique and wisdom.

Recommended for everyone struggling with anxiety. Amazing!

Thank you for this book.I find it very complete. It has a very unique way of explaining the psychological mecanisms to break free from blocking anxious patterns.Reading it makes me feel understood and gives me keys for a profound liberation.