Almost 20% of americans suffer from anxiety disorder, or what could be described as dread without a cause. Patricia gives a first-hand account of this disorder as she has suffered from it since childhood.

The book is her memoir and through it Patricia traces the disorder in her parentage down to her own daughter. But it is more than a memoir (and less) as she also gives a history of anxiety - kind of an anxiety then and now. The mixture left me feeling a bit divided about the book as it gives an objective description of the history of anxiety while doubling as an personal memoir of her disorder. And the memoir is colored by the historical account, making her own history sound, instead of personal, somewhat distant.

The book starts off with Patricia herself. What is she afraid of that she would rather not be. Bills for example. And flu. She writes how she browsed the internet to find ways on how to prepare for the possible flu outbreak. Stockpiling water and food. Then she continues with her history with the disorder. But she does revisit this anxiety in the latter chapters, something I do not think was intentional, but worth mentioning here.

As I mentioned I found the book a tad impersonal due to the historical accounts (not necessarily a bad thing when one is being as objective as can be). But in the last chapters Patricia starts off against anti-depressants. She has tried them, as ordered by her doctor, and they did not work well. Rather the opposite actually, they backlashed. They, according to Patricia, only exist because evil corporations make money on them etc etc. And she begins citing web discussions she's had with people in her situation, how bad they felt and so on. The connection with the flu anxiety in the beginning of the book is obvious - only this time it's not an example of her behaviour but a serious attempt on Patricia's part to make a point. Which I think fails miserably. But the chapter is interesting, perhaps the most interesting part of the book just beause of this. I felt like this was actually Patricia's anxiety, unedited on those pages and it was easy to follow how she argued internally to come to these conclusion. The web discussion boards, taking that and her opinion and then citing one or two psychiatrists who supported that opinion. Then moving on to the next point.

Now, I have not experience whatsoever of anti-depressants, and I have understood that there are potential side-effects. But from what I also understand is that they do work and do help a lot of people to recover from anxiety and depression. That Patricia happened to be part of the group of people for whom anti-depressants do not work - can hardly be used to prove a point that anti-depressants are evil.

The book then ends that the solution to all anxiety may be to find god and purpose, and maybe your anxiety will go away. Or at least pretend it is so. Last paragraph cites Pascal's wager (which is actually flawed).