Stop Being Your Symptoms and Start Being Yourself: The 6-Week Mind-Body Program to Ease Your Chronic Symptoms

By Arthur J. Barsky and Emily C. Deans

Book Overview

Do you suffer from ongoing pain or other chronic medical symptoms such as fatigue, lower back pain, arthritis, acid indigestion, insomnia, or migraines? Do they interfere with your family time or your work? Have you been forced to give up activities that you enjoy? Do you feel as though your symptoms are taking over your life? Thirty percent of the population suffer from chronic debilitating illnesses and pain that respond only partially to conventional medicine. But this doesn't mean that there is no relief in sight. Dr. Arthur Barsky, psychiatrist and pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, has found that changing the way you think about your illness can have a remarkable effect on how you experience your symptoms. Two people with the same symptoms can live dramatically different lives because they think about and react to their symptoms differently. At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Barsky developed "Stop Being Your Symptoms and Start Being Yourself," a breakthrough six-week program designed to overcome the symptoms of chronic illnesses of every kind. Based on more than twenty years of firsthand clinical experience, his scientifically tested treatment plan is unique, powerful, and simple to learn. This groundbreaking program teaches patients to master the five psychological factors that make chronic symptoms persist through hundreds of exercises, worksheets, and patient examples. You may not be able to completely eliminate your medical symptoms. But it is possible to control your symptoms rather than letting them control you--to manage your pain, fatigue, insomnia, and anxiety. You can minimize your symptoms, learn new coping skills, and do more to make sure that your symptoms are not robbing your life of meaning and pleasure. Stop being your symptoms--and start living the life you deserve.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060766131
• ISBN13: 9780060766139
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: William Morrow & Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A practical and helpful addition to the literature on chronic illness and anxiety

This is a wonderful addition to the literature on anxiety and chronic illness. The wisdom here is invaluable, and it is expressed in such a way that I think people with these kinds of chronic symptoms can't help but recognize their own thought patterns here. I loved all of the experiences of real people that are included, and the author's writing style is accessible as she talks about what we can learn from each experience of chronic symptoms or anxiety, and how to change. I have two close friends who I will be recommending the book to, as I see so many of their experiences reflected here, and the author shows wonderful common sense and understanding towards the people suffering with these problems.