Sky is Falling: Understanding and Coping with Phobias, Panic, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

By Raeann Dumont

Book Overview

Gracie hasn't left her house in thirty years out of fear she'll be contaminated. Jerry spent hours each day picking up debris on the subway platform. Norm's bridge phobia led him into alcoholism. David bright, young, ambitious feared he'd lose his job because he so dreaded giving sales presentations. These are some of the case studies exemplary of the approximately fourteen to twenty million people who suffer from anxiety disorders in this country that are found in this riveting and instructive book. Raeann Dumont lays bare the features of obsessive-compulsive disorder, phobias, and panic. Utilizing cognitive therapy and self-help techniques, she helps readers recognize anxiety-producing thoughts and shows how, through reality testing and assessing anxiety situations, these compulsions can be managed.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393038483
• ISBN13: 9780393038484
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 316 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.6" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

The Sky Is Falling: Understanding and Coping With Phobias, Panic, and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

Absolutely a must-read for those suffering from OCD or other Obsessions, or for those who want to understand loved-ones dealing with these disorders. Your understanding will greatly expand. Also includes steps towards recovery. Highly recommended.

Raeann Dumont is able to convey....

the elements of her therapeutic practice with those suffering from anxiety disorders in a way that helps the sufferers and their families understand what they are going through. Dr. Dumont coins the term "magic thinking" to convey how sufferers grow convinced that a disaster in the making is real, is happening to them, without the benefit of rational thought. Phobias and obsessive compulsive disorders are brought to the forefront through case studies, and in each, Dr. Dumont not only describes the behaviors, she describes the accompanying thoughts.It is an interesting book to explore, because she has been able to put into words how some people can depart from reality, despite their intellectual capacity. She helps make their fears real, not only for them, but for their support systems.There is an excellent part of the book that is devoted to a tolerance and treatment program; and also a description of the role of medication and other resources for those afflicted by anxiety in this fundamentally life-shattering way. It is an excellent introduction for those who need the treatment to understand why a therapist trained to help them will be able to help them break through the barriers, but it is also a realistic awakening that this is a life-changing regimen that they will need to practice to insure that they gain control of their lives forever, and are not controlled instead, by the phobia or the OCD.One of the very best books ever written to gain insight on panic disorders, Dr. Dumont expands our sensitivity and awareness to the need for cognitive behavior therapy. Simply a must read for OCD-sufferers and their friends!

Wonderful Book for thos struggling to understand

I have OCD and I have read this book. It is an excellent book for those who are seeking to understand the hidden torments of panic, phobias, OCD and the like. The case studies are realistic, the material is believable, and the theories are solid. This book brings to light the thought processes of the typically "anxious" thinker. Read it, it will enlighten you.

Sensitive book on anxiety problems

This book is an extremely well written book on the problems that people have with phobias, panic and obsessive-compulsive disorder. When I first was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, I read all of the books I could find on the subject. This is one of the best ones I found. It offers insight into the situations that sufferers of anxiety disorders go through.

continues where "the boy who couldn't stop washing" left off

For the person who suffers from the anguish of panic, horrific images, anxiety attacks, obsessive - compulsive ideation, and uncontrollable fear, here is a book which not only presents a sensitive perspective on these highly disruptive personal problems, which complicate our daily lives, here also is a "help" the sufferer can use without being only dependent on medication only, or many, namy expensive hours in a theraphists office. Raeann's insightful presentations and worksheets, help people to identify specific "triggers" that set them off, then using several different methods learn how to manage the fear, panic and anxiety those "triggers" produce. As a lifelong sufferer of Anxierty, Panic and Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder, here for the first time is a book which truely talks to the sufferer. I can't recoment this book highly enough