Anxiety

Reading this book was like a lightbulb going off!

There are many stages of grief that people observe (denial, anger, shock, etc.). But anxiety is a key component of grief as well. I’ve experienced anxiety in my life but had no idea it was connected to my grief.

Seeing and understanding this connection through Claire’s book is like attending counseling and is so important for anyone going through the grieving process.

Claire Bidwell Smith’s Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief was the first book that revealed to me that anxiety lives in the body autonomous from the mind, and can cause panic attacks hours or even a day after the feelings flood the system, causing a lack of connection between cause and effect. It expanded my sense of what anxiety is, and how the physical response appears in unexpected places…like while grieving.

With the loss of my husband and then the loss of my daughter, I found myself carrying around a lot of fear and anxiety. While it seemed like my losses were related to my emotional turmoil, I didn't know what to do with it. That was until I stumbled upon Anxiety: The Missing Stage of Grief: A Revolutionary Approach to Understanding and Healing the Impact of Loss. I wish someone had given me this book right when my husband died, but even reading it years later verified to me that my grief and anxiety were related. However, it did… show more.