10 Books to Help with Anxiety and Overthinking

Anxiety is simply intense worry or fear about everyday events or situations. It can be one of the toughest emotions to handle because so many things in our world can trigger such reactions from people. Different people employ different ways to cope with anxiety; some include taking a walk, jumping up and down, or even reading. Although anxiety is a normal human emotion, a self-help book can be calming when your anxiety feels excessive.

It can be comforting to have a manual handy when you’re having an episode. A reputable book on anxiety is like having an on-demand therapist who can offer instant support. Luckily for us, practical books can help us deal with our anxiety. These books offer practical solutions to dealing with anxiety daily.

Books to Help Ease Anxiety and Overthinking

It’s no secret that anxiety and stress have increased recently. Know that you’re not alone if you’re struggling with anxious thoughts or feeling overwhelmed. Plenty of resources help ease your anxiety and improve your mental well-being. Here are a few of our favorite books on the topic.

The Anxiety and phobia workbook

In this book, readers explore a range of coping mechanisms that can help tackle their anxiety and various phobias. There is a wide range of techniques offered, and therefore, readers have the advantage of finding what works for them. This book will offer various tools for silencing worry, quitting negative thoughts, and stopping self-deprecating comments. You will also find helpful calming breathing techniques, exposure therapy for select phobias, lifestyle, exercise, and nutrition tips.

It offers comprehensive step-by-step treatment strategies for panic disorders, generalized anxiety disorder, agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and fear. It also offers new information on preventing relapses after treatment, medication, exposure, nutrition, spirituality, and the latest neurobiology research.

The stress-proof brain

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Unfortunately, modern times are stressful, and dealing with this stress can be very difficult. We can’t stay away from the things that stress us out, but we can change how we respond to them. 

In this book, a renowned psychologist and various neuroscience experts offer a practical approach to help readers overcome stress and develop positive emotions. It offers scientific explanations of stress, its causes, how it can affect your body, and how to respond positively to it. According to studies, the key to coping with stress is simpler than you think. It’s all about how you respond to the situations and things that stress you out or threaten to overwhelm you.

The Stress-Proof Brain offers comprehensive tools based on mindfulness, neuroscience, and positive psychology to help you stop giving unhealthy responses to stress. It will help you discover unique exercises to overcome negative thinking, help you manage your emotional responses, develop a more tolerant, resilient brain, and live a healthy, happy life.

The Anxiety tool- kit

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If you tend to worry about the worst possible outcome of an event, overanalyze situations, and take negative comments hard, this is the book for you. You suffer from anxiety if you can relate to any of these issues. 

In this book, author Dr. Alice Boyles shows powerful tools used by therapists to help patients overcome anxiety. It also features simple everyday tricks you can employ in real life. 

You’ll discover how anxiety works and how to cope with common anxiety disorders to have a successful home and work life. Moreover, the book is professionally written in gentle, uplifting language to help you manage your symptoms.

The Worry Trick

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Anxiety makes us constantly question simple everyday choices and decisions, convinces us there’s a danger when there usually isn’t, and sometimes causes our brain to freeze. In this book, the author educates readers about how the brain tricks anxiety victims into thinking there’s a danger when there usually isn’t and how avoidance or trying to resist anxiety will ultimately make it worse. 

It explains the inner workings of the anxious brain in a simple-to-understand language and offers research-proven strategies readers can apply to 

reduce worry. It is also based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and helps a reader permanently break the cycle of worry.

The Highly Sensitive Person

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We feel overwhelmed when too many things are happening simultaneously, too much information is coming in, or we’re in a situation where we can’t handle the outcome. 

People with anxiety are more sensitive to such situations, as well as light, sound, or loud noises. They need more time and space to process what happens in their surroundings. This is called oversensitivity. The Highly Sensitive Person, written by Author Dr. Hendriksen, host of an award-winning podcast, offers readers self-care, validation, and many helpful tips to tackle these issues.

Sensitive people take in more information and notice little gestures and subtle details others overlook. In addition, the book teaches readers how to use this sensitivity to their advantage.

The author explains how sensitivity can be associated with anxiety and depression. There is a lot of information and guidance here for highly sensitive people trying to learn how to function healthily and live happy lives.

The Negative Thoughts workbook

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Individuals who suffer from anxiety or depression also experience unwanted thoughts often caused by anger, guilt, shame, worry, and other emotions. Trying to gain control over these thoughts can be very difficult and draining. 

The Negative Thoughts Workbook is a step-by-step guide on coping effectively with negative thoughts. It is based on effective cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) strategies and offers a neuropsychological approach to managing thoughts. Furthermore, the workbook uses these proven strategies from cognitive-behavioral therapy and turns them into easy-to-use worksheets and exercises. 

The book contains activities that are easy to follow and help to get rid of thoughts that threaten a reader’s mental health and well-being. Moreover, it will help you to identify harmful thinking patterns and traps, deal with anxiety, stomp rumination and healthily confront your emotions.

Never Good Enough: How to use perfectionism To Your Advantage Without Letting It Ruin Your life

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In this book, the Author, Dr. Basco, helps you understand why you feel the need to attain perfection in every little thing and shows you how to make the best of your perfectionism. It is also filled with practical advice, encouragement, and valuable tools for self-discovery.

If you feel that no matter how hard you try, it is never good enough, or you spend several hours trying to get things exactly right, this is the book for you. Being a perfectionist comes with multiple advantages, although having extremely high standards for yourself and others will leave you feeling down when those expectations are unmet. 

This book explains how uncontrolled perfectionism can lead to depression, anxiety, fear of failure, and failed relationships. In addition, it teaches readers to stop the tussle with themselves and others, evaluate performances normally, and choose peace of mind over perfection.

When Panic Attacks

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For some of us, feelings of anxiety, worry, or panic are all too familiar.’ When panic attacks’ equip a reader with tools that can quickly destroy chronic worrying, shyness, social anxiety, and various phobias without medication or long hours of therapy. 

The author and behavioral psychiatrist Dr. David Burns teaches his readers 40 techniques to fight anxiety. Dr. Burns also discussed selecting the methods that will work for them on their way to total recovery. 

There is a large selection of things to try; therefore, readers are bound to find one or two techniques they can run with. The book is laced with humor and engages readers in a transformative way. 

Please Yourself: How to Stop People-Pleasing and Transform the Way You Live 

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People pleasing becomes a problem when we give up our needs to gain validation from others. It is a coping mechanism people with social anxiety usually struggle with. In this life-altering book, author Emma Reed Turrell outlines different types of people-pleasers. She also provides practical advice on how to stop people-pleasing behavior when it starts to deter your progress. 

The book teaches readers to care for others correctly, thereby helping them take care of themselves. It gives tips on finding the correct balance between your needs and those of the people around you. There are also tips on setting healthy boundaries and putting yourself first. The book also focuses on positively impacting the quality of your relationships with people.

Detox Your Thoughts: Quit Negative Self-Talk for Good and Discover the Life You’ve Always Wanted

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Making Negative, self-deprecating comments to oneself can harm self-confidence, reduce self-esteem and greatly curb the potential of an individual. Unfortunately, many people talk themselves down a lot of the time and have missed many opportunities because of this. 

This book teaches readers how to stop negative self-talk by changing how they relate to their thoughts. The author outlines useful techniques for creating new positive mental pathways and avoiding thought traps. For each of the ten mental traps, the author offers a new habit to practice. It also includes acknowledging your feelings, recognizing your blind spots, and valuing the present moment.

She uses the latest research in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Plus, she uses Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to teach readers to understand their thoughts healthily. In addition, the book employs the latest research in psychology and neuroscience to end self-sabotaging thoughts with simple steps. 

Conclusion

These self-help books are a great addition if you struggle with anxiety and overthinking. Reading these books can have a huge positive impact on how you manage stress. Take notes and highlight your favorite part while you read, just in case you need to go back to it.