Anxiety Books

Before you decide that if it's free it's probably not worth having, let me just tell you a little bit about the book and why it's free. First of all, this is a full 190 page ebook. I know that there are many ten page booklets which are marketed as ebooks. This isn't one of those. I approached writing this book with every bit as much care and attention to detail as any of my other books, and I intended to give it away free of charge from the outset.

​

Following my own recovery from severe anxiety and depression I became a professional therapist in 2003 and I have been specialising in the treatment of anxiety related disorders ever since. In 2016 I took a year off to write. I wanted to preserve my hard-earned knowledge in a transmissible form because I was toying with the idea of changing careers. I loved my job as a therapist but I needed a break after 13 years of continuous service. I wrote three books in 2016. Dear Anxiety was one of them. The others you can see on the website here. As it happened, I got the writing bug and realised I had more than one book in me! Then I realised that people don't buy books from people they don't know about!

​

So, why is this book free? Well, firstly it is a genuinely nice feeling to be able to spread a little bit of love and value into the World. That's genuine on my part. This book has already been downloaded by over 30,000 readers (as of early 2020) and I've had some wonderful messages from readers thanking me. That alone is reason enough to give it away freely. The principle reason that it's free however is that it's an invitation to prospective readers of my work to fully sample my writing without cost and to make a connection with me. I want to help anxious people and this is how I can help them to find my work and become engaged enough to recognise what I have to offer. If you browse my site here, those other offerings are described in detail so I'll leave it with you to do so if you wish, but to get to the point, this book is yours, free of charge! If it isn't already obvious, this book details my own recovery journey. It's quite a tale! Here's the book description: -

​

When John’s frantic search for spiritual accomplishment suddenly delivered a lot more than he ever expected, things got very weird, very quickly! A reality shattering event propelled John into a terrifying World where the very fabric of reality itself could not be trusted. This sounds like fiction. It is not.

​

Dear Anxiety is a first-hand account of John’s extraordinary journey of recovery from an existential crisis so deep and profound that it left most therapists clueless about where to even begin. After six years of fruitless attempts to resolve the severe anxiety and depression which followed, he finally met with a practitioner who had the skills and understanding necessary to help him fully heal. This is the story of how that happened, and what he learned along the way.

​

Dear Anxiety is a book for two types of reader. It is at once a fascinating biography, but it is also intended as a companion for people who are going through tough times. John says, “If you’re a sufferer, I want you to find solace in this story. I want you to know that you’re not the only person in the World who ever felt this rotten, and I want you to know that with courage and determination you can find your way through dark times and back into a life you enjoy living. Hope is important, and I want this book to supply that for you in good measure!”

​

John Crawford has been a successful full time professional therapist specialising in the treatment of anxiety related disorders for the last thirteen years. This is his third published book. 

 

Just click the link below to get your copy! 

​

​

​

Here is a sample of what you can expect from inside the book: - 

 

When I walked into Clare’s therapy room for the first time she greeted me with a tone that suggested to me that we’d been old friends, which I found simultaneously reassuring and unnerving. I sat on a small sofa, and she pulled up a chair and sat close to me, maybe just two feet away. She crossed her legs in the chair, barefoot, leaned forwards, and looked me right in the eyes. “So….how can I help?” It should have felt invasive. She was definitely not observing the usual protocol here in terms of personal space. She was practically on top of me, but somehow it was okay, a little intense maybe, but okay. As I started to tell my story I could tell she was doing more than just listening with her ears to what I was saying. She seemed to be drilling down into my being as I spoke. It was a little disconcerting at first, but I didn’t know her yet! When I’d finished, she said “Okay, well the first thing we’ve got to do is get you back into your body. When I look at you, it looks like you have no neck. You’re a neckless wonder!” I was embarrassed. What do you say to that? She said “I can see this huge mass of energy blockage all-around your neck and throat that’s totally screwing up your entire energy field. We’re going to dissolve it. I’m going to work on it and you are going to help me. So here’s what we’re going to do. I want you to go into the place in yourself where you feel love, and when I tell you to do so I want you to start sending that love into this blockage in your neck. I want you to use every single bit of your intention to do this, okay?” Obviously, my plan to find a serious psychotherapist who would help me work clinically and steadily through my neuroses wasn’t working out too well. I was back in the company of the cosmic! Still, she came highly recommended. All Frances had said was that he had seen her do and say some amazing things, so I did as I was instructed. She closed her eyes and went to work. I had no idea what she was doing, but I felt a strong sense of being really deeply cared for, and then she said “Okay….send love…..send love……that’s it…..keep going….keep going….it’s dissolving….give yourself permission to access pure love…..keep sending it….it’s dissolving….it’s clearing….” She was so enthusiastic that I couldn’t help but be swept into a full immersion in this moment and I gave it my all. I imagined the purest love I could ever know flowing into this big ugly mass of crappy energy, and whether I could really see it, or was only imagining it, I did get a sense that this terrible darkness was dissolving, which she continued to confirm as we worked together. We stayed with this for about five minutes before she opened her eyes, and looked with soft gaze at me again. “Ah…that looks much better” she said. The really weird thing was I DID feel better. Loads better!

​

When I got home, I said to Kati. “I think this lady might really be able to help me”. I couldn’t really understand it though. I was sure I had tried every visualisation imaginable. You know, put your roots down into the Earth and let all your negative energy drain away. Imagine a beam of light made of pure love coming through your head and down into your heart. Imagine a big bubble of love around you like a protective shield through which only the positive can pass. I’m not saying that none of that stuff had ever helped me to feel a little stronger, or more grounded, or more positive. It had. But, it had only ever been an immediate sticking plaster in a maelstrom of unpleasantness which would hold me for a while, until the inevitable darkness crashed back in. This was different. This was a palpable and significant shift in wellbeing. It felt more permanent. I felt lighter, brighter, and altogether more present. I actually did feel like I was more in my body than I had been in a long time.

​

So, why was this different? I could only reason that it was her at first, and she was a powerhouse for sure, but there was more to this story, which I came to understand more deeply in the following years. It was LOVE that was present in that room, and somehow she managed to wrap me up in it like no-one had ever done before. I had walked into her consulting room with a sense of shame and guardedness. Despite my recent self-forgiveness crisis with Frances, I was still feeling deeply ashamed of the mess I‘d become, and I was expecting to be judged. While no other therapists had made me feel judged particularly, it was apparent that Clare was different, special. She had a penetrating gaze which made me feel totally naked. I couldn’t hide anything from this Woman. She could see it all. This was deeply challenging. I didn’t even let myself see that deeply into me, never mind anyone else. And yet, despite it being painfully obvious that I was laid bare for her to see, she didn’t focus on my ugliness for a single second. She saw it, but it wasn’t what she was looking for. Instead, she kept moving past these layers of dysfunction, probing, pushing, like someone clearing clothes out of a drawer to get to their favourite t-shirt, and then Bam!…there was a connection. I felt our souls meet as we locked eyes, and I knew that she could see me. I mean really see me. It was deeply intimate, and really quite challenging. I also knew then that she was going to help me. In fact, it would be much more accurate to say that she had come to show me how to help myself. This was what was different. I opened my being to her. I let her in, and she was ready to walk in. It’s a rare person who is willing to do that, at least to the level she accessed, one in a million actually.

​