Stopping the Noise in Your Head: The New Way to Overcome Anxiety and Worry by Reid Wilson, PhD

“Where would we be without our worries? How would the dishes get done, children get fed, bills get paid? With all that we have going on in our lives, how would the floors get swept, homework get done, birthday cards get mailed on time? How would we get enough sleep each night unless we worried about not getting enough sleep?”

Author, professor, and director of the Anxiety Disorders Treatment Center in North Carolina Reid Wilson, PhD, asks readers these questions right at the beginning of his new book, Stopping the Noise in Your Head. He explains that worry is an essential part of daily life—it has the important functions of helping people solve problems and moving them into action when necessary. However, Dr. Wilson writes, “When we start paying a high emotional cost for unnecessary worry, and when our worries pop up in our minds too frequently, then those thoughts hurt us. Worry leads to anxiety.”

Stopping the Noise in Your Head is Dr. Wilson’s solution to the problem of unnecessary worry and anxiety. He separates his strategy for beating them down into four parts:

1. Step Back
2. Want it
3. Step Forward
4. Be Cunning  

In “Step Back,” Dr. Wilson explains the importance of shifting perspectives when worry arises, so readers can assess the worry and determine if it’s actually worth worrying about. “Want it” focuses on making readers want difficulty, confusion, and struggle—as Dr. Wilson writes, “Want to step into the fray.” The next section, “Step Forward,” is about doing just that: moving into challenges and toward what’s difficult and frightening. Finally, “Be Cunning” teaches readers how to talk to anxiety, how to put it in its place, and how to put themselves in the power position. 

Dr. Wilson uses client stories, historical references, and various scenarios to illustrate these concepts, which makes Stopping the Noise in Your Head far more than just a self-help book; it becomes an intensive, expert-driven, and engaging guide to kicking excessive worry to the curb and dealing with unnecessary anxiety. Readers of all ages from all walks of life will benefit from and thoroughly enjoy Dr. Wilson’s latest book.