An information filled book that helps those with anxiety and people around anxious people.
Overall this book is Informative, as already mentioned, but some sections are a bit too science heavy which might make it difficult for some people to get too and other sections feel a bit as if anxiety is something that can be trained away if only the person suffering fights it often enough,
I might have read too much into that but that how it felt to me.

Still good for general information or as a starting point if anxiety is a new topic.

As one who suffers from anxiety, I was anxious to read this book. It was helpful to learn the science behind anxiety but the massive societal change we need to undergo to break the cycle is disheartening. I felt the science was explained in a way that was easy to understand and I liked how it pulled together the various scientific areas

Why are we the way we are? Why do some of us find it impossible to calm a hair-trigger temper or to shake chronic anxiety? The debate has always been divided between nature and nurture, but as psychology professor Daniel Keating demonstrates in The Stress Gene, new science points to a third factor that allows us to inherit both the nature and the nurture of previous generations - with significant consequences.

Both my husband and myself suffer from anxiety disorders, so I frequently read books on the topic. And as we start trying to have children this year, this book sounded very interesting to me. The author, after years of research, came to the conclusion that if an individual experiences stress early in life, whether that is in the womb or in the first few years of life, this individual is at risk for developing SDR or Stress Dysregulation. This is defined at a genetic modification that prevents the body from shutting own the stress response.

The book does include quite a bit of information and there are chapters focusing on baby's first year, the effect of peers and school, adolescence and managing family, work, and relationships. Although I found the whole book to be extremely interesting, I was particularly intrigued by the chapter on Baby's First Year, as I have been reading a great deal of pregnancy and parenting books recently. In this chapter, the author talks about how infants can literally be "born anxious' either because excess stress experienced by the expectant mother causes stress the stress gene too be locking into the "on" position or because they inherited this version on the gene. However, the author goes on to explain how this stress system can be altered by what infants experience during the first year. Positive things such as the parenting being super nurturing, can help if the stress system is already switched to on. Which goes along with most of the attachment parenting book I have read.

Overall, I found that this book was really interesting and I could write a very long review about how the author talked about other important things such as early education, public schools, home life, etc. that also impact a child's stress. I gave me some great insight on how to alter some things in my life during pregnancy and things to do in area of parenting. Thank you to the publisher for sending my an advanced reading copy of this book.

This had good information, and a great foundation of research to draw from, but it was just a little over-the-head jargony for my taste. In spite of having a background in psychology and research, I prefer not to read research texts whenever it can be avoided. :) I understood it. It was informative. It's just more for someone looking to do further research in the subject rather than someone looking for a weekend read.