I thought this book would be more "what to do with excess anxiety" than it turned out to be. It's more for Type A, obsessive-compulsive types that become paralyzed when over analyzing every choice or roadblock in life. Certainly helpful and written by a knowledgeable doctor.

If you are a type "A" person, a perfectionist, or someone in a leadership position who experiences anxiety, then Nervous Energy by Dr. Chloe Carmichael might a good fit book for you. As a type "A" person myself, I found many of the anecdotes and the methods for calming my anxiety to be novel, yet attainable. I even found myself taking notes, so I could remember and practice some of technique that are shared by Dr. Carmichael. (I shared a few tips with my educator colleague and both agreed they were great methods for dealing with stress). We often don't realize that someone who is high functioning can feel deep anxiety. Some of the focused material delved on managing your breathing, narrowing your "Zone of Control," and looking at patterns that can cause hiccups in your daily life routines. I think the addition of graphics or small images to illustrate the methods would enhance the material even more. Overall, I enjoyed this selection and would definitely recommend to others.

Although seemingly well qualified to write a book on this topic, the author used way too much medical terminology. The feel of this book is too academic for a consumer audience.

This review starts with my review of the book, and then some feedback for the publisher:

I shared some of the advice in this book with coworkers at an event about expectations during the pandemic, and it was a huge hit.

I felt this book got a lot right, and I love the use of bold font for the important points. This book actually covers a lot of topics, many of which have whole books devoted to them. The intro makes it seem like the book is for people who struggle to plan or handle open-ended problems, but in fact it's for people who tend to over-correct. Though not every statement will apply to you, there were enough that I felt, "yes, that is me". The situation that most spoke to me was the story of a person who kept waffling between two strategies for dating, trying to find the right balance between being flexible and open and being firm in her desires and values. I identified with this rush to find the right strategy from the get go and worrying more about whether someone likes me than whether I like them.

I've read a lot of self-help books and engaged in different behavioral therapies, and was surprised to find some new techniques here. Techniques that weren't new to me did happen to be techniques and ideas that helped me in the past, such as metacognition, perfectionism and cognitive re-framing. Chapter 5 deals with perfectionism and provides suggestions that are reminiscent of self-compassion - don't skip it!

I like that the author presents the book and techniques more as a reference from which you choose what works best for you in that moment. In chapter 3, she introduces a menu of techniques that she provides to her clients, and in chapter 4, she provides three example people and which techniques they might select.

The three example people and their recommended technique "starting points" were useful to help me think through which techniques to apply. None of the people were a perfect fit. Reading the examples, I was able to see which techniques were a fit and why and say yes, that makes sense for me, or no, that isn't my issue. For example, mind maps, I love mind maps and use them all the time because they just fit the way I already think.

My personality is more of the endless planner, always looking to increase efficiency, making this faster and more effective, getting to the essence of the problem and continuously improving. I make a good plan and I love planning and organizing and strategizing whether it's studying a language, playing a game, or completing a project. However, I am always second-guessing my plan, and I haven't gotten used to waiting years for fruition. One could brush that off as being a millennial, but women and minorities often are criticized for not having results or their results not being enough. So, I've absorbed that criticism over time.

I started with the zone of control, the mental short-list, the to-do list with emotions, and worry time. I've created a worry-agenda before (really a parking lot of negative thoughts to make myself not get distracted at work), and I can tell you it is fabulous. However, I'd never made worry time before. The to do list with emotions is also very helpful for thinking through procrastination or breaking up a task, but I can also see it feeding endless revisions of plans.

My only criticisms are that there is maybe a little too much personal exposition and I didn't like the use of generalizations, especially in the first two chapters. However, this type of book is more about the demonstrations and the techniques. It is also very very easy to navigate to skim or skip sections or anecdotes.

Formatting:
-Some of the tables didn't stay as tables in flowing text. I liked that it wasn't a table because it's easier to read, but it took some effort mentally to parse the columns.
-There is also a dr-chloe.com which is a first result in google searches. It may be worth changing the domain name or getting a pointer for the link in the book.
-I couldn't find the worksheets referenced in the book.

Organization:
-Some topics were in odd locations. For example, the advice on finding a therapist was in the to do list of emotions. The advice didn't seem unique to the tool and maybe warrants its own chapter.

Comments on the tools:

-I think the emotional to do list really is the most nuanced and tricky, but when I shared the concept with coworkers they were in love and wanted this book right away. The anecdote about the woman dating and making a list of things she didn't like or liked was very helpful to me.

-For the mental shortlist, I love this idea but as an over-committer it is easy for me to make a list of things that will get me overexcited. For example, checking Twitter or working on politics. What if I pick something that is too distracting or too much of a rabbit hole? Or I indulge a bad shopping habit?

-Worry time: I used to keep a worry agenda. I called it a parking lot of ideas. When I was trying to do deep work, I kept a pad of paper next to me and when a little negative self talk or worry or distracting idea popped up, I wrote it on the list/put it in the parking lot. To me, instead of "worry", this agenda could be just any mental distraction.

-I think the thought replacements instructions need more examples. I am familiar with cognitive reframes/distortions and perhaps presenting the different types would help.

An engaging and clearly written title about how to harness and take advantage of nervous energy that can be stressful and damaging in one's life or helpful.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: March 23, 2021
A “high functioning” person, according to Dr. Chloe Carmichael, is “someone who goes beyond the basics of taking care of their physical and mental self, is able to take care of their basic needs and can sustain meaningful relationships with friends and family”. Furthermore, a “highly functioning person” is usually an overachieving Type –A personality, who is driven to succeed, has personal and occupational goals, and strives to perform well. It is to these people that she targets in her novel, “Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of your Anxiety”. Carmichael believes that these types of people benefit from anxiety, and that oftentimes their anxiety has led them to multiple paths of success, but they can also suffer detrimentally from this same anxiety, and she aims to explore this.
I have read a few self-help books (I try to avoid them for the most part, as I find them oftentimes to be preachy and condescending), but the ones I do read focus on anxiety and depression. To use Carmichael’s phrasing, I am a “consumer” of therapy, and have had a few therapists (Carmichael explains that high functioning people find it difficult to match with a therapist because they have more complex needs) , so I am too familiar with Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, and have probably tried each and every therapeutic activity for anxiety that there is. It is hard for me to read a book on anxiety and be totally blown away by the author’s new and novel therapeutic suggestions (I am also a skeptic, so it takes a lot to get me to “buy in” to a lot of therapy techniques….did I mention I have a BA in psychology?) but Carmichael provided a few more techniques that I hadn’t tried before, and I might even be willing to give them a shot.
Carmichael highlights her nine-step approach through examples from her client base (honestly, one of them was so relatable I worried Carmichael had somehow been spying on me), and then breaks them down to make them relevant and usable to just about anyone who suffers from anxiety (and, of course, is “highly functioning”). Unlike most therapy approaches that suggest a person with a Type-A, “almost OCD” personality alter their ways of thinking and behaviour, Carmichael highlights the positives of these personality types, and instead targets the negative thought patterns that these types may suffer from. It was refreshing to see this type of attitude portrayed in a self-help novel.
Some of these approaches are new (to me) and some seem to be just more detailed examples of things I’ve seen before, but either way, Carmichael definitely has a creative way of addressing the “anxiety-driven person”. Although Carmichael touts the benefits of therapy (and encourages her readers over and over again to ‘review’ the activities and tools with a trusted therapist), but her suggestions are also good starting points for those who aren’t quite ready to make that jump.
“Nervous Energy” has good flow, uses easy-to-understand language, and actually provides a bit of insight and new therapeutic techniques, which is great for anyone who is tired of trying the same therapeutic activities over and over and having no success.

I was very excited to start this book and was thoroughly engrossed in the first 39 pages. Finally, I thought, a self-help book that really understands me. I am a high functioning person who, like everybody else, has my own mental and emotional challenges. Those challenges act as both my strength and my weakness.

The pitfall I find with many self-help books is that they would be better off as a 1000 word article. In most books in this genre, the author has a very succinct point to make or process to describe, but for the sake of creating a book they belabor the description so much it makes me want to poke my eyes out.

The fact that it’s also done in this book made me take a 180 after the first thirty pages. At third I thought the author new her audience. And then as I got into the endless description of slow mindful breathing, I realized that either the author didn’t know the audience (high functioning people don’t need 30 pages to understand mindful breathing) or I’m not the audience.

The book has really good points and I admire Dr. Chloe for all she has done, but the book just got more frustrating to me the longer it went on.

Does that mean her techniques are bad and her information does not have value? Heck no! She’s got good ideas on how driven, high functioning people can quiet their minds and focus on the goals. All I’m saying is that the presentation of these techniques is probably better in a different format than a book. Webinars might be good. White papers.

But alas, Dr Chloe is a very smart and very driven person. The book, as a result, seems more a tool for her than one for me.

#netgalley #nervousenergy

I personally suffer from anxiety and a lot of people do especially during these times. This book is a very constructive way to address those issues with new and out-of-the-box methods. I highly recommend this book.

a guide how to work through mental health issues as an already high-functioning person, NERVOUS ENERGY is full of engaging writing and specific examples that are fun & illustrative. I enjoyed it overall & will seek out a physical copy and/or audio in the future. my concern, however, is the fat-shaming sprinkled throughout the book. while exercise & fitness are important, body size is not. I worry that this weakness could make many high-functioning readers — including those with eating disorders — feel excluded. otherwise, NERVOUS ENERGY seems pretty current regarding technology, social media, & problems that high-functioning people realistically face in daily life. as a high-functioning person w/ anxiety myself, I found NERVOUS ENERGY useful & already recommended it to my therapist!

I think that if people read this book, they should read the description along with it. I couldn't follow this book. i did try though,m but after going to chapter 5 i gave up . This book wasn't for me, I couldn't follow it for some reason. I am grateful that Netgalley let me read this in exchange for an honest review.