On Edge A Journey Through Anxiety Author:Andrea Petersen A wry, sympathetic, bracingly honest account of living with anxiety, coupled with deep reportage on the science of anxiety disorders. — — Andrea Petersen was first diagnosed with an anxiety disorder at the age of twenty, but she later realized that she had been experiencing panic attacks since childhood. Although having a name for her terrifyin... more »g physical symptoms (a racing heart, difficulty breathing, and more) and fears was an enormous relief, identifying it was only the beginning of a journey to understand it?one that takes her from New England mountaintops to the back of a motorbike in Vietnam as she refuses to let anxiety rule her life.
In On Edge, Petersen harnesses her personal experience and expertise as a health reporter to explore the biological mechanisms of anxiety and the groundbreaking research that might point the way to new treatments. She excavates the role of genetics and the environment in mental illness by visiting with top neuroscientists, and by tracing her family history?from her grandmother, who, plagued by paranoia, once tried to burn down her own house, to her young daughter, in whom Petersen sees shades of herself. Along the way, she also illuminates the differences between anxiety in men and women, and introduces us to the people whose support has allowed her to make her life her own.« less