A review by undermeyou
first, we make the beast beautiful: A New Story About Anxiety by Sarah Wilson

5.0

I rarely leave reviews of anything. Especially books. It’s too easy to not be obtuse about personal preference vs the actual content. That being said. I wanted to leave one here because I read most of the one and two star reviews on this book, and saw that many said this book made them more anxious. I want to say that I understand that. And. Warn anyone about to read this book of a few things. It contains triggers and is scattered (which is frequently exactly how I and many other anxious people think). I found that when reading this in a quiet place I was able to concentrate on it, read slowly, and find large amounts of insight and comfort. When I read it in my living room with my kids running around and me rushing to get to the next page, I couldn’t get anything from it. Don’t go into it expecting it to be a scientific review of facts, or a coping plan. It’s neither but a mix of both along with many anecdotes. To me it was more about how to cope with what anxiety does to your life and how to explain it to others. I had my boyfriend read this after I finished it and he said that he recognized so many things about me that he has never been able to piece together on his own even though we have been together almost ten years and he felt that he had it figured out.

Takeaway - it’s not for everyone. But you’re more likely to appreciate it in a calm space where you can focus on what it is trying to tell you.