"Chris Westoby's THE FEAR TALKING is truly important, beautifully written, and urgently needed. This book will save lives-especially the lives of young people, one of our most vulnerable and underserved populations when it comes to mental and behavioral health. Please give it to some anxious person you love (maybe that anxious person is you)." - Clancy Martin, author of How not to Kill Yourself

A self-help memoir that takes an unflinching look at a young man's undiagnosed anxiety disorder and OCD.

Chris Westoby takes us inside his past self, a teenager from a small English town. He's trying to be a good friend, student, son and boyfriend, but he struggles to be in company without wanting to hide. And things only get worse: it's nearly impossible to take the bus to college without catching the next bus home. His obsessive germaphobia begins to destroy his life. How can one boy overcome all this? Chris gives an unflinching, raw account of his troubles and offers what he's learnt.

Some Expert Reactions

"Read this book, and you will never forget it. As a narrative it's fascinating. As the memoir of a life lived with anxiety, it's incomparable." - Peter Draper, professor emeritus of Nursing Education, University of Hull

"Anxiety is the most common form of mental distress and of course overlaps with normal human emotion. Yet it can be overwhelming and disabling and a gateway to other mental ill health notably depression and self-medication with alcohol and other substances. This engaging account throws a spotlight on how anxiety impacts on everyday life and relationships." - Patrick McGorry, Professor of Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne

"In The Fear Talking, Chris Westoby achieves the well-nigh impossible, giving us a fully immersive account of adolescent anxiety, allowing the reader to feel and experience with the narrator. If one of the main aims of the memoir form is to induce empathy in readers, Westoby's memoir succeeds brilliantly. The reader comes away with a new and profound understanding of what mental illness feels like from within." - Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor Creative Writing, University of Leicester

About the Author
Chris Westoby obtained a BA in English and Creative Writing, an MA in Creative Writing, and a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Hull, where he is now Programme Director of the Hull Online Creative Writing MA. He lectures in Creative Writing, guest lectures in subjects of mental health, teaches reflective writing to Mental Health Nursing Students, and runs cross-faculty writing workshops. He works in research, collecting the stories of others. Chris was born and raised in Barton, on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber, where he still lives. He writes short speculative fiction as well as autofiction that focuses on mental wellbeing.

Reviews

"Anxiety is the most common form of mental distress and of course overlaps with normal human emotion. Yet it can be overwhelming and disabling and a gateway to other mental ill health notably depression and self-medication with alcohol and other substances. This engaging account throws a spotlight on how anxiety impacts on everyday life and relationships." - Paul McGorry, Professor of Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne

"As a nurse of many years' experience I have heard countless stories of human distress and learned how to hold myself apart from other people's suffering. Chris Westoby's The Fear Talking expertly but gently slips past my professional guard to engage me in the life of a young man suffering from anxiety. The story is interesting, humorous, distressing, compassionate and intriguing, and as I read, I begin to understand the mental contortions behind the social paralysis anxiety brings, and then to discern its impact on self, family, friendships, schooling, work - the whole of life. Read this book, and you will never forget it. As a narrative it's fascinating. As the memoir of a life lived with anxiety, it's incomparable." - Peter Draper, Emeritus Professor of Nursing Education, University of Hull

"As a window into the experience of anxiety for those who have never experienced it in this way, it's illuminating; as a reflection for those who may be experiencing it without yet having words to explain it, it's invaluable... For a story that is so much about being scared, this is writing at its most fearless." - Matt Bright - Everybody's Reviewing

"Chris Westoby's THE FEAR TALKING is truly important, beautifully written, and urgently needed. This book will save lives-especially the lives of young people, one of our most vulnerable and underserved populations when it comes to mental and behavioral health. Please give it to some anxious person you love (maybe that anxious person is you)." - Clancy Martin, author of How not to Kill Yourself

Book Information
ISBN 9781909954441
Author Chris Westoby
Format Paperback
Page Count 346
Imprint Barbican Press
Publisher Barbican Press