3 of the Best Workbooks to Help You Cope With Anxiety

From trying to navigate an ever-changing pandemic to economic uncertainties to social injustice, there is a lot going on in the world right now. For many people, stress and anxiety have been a major part of life over the past few years.

Anxiety affects 40 million adults annually or, put another way, 18.1 percent of the U.S. population ages 18 and older. It’s important to remember that anxiety presents differently in everyone, so there is not any one-size-fits-all solution. You need to find what works best for you and your situation.

That said, therapy, medication, and self-care are some great places to start. The point isn’t to eradicate anxiety, either, but to effectively manage it. One great way to do that is through workbooks. Anxiety workbooks are helpful because they can be great in anxious moments but also during calmer states of mind as well. I know from personal experience — in 2019, wrote “The No Worries Workbook.” In writing about how to move through moments or periods of anxiety with a little more ease, I learned a lot and found some other great workbooks, as well. Below are three to get you started.

“The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook” is a classic from the past 30 years for a reason. Written by clinical psychologist Edmund Bourne, Ph.D, the workbook aims to help you take back your power and take charge of your anxious thoughts. It teaches skills that are excellent for both assessing and managing anxiety and includes step-by-step guidelines, questionnaires, and exercises. It also covers relaxation techniques, overcoming negative self-talk, expressing feelings, and changing mistaken beliefs.

This workbook is also particularly helpful if you have phobias and includes new research on exposure therapy for treating them.

Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) is a type of therapy that was created for borderline personality disorder (BPD) but is also useful for other mental health conditions as well, including anxiety. DBT consists of various skills and strategies to help manage difficult emotions.

“The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook for Anxiety” helps teach DBT skills that are related to anxiety. As someone who has gone through DBT, I can attest the skills work.

Writer, comedian, and mental health advocate Kelsey Darragh gets it. “Don’t F*cking Panic” is a frank, honest guide to handling anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. The interactive workbook also features personal anecdotes, making you feel far less alone in your own anxiety. It is an excellent resource to add to your anxiety coping arsenal.

“I have dealt with mental health struggles my entire life and I have done everything that medicine has told me to do — psychiatry, wellness, hypnotherapy, acupuncture — and I found that everything I learned about the treatment of mental health was not relatable to or acceptable for someone like me,” Darragh told Healthista. “That’s why I wanted to write a book that people could understand, relate to, and use as a resource for when they are struggling. No science-y, medical sounding words, just straightforward, relatable material that people can use as a bible or workbook with proven practices that will help people feel better.”