Free Yourself from Death Anxiety - by Rachel Menzies & David Veale (Paperback)

About the Book

Drawing on CBT, this self-help guide helps you to understand how death anxiety develops and provides guidance on how to challenge unhelpful thoughts about death and dying. With written exercises throughout, it provides clear, evidence-based steps to face and overcome your fears of death.

Book Synopsis

Death anxiety can underlie many different mental health diagnoses at all stages of life, including depressive disorders, panic disorder, health anxiety, specific phobias, OCD, agoraphobia and more. This self-help guide will help you to better understand your fear of death and give you the tools to overcome it.

Using proven cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) techniques, including exposure and response prevention (ERP), this book will help you to:

- Understand death anxiety and how it develops
- Undertake specific evidence-based steps to develop alternative ways of thinking about death
- Conduct exposure exercises to act against your fears
- Reduce your anxiety so that you can live life to the fullest.

Review Quotes

"Really nicely written, it's clear and accessible ... I think it will be of interest to quite a lot of people ... it's not just a self-help book for if you're worried about death and dying, it's more practical and useful!"--Dr. Bethan Michael-Fox "The Death Studies Podcast"

Although billed as 'self-help', there is much to be gained for professionals from this clearly written, comprehensive book.--Jeanine Connor, psychodynamic psychotherapist "Therapy Today"

I am so glad I reviewed this book as reading it has been transformative. I had no idea death anxiety was its own thing and to find my symptoms and experiences laid out before was an emotional experience. I will be continuing to use this book to help myself live my life freely--Zoey Mitchell, Anxiety UK Participation Group member "Anxiety UK"

There is so much in the book that I found interesting and relevant to me. The exercises, explained in a way that is easily accessible, can be applied to more than just death anxiety; the information around mental health generally, death anxiety, the causes are presented clearly and calmly. The book is like listening to a sensible friend: quiet, calm and clear-headed. Whether you are concerned that you have a death anxiety, or you know you do, or simply you are concerned that you might not be living life to its fullest, this book is worth exploring.--Alberta Gutteridge, Host of the North London Death Cafe

About the Author

David Veale is a Consultant Psychiatrist in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy at the Maudsley and the Nightingale Hospital, London and a Visiting Professor in CBT at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London. He is recognised as an international expert on emetophobia and is the author of several books on the topic of health anxiety, OCD, BDD and depression.

Rachel E. Menzies is a Clinical Psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at The University of Sydney, Australia. She won the Dick Thompson Thesis Prize for her work on death anxiety and its relationship with OCD. Her article on death anxiety was featured in The Conversation Yearbook 2016, a collection of the top 1% of 'standout articles from Australia's top thinkers'. She has delivered workshops on treating death anxiety across 7 cities, hosted by the Australian Association for Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy (AACBT).