<p>Who is the author of Hardcore Self Help?</p>

<p>Hardcore Self Help is written by Robert Duff.</p>

Psychology

Hardcore Self Help Book Summary - Hardcore Self Help Book explained in key points

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Hardcore Self Help summary

Name: Hardcore Self Help
Rating: 3.8 (186 reviews)
Author: Robert Duff

Robert Duff

F**K Anxiety

3.8 (186 ratings)

13 mins

Brief summary

Hardcore Self Help by Robert Duff is a practical guide to mental health. It offers relatable advice on coping with anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues, using humor and personal anecdotes.

Topics

Stress Reduction Self-Help Mental Health

Table of Contents

Hardcore Self Help
Summary of 5 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 5

What’s in it for me? Learn effective strategies to fight your anxiety.

Every once in a while, you might have a bad dream from which you wake up drenched in sweat. For most of us, nightmares are a familiar but rare experience – but what if your nightmares were to recur every night? And what if they didn’t just haunt you at night, but also at the most inopportune times during the day?

For some people, anxiety is a daily companion, an unwanted element and pursuer that is nearly impossible to shake off. In cases like this, you have to fight back.

These blinks will give you advice on how to cope with anxiety. You will learn what type of anxiety you might have, see what you can do to fight it off yourself and understand why it is imperative to consult a therapist nonetheless.

You will also learn

how breathing right can hold back your panic attacks;
how to explain your anxiety to your loved ones; and
why you might want to give your anxiety a name.

Anxiety comes in different forms, and some are incredibly difficult to live with.

Do you experience heart palpitations and difficulty breathing? If you’re in otherwise good health, these symptoms might be caused by anxiety.

While anxiety comes in a variety of forms, these issues generally fall under the category of anxiety disorders, each of which has different symptoms. Everyone feels anxious at some point in time, but anxiety can also take much more serious forms.

Just take phobias, which most people are familiar with; they refer to disorders in which a specific situation or object, like a spider, brings on an overwhelming sensation of fear.

Another type of anxiety disorder is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, which can be the result of traumatic life experiences, like being abused as a child or going to war.

And then there’s Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, or OCD, which is another anxiety disorder in which fear drives obsessions. The symptoms of OCD range from an obsessive need to touch particular objects at certain times, to personal tics that dramatically restrict daily routines.

So, there are many forms of anxiety and, with the help of a professional, you can determine which type, if any, affects you. If you do have an anxiety disorder, it’s essential to treat it, because anxiety can wreak absolute havoc when left to its own devices.

For example, PTSD can cause a patient to relive flashbacks of traumatic events, experience panic attacks and display sudden violent outbursts. The brain of a PTSD sufferer is essentially locked in fight-or-flight mode, which prevents her from living her everyday life, as even little surprises can cause tremendous anguish.

OCD also takes a serious toll on the patient’s daily life by forcing the sufferer to obsessively abide by particular routines to keep his life in order. As an example, an OCD patient might have an obsessive need to open and close the door 12 times before leaving the house. His anxiety may make him believe that if he fails to do this, his entire family will die a violent death.

These are just a few of the ways anxiety can rule your life – but it needn’t. In the next blink you’ll learn precisely how treatment can help you regain control.

Anxiety is bred by your body and your mind.

For many people, the situation is familiar: you’re lying in bed, ready to fall asleep, but just can’t seem to turn off your brain.

In fact, lots of people experience mental anxiety that can keep them awake through the night and even bring on panic attacks. So, where does this anxiety come from?

Breathing techniques can help give you a break from your anxiety.

In a Hollywood movie, when a character has a panic attack, they often try to slow down their breathing to regain control. This happens to be one lesson from the movies that actually works – conscious breathing is, in fact, a great way to counteract anxiety.

By focusing on your breath, you allow your body to calm down, but breathing also distracts you from whatever triggered the anxiety. The explanation for this is really quite simple: people just can’t multitask. If you pay close attention to your breath, your mind will relax since it can’t focus on the cause of your anxiety too.

It can be difficult for other people to understand your anxiety, but you can give them a hand.

Anxiety is an isolating experience and can make you feel insecure. But this feeling gets even worse when the people around you don’t understand how or why you suffer.

This is a major issue, as many people without anxiety disorders of their own struggle to understand the anguish that anxiety can cause in the lives of others. This is due in large part to the fact that mental illnesses, like anxiety, are totally different from physical illnesses.

Battle your anxiety with professional help and keep reminding yourself how far you’ve come.

By now, you’ve got a few tools at your disposal for counteracting your anxiety. But sometimes, you just can’t go it alone, and it’s always much easier to fight anxiety with professional help.

Some people think that medication is sufficient, but on its own, it will never be enough. It can certainly help some people, but it tends to be much more effective to find a good therapist who can guide you in unpacking the causes of your anxiety.

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What is Hardcore Self Help about?

Hardcore Self Help (2014) is your guide to overcoming anxiety and living a peaceful life. These blinks examine some of the different forms that anxiety disorders take and offer some techniques to help ease anxiety.

Hardcore Self Help Review

Hardcore Self Help by Robert Duff (2013) is an empowering book that provides practical advice for tackling mental health challenges and improving overall well-being. Here's why this book is worth reading:

With its straightforward and no-nonsense approach, the book offers actionable strategies to help readers take control of their mental health and navigate difficult emotions.
Combining personal experiences with professional expertise, Duff presents relatable stories and relays evidence-based techniques to make the content both accessible and informative.
The book's candid and humorous tone ensures that it is far from boring, making it a compelling and engaging read that effortlessly holds the reader's attention.

Best quote from Hardcore Self Help

Symptoms of panic are fundamentally incompatible with deep breathing.

—Robert Duff

Who should read Hardcore Self Help?

Patients struggling with anxiety disorders
Anyone with a friend or loved one who suffers from anxiety
Stressed-out executives and entrepreneurs

About the Author

Dr. Robert Duff is a psychologist on a mission to teach people about mental health in an accessible way. In addition to writing, he hosts a mental health podcast on his website, www.duffthepsych.com.

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