On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety (by Andrea Petersen)

Andrea Petersen gets intensely personal in her book “On Edge: A Journey Through Anxiety.”  She tells of her lifelong struggle with identifying her own battle with anxiety disorders.  In the process, she is transparent not only about herself but also about her family.  She includes the time when she briefly lived, in high school, with a friend instead of with her parents because they had moved and she wanted to finish out the school year.   That disastrous idea was aborted midstream.  She also relays her father’s laid back parenting style, including a time he was supposed to be watching her, but was high on has, and she got into the hash. 

She clearly loves her parents and her husband and child. And all of them have been a part of her journey.  As she tells the story, she also relays the research and different approaches to treatment that have been used as psychology has evolved in its understanding of anxiety.  She comes at the issue from every conceivable angle, but she skillfully reminds the reader throughout that her work as a journalist comes from both her professional acumen and from her own tortured experience with anxiety.  A most telling observation comes at the end of the chapter in which she explore the connection to heredity and anxiety.  She writes, “Anxiety disorders almost certainly have multiple causes – from genetics to childhood trauma to how your parents interact with you.  And for any given person, the mix of these factors will be as singular as a fingerprint” (p.92).

In the closing chapter, Peterson shares some of the coping strategies that have enabled her to learn to live with anxiety and even thrive in spite of that anxiety.  She muses about what life would be like if she did not have anxiety, but then she quickly dismisses the notion.  “When I try to envision my life without all the experiences anxiety has given me – as well as the ones it has taken away – I don’t recognize myself” (p.260).  Her conclusion is realistic and hopeful. 

I read this book in order to help me love someone in my life who has an anxiety disorder.  And the book has indeed been helpful.  I recommend it for anyone who struggles with anxiety or for anyone who wants to better love and care for people they know with anxiety.