Hope and help for your nerves
by Claire Weekes · first published 1969
9mentions
9recommended by
9HN commenters
2014–2025first – last mentioned
100% recommend
Why HN recommends it
A practical, reassuring guide to understanding anxiety and panic attacks, and how physical symptoms feed into one another. It offers long-term coping strategies and works well alongside therapy.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
this is an excellent book about how to help with Panic Attacks and related anxieties. Patients find it very comforting and helpful, often keeping a copy on their bedstands.
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…therapy is evidence based. If you suffer from panic/anxiety and seek treatment (which I HIGHLY suggest you do!) then be sure they're trained in an evidence based technique. I also recommend reading "Hope And Help For Your Nerves" or listening to "Pass Through Panic" by Claire Weekes. What I've learned in the months since is that in order to overcome the panic and anxiety you have to do something very simple yet seemingly incredibly…
on “Developer Anxiety, we’re not alone” ↗…root causes, but even after that I didn't quite recover. Anxiety about possible panic attacks were stressing me out, causing me to lie awake in bed. Talk about a vicious circle. Therapy and the book "Hope and help for your nerves" by Claire Weekes helped a lot. Occasionally it will pop back up but not nearly as bad as it once was.
on “The perils of being your own doctor” ↗…physical symptoms. Stomach duress, stress, sweating, and bracing for the next wave of anxiety. These symptoms feed into each other and can set off a new attack or make an existing one worse. I've found Hope and Help for Your Nerves by Claire Weeks to be the most helpful book on dealing with the physical symptoms. Once you're able to remove or at least tame the physical aspect you can better fight the mental manifestation. This…
on “Surviving Anxiety” ↗…extensive CBT and medication. I don't think I will ever completely eliminate the attacks - it's just a matter of managing them at this point and minimizing the negative effects they have on my life. "Hope and help for your nerves" by Claire Weekes is a classic. That being said I believe mental health is still not diagnosed and treated well enough by modern health care systems. Took me more than 4 years of bouncing around from…
on “The perils of being your own doctor” ↗I'm sorry to hear you're struggling. I've definitely been here a handful of times. Hope and Help for your Nerves by Claire Weekes is the single best resource I have found for for learning to cope with Anxiety long term. I come back to it any time I find myself in similar patterns to what you describe. Self compassion…
on “Ask HN: How to break anxiety/fear-avoidance cycle?” ↗Claire Weekes: Hope and Help for Your Nerves Thank me later :)
on “Ask HN: How do you deal with anxiety?” ↗Hope and Help for Your Nerves By Claire Weekes
on “Ask HN: Struggling with Anxiety as a Developer – What Are My Options?” ↗This post was very important for me. I've been struggling with anxiety lately without knowing it. I've been having a very hard time. "Pass Through Panic" really helped me a lot, and I'm starting "Hope And Help For Your Nerves". I can't thank you enough for sharing these resources.
on “Developer Anxiety, we’re not alone” ↗…that fear and become indifferent about it or even learn to like it in some way if possible. Similar to exposure with phobic people, or ignoring behaviors with OCD. I'd recommend reading Claire Weeks Hope and Help for Your Nerves. Also, I'd recommend not playing this game of convincing her she won't die. She's probably habituated some sort of compulsive behavior of trying to release the fear by asking you to sooth it (pretty…
on “Psychogenic death, the phenomenon of “thinking” yourself to death” ↗