Afraid

Understanding the Purpose of Fear and Harnessing the Power of Anxiety

By: Arash Javanbakht MD

Narrated by: Arash Javanbakht

About a third of the world population suffers from an anxiety disorder, and half of Americans have had at least one traumatic experience like rape, assault, shooting, or natural disasters. Fear and anxiety are with us everywhere we go.

Fear is deeply woven into our biology, culture, politics, and day to day life. We sometimes don't even know what we are afraid of. What we know for sure is that we are afraid too often.

But why are we so scared? How does fear work in our brains? What is the evolutionary purpose of fear? Why do we enjoy watching horror movies? How do we learn to be afraid, and how can we unlearn? Can we use fear to our advantage?

In this book, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist answers these questions. Arash Javanbakht explores how our childhood experiences define the role fear plays in us as adults, how fear may or may not affect our genes, what excessive fear and anxiety can do to our brains and bodies, and the role of fear in the wake of trauma. Listeners will come away with a better understanding of fear and how we can tamp its negative effects, how we can treat it medically if necessary, and how we can protect ourselves from fear's most negative consequences.

©2023 Arash Javanbakht (P)2024 Tantor

A practical guide to using and controlling fear to your advantage

The young man reading this book is wise, intelligent, and pragmatic in his approach. I personally benefited from it, and will attempt to apply the principles I felt would be useful to my life.

Wonderfully comprehensive, cogent, compelling, and fluent book on the topic

Dr Javanbakht has done an amazing job, drawing on everything ranging from personal childhood experiences to cutting edge research in his own labs, creating a gripping narrative which uses everything ranging from old Persian sayings to newest scientific findings and from pop culture references to classical literature to make to reader truly understand many interrelated topics; ranging from nature and use of fear to the reason for international events fueled by hatred.
Truly a masterpiece.

Useful and informative

I enjoyed this read. It confirmed many of my beliefs but I still learned a lot. I will likely read this again to pick up anything I may have missed the first time.

This book is the Real Deal on Fear, Anxiety and PTSD

Dr. Javanbakht’s wisdom, compassion and altruism graces the pages of this book offering science based treatment modalities to those of us who have suffered life changing trauma.