The Anatomy of Anxiety: Rethinking the Body, Mind, and Healing of Anxiety

From an acclaimed functional medicine psychiatrist, a groundbreaking approach to understanding and managing anxiety from a holistic perspective. 

More than 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety in any given year, which has only worsened with the Covid-19 pandemic. To help patients cope with this often-debilitating mental health disorder, doctors tend to reach for the prescription pad, subscribing to the conventional wisdom that anxiety is “all in our heads.” Ellen Vora, MD contends that what we need is an all-encompassing approach that looks beyond the brain and considers the whole person.

Backed by the latest scientific research and Dr. Vora’s clinical work, The Anatomy of Anxiety offers a fresh, much-needed look at mental health, offering actionable strategies for managing our moods. Much of our anxiety begins in the physical body, often the result of seemingly innocuous states of imbalance, such as a blood sugar crash or sleep deprivation. This type of anxiety is far more preventable than we may realize, through straightforward adjustments to our diet and lifestyle, such as reducing caffeine intake, stabilizing blood sugar, prioritizing rest, and rethinking our relationship to technology.

Other forms of anxiety are not pathologic but come as a course correction to help nudge us back onto our paths. In this instance, anxiety is not what’s wrong with us, but it’s here to alert us to the fact that something else is out of balance—in our bodies, our lives, or in the world around us. This more intuitive version of anxiety, Dr. Vora suggests, is meant to be listened to and honored, and we can learn simple strategies for tuning into this anxiety and allowing it to protect and guide us. In The Anatomy of Anxiety, Dr. Vora walks beside us through a healing process to reframe our relationship with anxiety, and in turn create a more joyful and fulfilled life.