Playing With Anxiety: Casey's Guide for Teens and Kids

Casey is a kid who knows worry. As the fourteen-year-old narrator of Playing with Anxiety: Casey’s Guide for Teens and Kids, she uses stories, humor, and fun exercises to teach the seven strategies that she and her mom discovered to stop anxiety from controlling her every move. This book is the companion book to Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous & Independent Children (HCI Books, 2013) and gives worried kids (and their parents) a concrete way of approaching and disarming this powerful but all-too-common problem.

Anxiety has the power to stop kids in their tracks, preventing them from exploring and growing into independent teens and young adults. Casey, the fourteen year old narrator of Playing with Anxiety: Casey’s Guide for Teens and Kids, knows all too well how worry can interrupt fun, ruin school, and take control of a family. In this companion book to Reid Wilson and Lynn Lyons’ parenting book, Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous & Independent Children (HCI Books, 2013), Casey shares her own experiences and those of her friends to teach kids and teens the strategies to handle the normal worries of growing as well as the more powerful tricks of anxiety. With pluck and humor, Casey tells stories, offers exercises, and describes her “solving the puzzle” approach that kids and their parents can use to address all types of worries and fears.

Reid Wilson, PhD, (Chapel Hill, North Carolina) is a licensed psychologist who directs the Anxiety Disorders Treatment Center. He is also Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. He is an international expert in the treatment of anxiety disorders, with books translated into nine languages. He is author of the classic self-help book Don't Panic: Taking Control of Anxiety Attacks as well as Facing Panic: Self-Help for People with Panic Attacks. He is the co-author with Lynn Lyons, LICSW of Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: Seven Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous & Independent Children. He is co-author, with Dr. Edna Foa, of Stop Obsessing! How to Overcome Your Obsessions and Compulsions and is co-author of Achieving Comfortable Flight, a self-help package for the fearful flier. He designed and served as lead psychologist for American Airlines' first national program for the fearful flier. Dr. Wilson served on the Board of Directors of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America for 12 years. He serves as the Expert for WebMD’s Anxiety and Panic Community.