The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code

The true story of the little-known mental-health pioneer who revolutionised how we see the defining problem of our era—anxiety.

Panic, depression, sorrow, guilt, disgrace, obsession, sleeplessness, low confidence, loneliness, agoraphobia... Dr Claire Weekes knew how to treat them but was dismissed as underqualified and overly populist by the psychiatric establishment. In a radical move, she had gone directly to the people. Her international bestseller Self Help for Your Nerves, first published in 1962 and still in print, helped tens of millions of people overcome all of these issues and continues to do so.

Weekes pioneered an anxiety treatment that is now at the cutting edge of modern psychotherapies. Her early explanation of fear and its effect on the nervous system is state of the art. Psychologists use her method, neuroscientists study the interaction between different fear circuits in the brain, and many psychiatrists are revisiting the mind-body connection that was the hallmark of her unique work. Face, accept, float, let time pass—hers was the invisible hand that rewrote the therapeutic manual.

This understanding of the biology of fear could not be more contemporary—'acceptance' is the treatment du jour, and all mental-health professionals explain the phenomenon of fear in the same way she did so many years ago. However, most of them are unaware of the debt they owe to a woman whose work has found such a huge public audience. This book is the first to tell that story and to tell Weekes' own remarkable tale, of how a mistaken diagnosis of tuberculosis led to heart palpitations, beginning her fascinating journey to a practical treatment for anxiety that put power back in the hands of the individual.

'With Judith Hoare's The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code, we have a chance to learn about Weekes's varied life and, as important, become reacquainted with her work ... A splendid tribute to Claire Weekes—a tribute long overdue.'
-Sally Satel, Wall Street Journal

'In her biography of Weekes, veteran journalist Judith Hoare has rescued the Australian doctor from obscurity and placed her squarely in the history of the diagnosis and treatment of anxiety disorders ... Displaying the hallmarks of an accomplished journalist, this is a fascinating biography of a free-spirited and innovative woman, an insight into the history of evolutionary and psychiatric theories, and an introduction to Weekes's methods and her books.'
-Carol Middleton, Australian Book Review

'Australian doctor Claire Weekes found worldwide fame with her bestselling books on "nervous illness" in the 1960s and 1970s—but despite gratitude from thousands of sufferers, she is almost forgotten today. This revelatory biography should change that... Journalist Judith Hoare has comprehensively captured the unconventional life of this brilliant woman who was lauded for her evolutionary studies.' FOUR STARS
-Julia Taylor, Books + Publishing