The Fear Talking: The True Story of a Young Man and Anxiety

By Chris Westoby

Category: All Books, Non-fiction

Formats available: Paperback, Ebook

Pages: 346

Publication date: 03/12/20

ISBN-13: 9781909954441

ISBN-10: 1909954446

A self-help memoir that takes an unflinching look at a young man’s undiagnosed anxiety disorder and OCD.

Chris Westoby takes us inside his past self, a teenager from a small English town. He’s trying to be a good friend, student, son and boyfriend, but he struggles to be in company without wanting to hide. And things only get worse: it’s nearly impossible to take the bus to college without catching the next bus home. His obsessive germaphobia begins to destroy his life. How can one boy overcome all this? Chris gives an unflinching, raw account of his troubles and presents what he’s learnt.

This book offers an outstretched hand to those fighting these same battles, or to anyone who’s watching someone else go through the same. The Fear Talking does not promise to solve your problems, but it shows you that you’re not alone. That’s all Chris ever wanted, really; to unflinchingly capture the warmth and darkness of the teenage years.

“Chris Westoby’s The Fear Talking is truly important, beautifully written, and urgently needed. This book will save lives” – Clancy Martin, How not to Kill Yourself

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Some Expert Reactions

‘Read this book, and you will never forget it. As a narrative it’s fascinating. As the memoir of a life lived with anxiety, it’s incomparable.’
– Peter Draper, Emeritus Professor of Nursing Education, University of Hull

‘Anxiety is the most common form of mental distress and of course overlaps with normal human emotion. Yet it can be overwhelming and disabling and a gateway to other mental ill health notably depression and self-medication with alcohol and other substances. This engaging account throws a spotlight on how anxiety impacts on everyday life and relationships.’
– Patrick McGorry, Professor of Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne

‘In The Fear Talking, Chris Westoby achieves the well-nigh impossible, giving us a fully immersive account of adolescent anxiety, allowing the reader to feel and experience with the narrator. If one of the main aims of the memoir form is to induce empathy in readers, Westoby’s memoir succeeds brilliantly. The reader comes away with a new and profound understanding of what mental illness feels like from within.’
– Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor Creative Writing, University of Leceister

Reviews

Chris Westoby’s The Fear Talking is truly important, beautifully written, and urgently needed. This book will save lives—especially the lives of young people, one of our most vulnerable and underserved populations when it comes to mental and behavioral health. Please give it to some anxious person you love (maybe that anxious person is you).

- Clancy Martin, author of How not to Kill Yourself

This insightful memoir of a young man’s life is eloquent and insightful as it deals with the effects of anxiety on his life. The Fear Talking is well written, intelligent and very accessible; it almost has the page turning quality of a thriller. Readers will soon find themselves engrossed in Chris’s struggle to identify and cope with his condition before fully understanding his mental health issues. Surely people facing anxiety issues will find much to identify with here.

- Paul Burke - NB Magazine

The blurbs on the inside of the cover focus on The Fear Talking as a memoir of anxiety and its benefit to readers who wish to understand living with anxiety as the author has. In that regard The Fear Talking does a superlative job; it strikes the tricky balance of using repetition (the cycle of envisioning worst-case scenarios; the obsessive planning of timings to avoid disaster; the counting of tablets; the protective rituals) to create an immersive sense of what it feels like to live this way. Footnotes run throughout as a bubbling ever-present sub-narrative that insert a litany of worries into mundane moments. On a purely practical-writer level, it's an astonishing feat to maintain this without it becoming frustrating to read; instead it conveys a deep sense of exactly how exhausting it is. Much of the tension of The Fear itself derives from the author's inability to articulate his feelings to those around him, but as a memoir it does an inarguably vivid job of putting it into words. As a window into the experience of anxiety for those who have never experienced it in this way, it's illuminating; as a reflection for those who may be experiencing it without yet having words to explain it, it's invaluable... For a story that is so much about being scared, this is writing at its most fearless.

- Matt Bright - Everybody's Reviewing

In The Fear Talking, Chris Westoby achieves the well-nigh impossible, giving us a fully immersive account of adolescent anxiety, allowing the reader to feel and experience with the narrator. If one of the main aims of the memoir form is to induce empathy in readers, Westoby's memoir succeeds brilliantly. The reader comes away with a new and profound understanding of what mental illness feels like from within. Jonathan Taylor

- Jonathan Taylor, Associate Professor of Creative Writing, University of Leicester

As a nurse of many years’ experience I have heard countless stories of human distress and learned how to hold myself apart from other people’s suffering. Chris Westoby’s The Fear Talking expertly but gently slips past my professional guard to engage me in the life of a young man suffering from anxiety. The story is interesting, humorous, distressing, compassionate and intriguing, and as I read, I begin to understand the mental contortions behind the social paralysis anxiety brings, and then to discern its impact on self, family, friendships, schooling, work – the whole of life. Read this book, and you will never forget it. As a narrative it’s fascinating. As the memoir of a life lived with anxiety, it’s incomparable.

- Peter Draper, Emeritus Professor of Nursing Education, University of Hull

Anxiety is the most common form of mental distress and of course overlaps with normal human emotion. Yet it can be overwhelming and disabling and a gateway to other mental ill health notably depression and self-medication with alcohol and other substances. This engaging account throws a spotlight on how anxiety impacts on everyday life and relationships.

- Patrick McGorry, Professor of Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne

Chris Westoby

Chris Westoby obtained a BA in English and Creative Writing, an MA in Creative Writing, and a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Hull, where he is now Programme Director of the Hull Online Creative Writing MA. He lectures in Creative Writing, guest lectures in subjects of mental health, teaches reflective writing to Mental Health Nursing Students, and runs cross-faculty writing workshops. He works in research, collecting the stories of others. Chris was born and raised in Barton, on the Lincolnshire side of the Humber, where he still …

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A writer / teacher’s review for THE FEAR TALKING

A review for Chris Westoby’s The Fear Talking from the Winter 2020 edition of Writers in Education (82), from NAWE: The successful memoir sets out to reveal the intimate details of an author’s life, the lessons learned and key moments that shaped who they are. Chris Westoby’s The Fear Talking …

Chris Westoby launches THE FEAR TALKING

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