hayley vs anxiety

Life is not easy when your brain is against you. Hayley Morris knows, as she’s bene fighting against her brain for a long time. She would have to go about her life while her brain would tell her how horrible she was. She would have to shake it off when her brain told her to hurt one of her friends, or hurt herself. She had to fight against her brain every time it told her she was stupid, ugly, boring, or unlovable.

Everyone who suffers from anxiety knows exactly what that’s like, me included.

But Hayley has taken her experiences with her anxiety and written them all down, making herself emotionally vulnerable in order to show the effects of her generalized anxiety disorder. And she is willing to tell it all, from her acne to bikini waxes, her trouble getting an oat milk chai tea to using dating apps. She doesn’t hold back, so it’s all fair game, from periods to pooping. Hayley has stories about it all.

Clearly, there is nothing more important to her than her family, so when her father comes down with dementia while Hayley was working in America, she longed to go back to the Isle of Wight to be with her family. Her parents encouraged her to keep working at Disney for the full amount of time she was supposed to, and after that she moved back home to help her parents. She got to spend several more years with her father, but her grief after his passing was profound. It was one of the things that propelled her to therapy, where she went into couples therapy with her brain.

I have struggled with anxiety myself, so Hayley’s stories of going to the emergency room for her first panic attack or her issues with imposter syndrome. I think this book would help other readers who struggle with anxiety, or those who care about the people in their lives who have anxiety. The way she talks about her relationship with her brain is illuminating as well as entertaining, and Hayley reads the audio book herself, so her narration is natural and inviting.

During a stressful time earlier this year, I was using short videos on social media to deal with my own emotional struggles, and Hayley’s videos started popping up in my feed. She records short pieces where she argues with her brain as well as other body parts about everyday things like going to the gym or deciding what to wear on a date. As soon as I saw that she had a book, I knew I wanted to read it. This is a woman who understands anxiety and who can express to others what it’s like to have to fight with your brain all the time. And this book does not disappoint.

I feel like Hayley Morris is a translator of anxiety to the non-anxious and a voice of reason to those of us who are overthinkers, and this book is filled with that understanding. However, there are some bits that are not appropriate for younger readers, and the loss of her father could be triggering for others who are dealing with grief, so I would be careful about recommending this book to just anyone.

An early copy of the audio book was provided by Dreamscape Media through NetGalley, with many thanks.