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Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

4.6 out of 5 stars 2,688 ratings

A step-by-step plan clinically proven to break the cycle of worry and fear that drives anxiety and addictive habits

We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.

We think of anxiety as everything from mild unease to full-blown panic. But it's also what drives the addictive behaviors and bad habits we use to cope (e.g. stress eating, procrastination, doom scrolling and social media). Plus, anxiety lives in a part of the brain that resists rational thought. So we get stuck in anxiety habit loops that we can't think our way out of or use willpower to overcome. Dr. Brewer teaches us map our brains to discover our triggers, defuse them with the simple but powerful practice of curiosity, and to train our brains using mindfulness and other practices that his lab has proven can work.

Distilling more than 20 years of research and hands-on work with thousands of patients, including Olympic athletes and coaches, and leaders in government and business, Dr. Brewer has created a clear, solution-oriented program that anyone can use to feel better - no matter how anxious they feel.

*This audiobook includes a PDF of the behavioral tendencies questionnaire from the book.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

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Product details

Listening Length 7 hours and 20 minutes
Author Judson Brewer MD PhD
Narrator Judson Brewer MD PhD
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date March 09, 2021
Publisher Penguin Audio
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B08MHDHMRS
Best Sellers Rank

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
2,688 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book provides actionable advice for dealing with anxiety and helps understand how habitual responses impact life. Moreover, the content is based on evidence and written in clear, accessible language. Additionally, they appreciate the book's humor. However, the pacing receives mixed reviews, with several customers noting that the first half is slow.

78 customers mention "Mindfulness"70 positive8 negative

Customers appreciate the book's approach to mindfulness, which helps them understand how habitual responses impact their lives and provides actionable advice for dealing with anxiety. The book clarifies how the brain works and offers methods to develop awareness of the present moment, making it transformative in both personal and professional contexts.

"Practical, accessible, transformational..." Read more

"...In any case...for me, this book has helped let go of these anxiety loops, or whatever...." Read more

"...It a very good place to start to understand our bodies better." Read more

"TLDR; The book is based on neuroscience with references, which is awesome...." Read more

62 customers mention "Book content"62 positive0 negative

Customers find the book helpful and worth reading, praising its evidence-based research approach.

"Good book but I really wish it would have had a warning about the discussion of lab rats being tortured in the name of science...." Read more

"Great book!" Read more

"Enjoyable and useful..." Read more

"...It is an eminently readable book that explains how "anxiety loops" are created by our minds and how to use a series of awareness and mindfulness..." Read more

39 customers mention "Ease of reading"39 positive0 negative

Customers find the book easy to read and understand, with clear explanations and straightforward advice that is simple to apply.

"...Overall this was a short and easy read (265 pages not including the notes and index.)..." Read more

"...in our brains, how to understand the complexities of anxiety in straightforward, accessible language, and the step-wise method for "unwinding" from..." Read more

"...book and I found the brain research especially interesting but also easy to read ...." Read more

"Clear, plain english reduction of academic research on how to move away from unwanted habits and towards fulfilling ones. Heard." Read more

17 customers mention "Pacing"3 positive14 negative

Customers find the pacing of the book slow, particularly in the first half, with one customer noting it takes forever to make its point.

"...I do feel it drags on a bit and may be hard for non-reader types to get through it...." Read more

"...This book starts off well organized, but gradually loses structure. The science is interesting, but the writing simply loses flow...." Read more

"...In many ways it presumes a body of knowledge. Categories are repeated and combined in confusing ways...." Read more

"...One critique is that these changes take a lot of commitment but the role of motivation and how to increase motivation are not really discussed...." Read more

A deeply humanistic, eminently readable book that will change the way you think about Anxiety.
5 out of 5 stars
A deeply humanistic, eminently readable book that will change the way you think about Anxiety.
This is neither a self-help book, nor a heavy duty science manual. It is an eminently readable book that explains how "anxiety loops" are created by our minds and how to use a series of awareness and mindfulness tools to "break the loop" and reprogram the brain to observe and accept anxiety, then move on. The author, Dr. Jud Brewer, is an addiction psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Brown University. He also is the head of research of their world renowned "Brown University Mindfulness Center". Unwinding Anxiety follows Dr. Brewer's previous book, "The Carving Mind", in which he discusses reprograming the mind to break habits (and addictions!) such as smoking or using cell phones. In Unwinding Anxiety, Dr. Brewer writes with a similar style - personal anecdotes, stories from his lab, easily understandable descriptions of complex brain mechanisms - to explain how anyone can decrease their anxiety creating habits. Although a significant part of this is using mindfulness and awareness, there is nothing esoteric about his research and methods, no religion involved, definitely no chanting, and no major time commitment. Dr. Brewer is an expert in how to apply mindfulness to improving one's health - in this case mental health - and the techniques he offers require nothing other than your own brain, self introspection and some basic motivation. Dare I say this is a page turner? I am not not a scientist, not an expert in the brain, and yet, once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down. I will definitely apply several of the techniques offered by Dr. Brewer, and reading his book also made me curious about his app, of the same name (Unwinding Anxiety). Anxiety seems to be one of the greatest challenges of our society, certainly here in the US. Medication is usually the standard treatment, and SSRIs certainly have helped millions of people. Nonetheless, we have tools to deal with Anxiety within us, and they don't require much other than our minds and a little effort and time. Whether this is to complement other treatments or a starting point, I believe that Unwinding Anxiety can change lives. It is a deeply humanistic book, one which will make you think about yourself, laugh from time to time, and who knows, it might have a long lasting impact on your mental health.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2022
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    [Second update, a month or two after having finished the audiobook -- raising from 4, up to 5 stars]

    So, I have understood and naturally implement much of the general gist of the book. I am remembering back to not very long ago when I was walking around the bookstore and looking for a book to help with anxiety. I feel so much better now. I do have little bouts of anxiety and for whatever reason (i.e. using whichever ideas/practices in this book that I now use) I relatively quickly manage to let that anxiety go and then I feel nice and good, and can go back to everyday life.

    I definitely would love to go back through the audiobook and kindle book (bought both) again in the future for a deeper round of learning. There are a lot of good practices and ideas in there which I skimmed on my first round through. That said, I don't feel like a humongous need to go deeper, at least not right now...I have a lot more energy and attention to spend on other life endeavors...

    All of this said, caveats I would share...I hadn't felt anxiety forever. I have experienced depression more often in the past. I also found over the years that various symptoms I had matched up to trauma, or Complex PTSD (not an official US diagnosis, but recognized in other places, and is definitely "a real thing" per my experience and reading). I had done enough "therapy that works with trauma symptoms" and done enough healing with that, and then over time was feeling a lot of anxiety for a while. This idea from polyvagal theory suggests that "the freeze response" can "lock down" your feelings of anxiety, and as the freeze response comes up, you are going to feel more of that anxiety from the past. Or that's how I understand it. In any case...for me, this book has helped let go of these anxiety loops, or whatever.

    Highly recommend for anyone experiencing anxiety, short-term or long-term; of course I only have used it based on my past and life experience, so I can only guarantee that it worked for me! :)

    ---

    [First update, after initial review -- 3-4 days after getting the book, about 67% through it, raising from 2 up to 4 stars]
    [initial title: Not clear to me that this book is really about ANXIETY... (updated, 2x)]

    So, as I wrote this update, I was initially updating from 2 to 3 stars, but after I finished writing this update, I'm now updating to 4 stars. I suspect that I may come back to this in the next month, after more time with the book, and eventually update to 5 stars!

    From earlier part of my review, I said he hypothesized [anxiety is actually caused by different "habits" you have] -- I did review the chapter where he made this case, and I understood this a bit more deeply, and was better convinced. And funny enough, I already forgot the rationale, but it made sense to me, I trusted it, and then tried "doing the work" a bit more...

    And...as for the "doing the work" I began to see some habit/pattern I do that seems VERY LIKELY CONNECTED TO ANXIETY... Its a habit I've had for a while. And it goes something like this. TRIGGER: "Something happens and I feel some discomfort in my body" -- BEHAVIOR: "I either 'know how to fix the external problem that caused my discomfort' or 'have an idea of which book I should read to fix the external problem that caused my discomfort' and I immediately jump into action to fix or figure out the problem!" -- RESULT: "I might actually fix the 'problem', or I learn some stuff about how to have a better chance of fixing the 'problem' in the future, and I become more certain that 'I know how to fix things in general'"

    And so...the self-perpetuating problem was that I kept trying to fix 'external problems' -- what I've noticed as I've begun trying to do what this book is talking about doing...is that I may be better able to tolerate "letting little things go" to a greater degree. Like...these are REALLY small things, here is a small example...

    At the bookstore today, some employee told a lady there that she was not allowed to take pictures with her phone of the inside pages of a book, saying something about "copyright laws." Seems reasonable enough, but I felt a bit skeptical. My thought process went like this: "Hold on...is this guy saying that if I buy a book and take a picture of a page with my phone at home, then I'm breaking the law? If that's true...maybe I'd believe that...but is this guy going to be in my home to enforce the copyright law? No...so why does he believe he can enforce the law in the bookstore..." I mean...to be clear, I do find these questions to be super interesting questions to answer! And I initially thought I would google the answer(s) to these questions on my phone, out of curiosity... BUT, at the end of the day...did the answers to those questions matter? They sort of do...for curiosities sake, and understanding laws can help my future business and career success... But they aren't questions I needed the answer to.

    And...if I WERE to google the question to that answer, I would have been perpetuating a cycle where "I feel discomfort...THEN I do something to alleviate that discomfort...THEN I might feel better..." and in the end that cycle keeps going, forever...every time I disagree with someone, I HAVE to look it up...and then I feel better. But the whole point of this book is to just...stop perpetuating the cycle. (Or that's how its looking to me!)

    ----

    [Initial review, wrote the first part of this 1-2 days after getting the book, and about 50% through the book -- initially rated as 2 stars]

    His "hypothesis" (not calling it a "theory" since I don't see the evidence to support this) seems to be:
    - anxiety is actually caused by different "habits" you have
    - if you map you your habit loops
    - and if you just feel/sense what happens in your body in these loops (what he calls "2nd gear" I think)
    - then you will eventually feel better

    unfortunately
    - I'm not clear whether or not I trust these claims
    - this "2nd gear" thing...just makes me want to lay down and be a zombie all the time (i.e. what I believe is "the freeze response" in trauma lingo). its unclear whether he's saying "oh just lay down in a freeze state forever and then your anxiety will eventually go away..."

    in teh end, as others have said, this book seems to be about HABITS not ANXIETY...
    74 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2025
    Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase
    This book was so informative and definitely helped me a lot in my journey! I recommend it to anyone who is struggling with anxiety and is unclear what is happening. It a very good place to start to understand our bodies better.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2023
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    TLDR; The book is based on neuroscience with references, which is awesome. I do feel it drags on a bit and may be hard for non-reader types to get through it. For those, I would recommend D.A.R.E, as there are very similar concepts. Then come back to this book when you have lots of time.

    The first half is a bit slow and redundant, and you'll ask yourself, why you aren't seeing the word anxiety much at all. In fact, the word "habit" probably appears in the book more than "anxiety". I'll admit, I was about to give up on this book, but it does take a big swing about midway through, so just note that.

    I am not too keen on the constant analogies of quitting smoking and bad food eating habits. I must say it seems curious that he constantly talks about his programs (apps., etc.) on those topics throughout the first half of the book. You would probably think you grabbed the wrong book off of the shelf if you didn't wait until second half of the book.
    22 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 19, 2025
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This book has been one of the best, practical books I’ve read on working with anxiety and other habits that need to be broken. The emphasis on mapping habit loops and on not trying to rationalize/willpower one’s way out of these habit loops was extremely helpful. A couple of things to keep in mind: It took me a while to work out that basically each chapter in the last third of the book is a different tool you can use to work on your habit loops and not a sequence building up to an overarching conclusion (although mindfulness is a common thread). I also found that, for some of these tools, it is helpful to have previously read books on (or to have a basic understanding of) mindfulness and mindset (Dweck, Goleman, Rinpoche) because the author moves through certain ideas and techniques quite quickly towards the end. But it was a wonderful book and it reached me at precisely the right time. Highly recommend.
    2 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • Laika01
    1.0 out of 5 stars Hard to read
    Reviewed in France on August 3, 2022
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Didn't finish it, It was really hard to read. I didn't like the statement that anxiety and addiction are the same thing. I mean I can understand, but It didn't sit well for me. I thought it would be an interesting, easy, and very engaging read, but no. I had high hopes, but I was very disappointed.
  • Wig-Carol
    5.0 out of 5 stars Buch lesen und mit der App arbeiten
    Reviewed in Germany on March 7, 2024
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Dr Jud Brewer muss einer / eine unbedingt kennen!
    Lesen ist schön man bekommt eine Ahnung... Aber mit der App UA "unwinding anxiety" zu lernen wie man mit dem eigenen Hirn umgeht ist noch besser...
    Report
  • Second to NUN
    3.0 out of 5 stars 内容的には
    Reviewed in Japan on August 16, 2022
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    内容的には、さほど目新しいことはないような気もしますが
    自分自身も不安障害(用語が違ったらごめんなさい)を経験した
    精神科医という視点が 若干新しのでしょうか
  • Jennifer Reis
    5.0 out of 5 stars Educational and Practical
    Reviewed in Canada on May 19, 2024
    Format: KindleVerified Purchase
    This book is an interesting one, it has a mix of easy to read and difficult to understand text. The book provides the mechanics of how our human brain works and how anxiety is built upon that, that explanation of the parts of the brain may get confusing for someone that is not interested in the biology part; luckily it is only a small part of the book. The book helps to identify what triggers anxieties and provides some practical methods to address and useful in my routine. It is definitely one of those books that is worth revisiting.
  • Liane Lanzoni
    5.0 out of 5 stars Ansiedade desmistificada!
    Reviewed in Brazil on July 24, 2022
    Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase
    Esse livro resume o trabalho do autor sobre ansiedade durante 8 anos. É uma preciosidade pela clareza da discussão dos conceitos e pela metodologia simples e pratica que podemos aplicar nas nossas vidas. Recomendo com a certeza de que vai ajudar outros, além de mim.