Kelsey Darragh - Dont F*cking Panic: The Shit They Don’t Tell You in Therapy About Anxiety Disorder, Panic Attacks, & Depression

Copyright 2020 Kelsey Darragh. All rights reserved.

Published by Thought Catalog Books. This book was produced by Chris Lavergne and Noelle Beams. Art direction, design, and illustration by KJ Parish.

Special thanks to Bianca Sparacino for creative editorial direction and Isidoros Karamitopoulos for circulation management.

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Made in the United States of America.

Print ISBN 978-1-949759-27-3

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SO WTF IS THIS BOOK EXACTLY?!?

This is an honest-as-shit book of tips, tricks, and exercises for a generationafflicted by real-ass anxiety, depression, and panic thats hindering us fromseizing our entire lives by the balls. This was not written by a doctorinfact, our author dropped out of three colleges (THREE!!)but by a realperson who has spent her whole life desperately and successfully managingher mental health daily.

There are three sections to this book: Anxiety, Panic, and Depression

BUT! This isnt JUST a book about those things! No, no, no, this is a manyfeelings book! In DONT F*CKING PANIC!, were going to give you amyriad of tools to process all those feelings in a fun, ~*sometimes fuckedup*~, and genuine way. Sometimes you may feel sad, anxious, or evenpanicked when reading this, and well explain why thats okay! In fact, itsENCOURAGED! After all, feelings are just FEELINGSnot FACTS! Wehope to quell those ruminating feelings and perhaps reverse them. Or, hell,maybe sitting in your feelings and having a good-ass cry over takeout! Thejourney will be as multifaceted as a human can be! DONT F*CKING

PANIC is an interactive workbook thats meant to be carried with you,reader friend. Something to be written in, laughed with, cried on, torn up,and shared with a stranger who, maybe, one day, might need a page morethan you do.

This book is young, fresh, and f*cking brash as f*ck. Remember, Kelseysnot a doctor. Shes here to keep it real, and sometimes that means beingdark or funny or both, because when youre deep in mental-healthmanagement, its like being in some fucked-up club you didnt ask formembership to, but since were all standing in the same line, youre allowedto joke about it. The beauty of this book is that each page is a differentworking exercise, sometimes coupled with an anecdote or personal story ofKelseys matching the pages theme. For example, the page that works on

airplane anxiety also has a paragraph about Kelseys suggestions for thebest seat to sit in for anxious fliers, how to score free drinks, and the bestway to keep the readers hands busy if a seat-back movie just aint cuttingit.

Or, maybe youre having a panic attack RIGHT EFFING NOW and needrelief. Kelsey gives you step-by-step advice that not only covers breathingexercises but also how to manage the anxiety shits that come with the rushof a panic attack (you read that right).

In our Depression section, Kelsey gets honest: If youre going to bedepressed in bed for 12 hours a day, lets talk about how to make the mostof those 12 hours in bed (she definitely recommends finding time tomasturbate, because, as research shows, orgasming can help improve sleepas well as self-image, and reduce stress!).

There will also be conflicting ideas and methodology to read and practice along the way, because no ones mental health is exactly the same. Although we, as a society, like to classify people into groups and disorders, everyones brain is completely different. What might work for one person might be totally useless to another! Kelsey encourages you to try them all; maybe what you thought was a stupid and silly technique upon first glance might be the thing that gets you through your next panic attack! Or, hey, something to put in your Rolodex the next time a friend of yours is having a hard time. NICE WORK, ANXIETY

HELPER! YOU GO, GLEN COCO! Look at it this way: If there was one thing that worked for everyone, we wouldnt have hundreds of thousands of self-help books to choose from at bookstores and suggested readings all over Amazon.

This book is here to help people recognize their anxiety/panic/depression

accept it, and learn to manage it. Even if that management comes in theform of tracing Ryan Goslings face in the name of mindfulness. So, are youready to dive in? Its more of a wading into the water from the shallow

end. We have blow-up floaties, a hot lifeguard, and extra oxygen tanks ondeck here.

Before you begin

The exercises in this book are meant to be repeated as often as needed andare not limited to the space provided to write! If you need lots of room toprocess your feelings, my advice is to get a clean notebook to use alongsidethis book. Go nuts and write unapologeticallyuse all the paper you need!

There are also some exercises you can download and print at home (see theResource Index).

This book was written by a (very) sensitive comedian who often uses humorto cope with her mental-health struggles. Since this workbook does carrysome lighthearted convos as well as the deep dark shit (hi, suicidal ideology!

Thanks for checking in, you dirty rat bastard!!! Argh, come over here,gimme a hug, you fuck!), it should go without saying that each page couldcontain a TRIGGER WARNING while talkin bout these top-ees (topics.

Sorry, Im nervous).

ABOUT ME, YOUR ANXIOUS, DEPRESSED, AND

PANICKED PAL

Im Fucked Up. I Have Problems. I am Not Normal. My Brain is BrokenIs Yours, Too? These were some of the titles I came up with when trying to name this workbook (omitted title: IM INCURABLE AND IVE TRIED