It was Dr. Claire Weekes' approach that enabled me to recover from anxiety.
BBC Sounds have a short recording about her. Here's the description (link to the audio at the bottom):
"Face, accept, float, let time pass". This is how Australian GP, Dr Claire Weekes, treated anxiety, depression, panic, sorrow and agoraphobia in the 1960s.
The psychiatric establishment dismissed her as under qualified and populist but her book sold well and is still in print over 50 years later.
Woman's Hour presenter Jenni Murray spoke to author Judith Hoare who has written all about the GP in The Woman Who Cracked The Anxiety Code.
She described what the main message of Dr Weekes' Self Help For Your Nerves book was: “She said, yield entirely to the feelings, you must let those feelings run their course, for if you don't, you perpetuate the vicious circle. By fighting the fear, which is so instinctive in people, that perpetuates the fear. What she would say is, you have first fear and then you add second fear on to the first and you're in a vicious circle before you know it. So you must yield to it.”
Listen to the clip to hear Judith Hoare explain why Dr Weekes' methods to treat anxiety are still relevant today.
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