The book focuses on experiences of anxiety, and in particular anxiety related to having non-cis identities, rather specifically on anxiety disorders. Benson has previously published Trans Love, an anthology of trans and non-binary voices. The Anxiety Book for Trans People by Freiya Benson aims to support trans and other non-cis identities in dealing with anxiety. This is a good book that I think any trans person who experiences anxiety will find validating and helpful. This book is a starting point for dealing with that, and includes some practical ideas of how to deal with anxiety. It can be hard to pull apart what is just anxiety and what are genuine fears due to being trans in a transphobic world. As Benson writes, being trans can add another layer to the more general anxieties that most people experience. It's really nice to see advice for anxiety specifically targeting trans people because so often our experiences are ignored in more general advice. Sometimes it can feel like you're the only person who is anxious about certain things, and that everyone around you has their life together, but this book shows that we're all dealing with this together. I think reading this will definitely help trans people to feel less alone. The book includes sections where different trans people, including nonbinary people, talk about their own experiences with anxiety. The book is written in a friendly, down to earth way, and the explanations of anxiety are engaging and easy to understand. The advice is good, but the thing I took most from this book was simply the validation of another trans person speaking candidly about anxiety. The author has her own experiences with anxiety, giving this book a very authentic tone. The Anxiety Book for Trans People is a self help guide written by a trans person for trans people. Thanks to NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review! Overall, I think the book could have greatly benefited from going through another editing and beta reader stage, and from a clearer direction on the intended audience, and then it would have been 4-5 star material. I also have dealt with anxiety for a while but have not really taken the time to reflect on my coping mechanisms or seek out new ones as much as I should, so reading what works for others is super beneficial. It's very grounding to see your own thoughts and worries reflected back by other people who experience similar things. I really liked the tidbits of history in the intro, and the author's use of anecdotes and her own experiences to illustrate anxiety, as well as the "On Anxiety" sections where different trans folks talk about their experiences with anxiety and tips to cope. It sometimes felt like it was for cis people and/or people without anxiety to learn, and other time felt like it was for trans folks with anxiety, but overall seemed inconsistent. I also found that it was very simplistic or like a beginner's understanding to being trans and/or anxiety, which left me wondering who the intended audience was. In this way, it didn't really give tools for folks to rebuke these sorts of false statements about anxiety. For example, with the first chapter on myth-busting, a lot of it was saying things like "just no" more than it was actually explaining why these myths and misconceptions are wrong. I enjoyed this for the most part, as it often allowed me to breeze through the book, however sometimes I felt like it was too much and could have used some refining. If you don't like this kind of writing style, it may be hard to get past as it oftentimes is very casual-sounding. It's written in an accessible way with a very conversational tone that makes it easy to understand. However, there are still many commonalities, making this book a useful tool for folks with anxiety across the gender spectrum who aren't cis. I know I cannot appreciate, and do not experience, the lived experiences of transmisogyny and the struggles of being transfem that the author does as she is a trans woman. I felt very seen reading this book, despite being a very cis-passing, feminine person who was AFAB. This book is fantastic if you are a trans/nonbinary person with an anxiety disorder that you don't fully understand yet, or who has a hard time coping with anxiety.
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