It's Probably Nothing: The Stress-Less Guide to Dealing with Health Anxiety, Wellness Fads, and Overhyped Headlines by Casey Gueren

It's Probably Nothing: The Stress-Less Guide to Dealing with Health Anxiety, Wellness Fads, and Overhyped Headlines Reviews

• 
  Meghan

  I listened to the audiobook.
  
  Pros: talks about the different cultures (beauty, diet, fitness) and how their marketing strategy is to tell you you’re not good enough and only will be when you buy their products
  Talks about how to navigate bad headlines that induce health anxiety
  Talks about how education about our bodies and their normal processes is lacking
  
  Medium: Provides resources that could only ever be used in the USA due to their woefully inadequate healthcare system
  
  Cons: It was quite noticeable how often she talked about her experience as a journalist, and health editor. I think a balance could’ve been struck between providing examples in her experience to provide context and just reminding us why she should be able to speak on this subject. It can be taken as a bit on the defensive, given she isn’t a health professional, she’s a journalist.
  As a narrator she went from reassuring friend to a bit condescending and perhaps a little patronizing.
  I admittedly fell asleep a few times while listening to this book.
  
  I don’t honestly recall any advice on how to navigate the conversation with your doctor, or what steps to put in place to prevent health anxiety or overcome it, but I do remember that she worked for buzzfeed, wrote a lot of these articles herself, and edited countless others, and that at the end there were a ton of resources I can’t use or are irrelevant to me and where I live.
  
  I think the subject has merit, I think it could’ve been better executed.
  
  
• 
  Amanda Dripps-Karpinski

  Quite possibly my first ever DNF, but I cannot waste another second of my life reading this nonsense.
  
  If you’re looking for a guide to dealing with health anxiety, THIS IS NOT IT. This book is one woman constantly talking about herself, her jobs, her opinions on our sex and health education, her VERY BIASED opinions on supplements, etc. This book has nothing to do with health anxiety or how to overcome it.
  
  I forced myself to get halfway through. Once I hit page 100, I was done. The majority of what I read was basically just accolades about the authors life and career. Now, I understand that it’s important to know her background and where she comes from, but it has been covered over and over (as has her opinion on the topic of the lack of sex education in our school system.)
  
  This book is also heavily biased and she doesn’t even try to hide that. She says that CBD and most supplements are a waste of money (pg 18) despite the fact that these help many people every day. She frowns upon suggesting immune boosting tips on Facebook (pg 26.) She feels it’s “rude” to put calorie counts on a menu???? (Pg 39) childish! She even claims that turmeric and probiotics are just “trendy” (p71) and suggests that people take things such as probiotics as a “badge of honor” basically virtue signaling (p 72). Yeah… people don’t take them for gut health or anything. They only take them to brag on Facebook that they take them. Okay. AND WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH OVERCOMING HEALTH ANXIETY?!
  
  She rewords “information” over and over. All filler, no substance. And don’t worry, she will remind you repeatedly that she is a health editor who has reported on healthcare issues for sooo many years! I literally started tabbing every time she mentioned it. No, seriously, she NONSTOP talks about being a journalist and an editor.
  Here are the examples I tabbed between pages 58 and 94…
  “As someone who knows a lot about the way health content is created and distributed online..” p58
  “I’ve written and edited a lot of these articles” p59
  “..even when I’m editing.” p60
  “As a journalist, I get it…” p64
  “But as a health journalist..” p64
  “I write health content..” p65
  “As a writer and editor..” p65
  “..of what I did as a health editor.” p70
  “I’ve been writing health context…” p73
  “…I spent the better part of my career as part of the wellness industry.” p75
  “I was a full-time health editor..” p77
  “..my years of health reporting experience..” p80
  “I spend basically all day, every day thinking and talking and writing about health concepts that most people very rarely spend energy on.” p80 <—- thank goodness us average idiots have someone so much smarter to explain it to us! Constant condescension on her part!
  “…as someone who has been writing about mental health for a long time..” p84
  “I was a health editor” p90
  “I was a health editor” p90 no, that’s not a typo either
  “…says the health editor side of my brain” p94
  “…being a health editor..” p94
  
  Pages 56 and 57 were just ridiculous. She suggests that there are barriers that “disproportionately harm women, lgbtq, black, and indigenous people. These barriers she lists as living far from medical centers, not being able to take off work, coordinate childcare, and find reliable transportation, having language barriers, knowing that you won’t be able to afford the bills, growing up in a family that distrusts mainstream medical care, and previous trauma. What does any of that have to do with being gay, a woman, or black??? How are white men also not affected by those things? Biased garbage.
  
  This book is a COMPLETE waste of time and money. I wish I could give it zero stars.
• 
  L

  The first half of this book wasn’t a great fit for me, but a got a lot of great information from the second half. I looked up some new doctors on Zocdoc. I loaded my teledoc ap benefit from work and set up my account. I noted a web site for researching RXs. It is hard to stay ahead of medical issues and this book really has some great ideas about that. I definitely have been hooked into the supplement wellness trends to the tune of hundreds of dollars. This book along with some other issues has helped me to reframe that a bit.
• 
  Sille

  Casey Gueren on SELFi endine tegevtoimetaja, töötanud Buzzfeedi, Women's Healthi ja Cosmopolitani toimetaja ja (tervise)ajakirjanikuna. Ta on lõpetanud New Brunswickis, New Jerseys asuvas Rutgersi ülikooli ja saanud kraadi ajakirjanduses ja psühholoogias.
  Casey Gueren ei ole toitumisteadlane ega professor ning on kirjutanud raamatu nö inimeselt inimesele. Raamat oli paar kuud tagasi soodusmüügis ja kuigi ma olen juba sarnaseid raamatuid lugenud omajagu, siis ometi - kuidas näeb neid teemasid inimene, kes kirjutab meie igapäevaseid terviseuudiseid ja lugusid. Terviseajakirjanikuna usub ta, et olles ümbritsetud "tervist pakkuvate imede" ja klikipeibutuspealkirjadega, on kerge hakata uskuma, et oled oma tervise hooletusse jätnud.
  „Kas oled kunagi keset ööd oma MEDITSIINILISI SÜMPTOMEID Google'ist otsinud? Peaaegu kõik on internetist terviseteavet uurinud, kas enda või lähedase või mõlema jaoks. Juurdepääs kvaliteetsele teabele veebis ei tohikski tänapäeval olla ainult väheste privileeg meditsiinis – see on igaühe õigus.“
  Casey Gueren kirjeldab sissejuhatuses, kuidas talle helistas arst tema PAP testi tulemuste pärast, lausudes: „Tõenäoliselt ei tähenda see midagi (It´s probably nothing), kuid me peaks seda näitu jälgima...“.
  Kas sellise kõne puhul jääb inimene arsti vastusega rahule või hakkab muretsema. Gueren ise kuulub muretsejate hulka:
  Gueren kirjutab:
  „Uskuge mind, ma olen näinud, mida te Google'is otsite. See pole ainult ühe inimese mure. Tänase meditsiinisüsteemi järjekordi ja keerukust arvestades pole ime, et kulutame nii palju aega, raha ja energiat kiirete lahenduste otsimisele. Pole ka ime, et langeme röövelliku heaolutööstuse reklaamitrikkide ohvriks. Nende turundusstrateegiate väited ei toetu tugevale teadusele, vaid tunnetele. On tõesti üsnagi raske orienteeruda terviseteabe ja valeinformatsiooni tulvas, millega meid igast võimalikust küljest pommitatakse. Võib tunduda võimatuna aru saada, keda tasub siis usaldada, mida uskuda ja kuidas enda eest tegelikult hoolitseda.“
  „Ma ei saa teie tervisemuret ravida, tervishoiusüsteemi parandada ega tervisealast valeinformatsiooni netiavarustest eemaldada. Seda sellest raamatust ei leia. Aga see, mida ma oma tervisetööstuse nurgakeses olles teha saan, on aidata teil selles kõiges pisut lihtsamalt navigeerida. Saan aidata teil end vähem üksikuna tunda, kui olete oma keha pärast stressis. Saan tõsta nii teie tervisealast uurimisoskust kui ka teie kamarajura detektori võimekust eraldada tühi loba vajalikust infost. Võin anda teile tööriistad viimaste terviseuudiste paremaks mõistmiseks ja nende järgi tegutsemiseks. Loodetavasti suudan kogu selle tarbetult keerulise protsessi terviseküsimuste kohta vastuste leidmiseks muuta veidi lihtsamaks. Selle põhjuseks on asjaolu, et olen olnud otsingumootori mõlemal poolel – paanikas oma probleemide pärast, ning kirjutades ja redigeerides samal ajal väga palju terviseartikleid. Ma tean, kui masendav see infotulv on, ja ma arvan – ma loodan –, et minu kogemus võib aidata.“
  
• 
  Caitlin Mccluskey

  I’ve never had much health anxiety but I’ve certainly been bamboozled by wellness schemes so this book jumped out to me. Once I started reading I realized who it was written by - an amazing editorialist who I interned for at Cosmo Magazine back in college. I was able to imagine Gueren reading the words out loud to me and it made for a really enjoyable experience. The parts on health anxiety didn’t speak to me as much, so I skimmed those. But I absolutely loved her guidelines on how to vet wellness claims and to develop health literacy.
• 
  Jess Macallan

  If you've ever relied on Dr. Google for advice (and let's face, EVERYONE has), you need to read this book. This book is the friend you need to help you calm your fears, build your health literacy, and become a more savvy consumer, and advocate for your own health.
• 
  Knewmyer

  Really good advice if a tad long-winded.
• 
  Katta

  Incredibly useful and empowering! Highly recommend, especially now.
• 
  Katthew

  Very informative book on medical anxiety
• 
  Wendy Leonard-Richardson

  This is one person's opinions on what a person should do regarding health issues. It doesn't seem to address dealing with any anxiety much.