'The Mind Works' by Will Beswick:
Reader Reviews

A review by Nicki Starkey. The 'National Phobics Society' 

'The Mind Works' is one man's powerful, personal account of his struggles with panic and anxiety…. Beswick also makes it clear how all types of panic and anxiety are related on the panic spectrum, and can manifest themselves in different ways. In his own case, this was in the form of illness phobia whilst at college. Beswick then begins to outline his own theory on how ‘the mind works’. Put briefly, this theory explains that we are either ‘fighters’ or ‘flighters’. Fighters internalise their panic and flighters externalise theirs. Beswick explains how he overcame his panic by realising that his panic was ‘secondary thinking’ - an internal process that was ongoing. He introduces a number of concepts, such as COPAST- concept of primary and secondary thinking. These are explained in great detail with examples to demonstrate their meaning. As the reader, we are gradually encouraged to find faith in our natural coping abilities..…The author uses a number of diagrams and workable examples for the reader to attempt. He also includes a number of responses to e-mails from readers of his own website (www.doyoupanic.co.uk) where he clarifies any points raised about his theories. It also means that he can tailor his answers to particular phobias or types of anxiety and explain how they work.

The author has also included contributions from other therapists, such as John Crawford’s explanation of OCD, which I also found very helpful. As well as this, he provides links to helpful articles, and opens the discussion up to include related subjects such as eating disorders and medication, and how these relate to his theories. 

Overall I was very impressed with the content and layout of this book.. it is written in a way that will help many readers to rationalise what they are experiencing and help them to look at the issues in a new light. It uses good examples, positive language and a personal approach that will strike a chord with many readers....

Nicki

R.M Hill 2014

There is no doubt that this book turned things around for me. Will is a deeply intelligent man who used his own long journey of recovery to develop a 'simple' technique to help rid unnecessary anxiety and panic. I say unnecessary as we all have anxious and low moments in our life due to various circumstances, so we just need to know that we do not have to do anything to augment these feelings/thoughts. Will describes how people unwittingly make themselves feel worse and spiral into panic by entering into secondary thinking. He teaches the reader to let these natural feelings flow and how to identify the natural cut off.

For me, it helped that Will distinguishes between 'fighters' and 'flighters' and I could relate to him as a fellow perfectionist people pleasing fighter. The book uses correspondence from other sufferers as they recover with his guidance and it is his responses to their questions that nail the technique home. I am utterly grateful to the personal responses to my emails as I have begun my recover. Because of the nature of the condition making every doubt a barrier to recovery, Will's personal response to any question no matter how many times it needed repeating has given me the confidence to recover and to learn about how my mind works to make it work better for me going forward. 5 stars are not enough for this. If, like me, you are sceptical of feel good mantras and other techniques for ridding yourself of anxiety, please please buy this book and learn to be you again naturally.

P David - www.anxietynomore.co.uk

I always think “here we go, another book that’s going to be full of therapist talk or concepts I don’t personally agree with”, but it was nothing like that. I have 100% belief that this is the right way to go.

Jason Pegler, Young Social Entrepreneur of the Year 2005 CEO of Chipmunka

Will’s COPAST analogy is very good. There is a lot of truth in what you are saying. I like combining NLP
with being - and I see that as an example of mental health empowerment.

Nick Watts (Advice Column section)

Will’s theory works... “The panic IS the problem. I cannot panic any more. It’s now ingrained. It’s subconscious.”