Owning it

With honesty, humour and a bullsh*t free perspective, OWNING IT is a no-frills account of anxiety from the front line.

Through the filtered lens of Instagram, it may seem like life's a peach, but in reality, journalist Caroline Foran has been living with crippling anxiety since her early 20s. Here, in OWNING IT, she chronicles her journey from the kind of all-consuming fear where leaving the house for milk was too petrifying a prospect, and holding down a high-octane Editor job was no longer possible, to spending every day crying under her duvet, wondering how the hell she was going to pull herself through. But then she did; she owned it.

For those facing the same struggle, Caroline explores exactly what anxiety is, its triggers and the various treatments. From CBT, acupuncture, diet and the often debated role of medication - she examines with honesty, humour and a bullsh*t free perspective what worked for her and gives us a no-frills account of anxiety from the front line.

'The hardest lesson and most important I learned was that embracing your anxiety is the key to recovering from it and living a life where it doesn't define you. Don't get me wrong; I still have shitty, stressful days at work, or days when I feel a little below par (one time I was particularly exhausted, ratty and hormonal and I cried because my boyfriend ate my last chicken nugget. I'm 28, I know) - but that, dear friend, is the human experience. What I have now, however, is confidence in myself to pull through whatever life throws at me, thanks to the invisible arsenal of effective tools I keep tucked under my arm.'

About the Author

Formerly of IMAGE Publications (and entertainment.ie, where she was the Editor), Caroline Foran is now a freelance lifestyle journalist working in Dublin, writing for publications such as the Sunday Business Post and the Irish Times, as well as running her own digital publishing venture.

Prior to her career in media, she obtained a degree in Communications and a Masters in Film & TV, both from DCU. Having experienced the full spectrum of anxiety, from dealing with everyday work stresses - that are, of course, par for the course in today's high-octane society - to a period of time where leaving the house alone proved difficult, Caroline has been chronicling her experiences and all that she's learned in various published writings. Owning It is her first book.