Little Panic

There are three memoirs out, all exploring mental illness: "The Scar," "The Edge of Every Day," and "Little Panic."

This genre is like candy to me, and I very much appreciate writers who acknowledge that mental illness generally isn't something you recover from. A favorite craziness memoir of mine is "Monkey Mind," where the writer admits that he sometimes wears thick pads in his armpits to control his sweating at work, and also where the writer says that repeated viewings of "Singing in the Rain" sometimes (sort of) help.

My own response to intense social anxiety--which visits me pretty regularly--is this:

*Search, on your phone, "how to handle social anxiety." You'd think reading this kind of article once would solve the problem, but as I'm nervously awaiting an innocuous encounter, I forget all the tips. Also, just doing the search gives you something to do, and this allows your monkey mind to be (briefly) less aware of itself.

*Remind yourself that you have in fact endured social encounters before, and no one has exploded.

*Plan some kind of reward. I particularly like this step. Some experts argue that you should view a social encounter as a trip to the gym--and you should reward yourself afterward. Why not?

*Just try to learn something. Even in the most deadening encounter, there's likely something to be learned. A nice way of looking at the world.

My (mostly-plagiarized) tips--concluded. Happy Summer Reading to you.