Book Review - The Anxiety Club: How to Survive Modern Life

Dr Frédéric Fanget (French psychiatrist) has created The Anxiety Club: How to Survive Modern Life- a graphic, self-help, non-fiction book that breaks anxiety down to its fundamentals, reassuring those who suffer that they are not alone.

Working with co-editor Catherine Meyer and Pauline Aubry, the team put together this graphic novel as a guide for those with anxiety. It is established that the book is not about getting rid of one’s anxiety, which is often how people feel when seeking help. Anxiety can feel like the cause of all of our problems, and if we get rid of it, all of those problems will simply disappear. But Fanget explains early on that it is when our anxiety becomes reckless itself and out of control that leads to deeper problems – but this can be rectified.

Fanget explains things in a simple, matter-of-fact manner. As a professional psychiatrist, this provides a sense of reassurance. In the graphic, Fanget is characterised as a superhero psychotherapist and takes the reader through the book himself. He acts a relatable point of contact throughout the book. The book is a gateway to finding commonality within anxiety and knowing you are not alone. We are just a part of an exclusive club.

Anxiety can feel like the cause of all of our problems […] But Fanget explains early on that anxiety ensures our survival

The comic book style greatly contributes to these feelings of commonality and companionship because of Aubry’s flowing, loose design choice. This presents anxiety as a natural aspect of the human brain. It not only emphasises the aim to normalise it but also showing how everyone experiences anxiety in different ways. Furthermore, Aubry uses brilliant juxtapositions between positive and negative space: in depictions of anxiety the page is filled, chaotic and colourful whilst in moments where Fanget’s character is explaining things he is placed in an abundance of white space, leaving room for the thoughts, fears and anxieties to surface and dissipate.

This is what the entire book is about – finding commonality within anxiety and knowing you are not alone. We are just a part of an exclusive club

The content of the graphic novel is supported by science and psychoanalysis and aims to cover the breadth of anxiety as a whole (although Fanget acknowledges every therapeutic action differs from person to person). The reader is calmly led through specific types of anxiety, the believed causes through history and modern psychoanalysis, and finally ending on treatments.

Nevertheless, one of the first chapters outlines the keys to understanding anxiety, which broadens the book’s audience. Although most people choosing to read it are likely to have some form of anxiety themselves, this ensures its availability for everyone. Even if one simply wants to understand anxiety better, for their partner or child or simply for their own benefit – this book is for everyone.

Even if one simply wants to understand anxiety better, for their partner or child or simply for their own benefit – this book is for everyone

The graphic novel finishes with a section on further reading and more details of specific anxiety disorders, types of therapists and other general enquiries. This becomes the perfect way for the novel’s end: anxiety is often led by spiralling questions and negative thoughts. This finale is calm, quiet and reassuring.