PLEASE HELP: Anxiety before reading important books

[Nancy Fulda]

Originally Posted by FatGuy

How can I reduce the anxiety I feel and be able to read the books?

Anxiety is a tricky beast. I wish I could point to a magic solution and say, "This! This will resolve all anxiety!" but usually, the fix is different for everybody.

Am I correct in understanding that the anxiety is related to a feeling of inadequacy? As in: when you approach a difficult book you desire to read and remember the important information in it but are worried that it will all make no sense in the end?

[Froide]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

Anxiety is a tricky beast. I wish I could point to a magic solution and say, "This! This will resolve all anxiety!" but usually, the fix is different for everybody.

Am I correct in understanding that the anxiety is related to a feeling of inadequacy? As in: when you approach a difficult book you desire to read and remember the important information in it but are worried that it will all make no sense in the end?

That's sometimes true, and may be true for the OP. It's also possible the OP's symptoms are caused by adverse conditioning (i.e., having, for some reason, formed associations between reading academic texts or material that is "good for you" with some sort(s) of unpleasant circumstances), or by a mental or physical health disorder (e.g., dyslexia, ADD-or-ADHD, or PTSD).

[FatGuy]

Thanks so much for the replies!

Originally Posted by LovesMacs

Why are you reading those books: are they required for school/work, or are they books that you've been told are classics/good for you/etc.?

As other people said, take notes. If feasible, try to summarize the essential points of a chapter in your own words.

If you are reading these books more out of personal enrichment and a desire for enjoyment, try not to get too bogged down in note-taking.

I do suggest making a list of characters if you are reading fiction. This helped me enormously when I read War and Peace.

I'm reading these books for school but also because I've been told by other people and also by telling myself "these are important" and I just get a lot of anxiety and cannot absorb the material inside the books at all.

Originally Posted by Froide

Responders have provided both a great chuckle (i.e., "stop reading important books") and several pieces of good advice. Several have suggested taking notes. However, you may be wondering how to take notes when reading important material.

I get the impression you're not referring to books assigned for academic or professional training, and you won't be tested on them. Whether that's true or not, it's a fact that various types of reading material require different reading, learning, and note-taking strategies. Therefore, I am providing several resources you might find useful:

*Check out some of the note-taking guides found here
* Review the Critical Reading test-prep guides for the ACT and SAT (which are applicable to everyone, not just test-takers) by SparkNotes and by Gary Gruber (NOTE: all of SparkNotes' books can be read online, free of charge, at www.Sparknotes.com!)
*Read or watch the video of How to Read a Book
*Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines
*Read summaries and analyses of the books you are finding difficult to read (either because they're dense, boring, or complicated), by such resources as CliffsNotes, enotes.com, SparkNotes, and heck, even Wikipedia
*If you really can't get through an "important" book that you'd like to learn more about, by reading it, then consider watching its play or movie adaptation.

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

This is your sticking point right here. The important work was selected for you by someone else: you're reading it out of a sense of duty rather than because it truly interests you.

The sports forums and flashy magazines, in contrast, are topics that snared your interest and convinced you to read even though they have no recognized societal value.

So I think what you're experiencing is perfectly normal. We naturally gravitate to the types of information best suited to our psyche, and tend to remember that information better.

Don't get me wrong! I think it's wonderful to read classic and significant manuscripts, and hope you'll continue doing so. But don't get down on yourself because the learning curve is higher there than on the stuff you've picked out all on your own. I have, quite frankly, forgotten 90% of Les Miserables and nearly 100% of War and Peace. I still think I'm a better person for having read them. These things have a way of sinking into your subconscious.

I'm not sure if it's a "sense of duty" as you say, but more of a feeling that I'm telling myself "it's important" and because it's important I just avoid reading them or if I do actually read the books I don't absorb the material because I keep telling myself "this is important."

[FatGuy]

Originally Posted by Nancy Fulda

Anxiety is a tricky beast. I wish I could point to a magic solution and say, "This! This will resolve all anxiety!" but usually, the fix is different for everybody.

Am I correct in understanding that the anxiety is related to a feeling of inadequacy? As in: when you approach a difficult book you desire to read and remember the important information in it but are worried that it will all make no sense in the end?

It's not so much that I feel inadequate, but just that I label the book as "important" so I give myself a lot of anxiety.

When I read junk material like magazines I have zero anxiety and I can understand them no problem.

[Chi Cygni]

Originally Posted by FatGuy

It's not so much that I feel inadequate, but just that I label the book as "important" so I give myself a lot of anxiety.

When I read junk material like magazines I have zero anxiety and I can understand them no problem.

It is like me with sleep. When I need to sleep or want to then I won't. So I tell myself "fine, I'm only going to stretch and relax in bed, don't care about sleeping if I can't" After a while I doze off. Maybe tell yourself "fine, I'm just going to read this one chapter here and that's it, don't care if I absorb it or not".

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have you tried taking notes if the material is important? That's easier than trying to simply remember things. I'm doing a part-time degree course for which I have to read a lot of academic books, and I always take notes while reading them. You don't have to rely on your memory.

This.

[FatGuy]

I still have the serious issue of avoiding reading books that I believe will help me greatly and I end up not reading them at all.

What can I try with this?

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by FatGuy

I still have the serious issue of avoiding reading books that I believe will help me greatly and I end up not reading them at all.

What can I try with this?

This is an easy one. Change your thinking.
"There is no book that will greatly help you."
Just think: here is a book I want to read. It is just words on paper.
Do not think any farther than that thought.

If you get something out of the book, wonderful.
Do not stress over or think about what the book can do for you.
All books are the same. Words on paper.
Or words on a screen.
Good luck.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by FatGuy

I still have the serious issue of avoiding reading books that I believe will help me greatly and I end up not reading them at all.

What can I try with this?

You've been given lots of suggestions. It's up to you.
If you want to avoid them then avoid them.
If you want to read them, read them.

[FatGuy]

Originally Posted by Chi Cygni

It is like me with sleep. When I need to sleep or want to then I won't. So I tell myself "fine, I'm only going to stretch and relax in bed, don't care about sleeping if I can't" After a while I doze off. Maybe tell yourself "fine, I'm just going to read this one chapter here and that's it, don't care if I absorb it or not".

Thanks for your insight. I'll give this a try!

[FatGuy]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

This is an easy one. Change your thinking.
"There is no book that will greatly help you."
Just think: here is a book I want to read. It is just words on paper.
Do not think any farther than that thought.

If you get something out of the book, wonderful.
Do not stress over or think about what the book can do for you.
All books are the same. Words on paper.
Or words on a screen.
Good luck.

Woah, I will definitely try this. However, I think what's holding me back is that I keep thinking that "my education is important" and since I know it's important to read and educate myself, my anxiety goes up super high and I can't learn the information in the ebooks I read.

[HarryT]

What do you intend to do about it? You've had some good advice in this thread, but now it's down to you.

[TGS]

Originally Posted by FatGuy

I still have the serious issue of avoiding reading books that I believe will help me greatly and I end up not reading them at all.

What can I try with this?

You'll forgive me for saying, but you seem pretty heavily invested in this "serious issue" continuing to be a problem for you. It seems to take quite a lot of effort to keep it going, so I wonder what it would take for you to give it up?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by TGS

You'll forgive me for saying, but you seem pretty heavily invested in this "serious issue" continuing to be a problem for you. It seems to take quite a lot of effort to keep it going, so I wonder what it would take for you to give it up?

Beyond what has been suggested so far I can only recommend therapy.

[ekbell]

It may be worth seeing if your college has a counselling center. as your anxiety is study related. If nothing else a experienced counseler will be able to give better advice then a bunch of strangers with only a few sentences to go on.