The Bookseller - Comment - Is your author stressed?

The charity, Mind, defines stress as how we react when we feel under pressure in a situation we don't think we can manage or control. According to the Stress Management Society, 79% of us experience stress at least once a month and 74% of us have felt overwhelmed in the past year. Although it's not a mental health condition in itself, feeling burnt out can be a gateway to other problems, including anxiety, addictions and low mood.

Being an author is a dream job - so why the angst? Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which I practice, is based on the theory that we all have our own unique set of thoughts, behaviours and feelings that link to how we see ourselves, other people, and the world - and this includes insecurities which can be activated in certain situations. In therapy, we call these critical incidents. They're like inciting incidents in novels: events that cause a character (in this case, the author) to be thrown off balance. And when we're in stressful situations, we can revert to our bottom lines - our negative beliefs about ourselves.