A review by ovenbird_reads
First, We Make the Beast Beautiful: A New Journey Through Anxiety by Sarah Wilson

informative inspiring medium-paced

3.0

I didn't quite finish this book. It had some really good parts, mostly the memoir focused parts. I was interested in the author's experience of anxiety but I'm deeply skeptical of the more science focused things that she presents--she recommends quitting sugar a number of times (and has a vested in doing so since she wrote a how-to book on quitting sugar and also sells an associated app), she recommends visiting naturopaths, and suggests that Ayurveda makes sense even through it is psedoscientific in nature and has very little to no scientific credibility. The number of questionable scientific claims eventually led me to lose trust in the author and I stopped reading. That being said there were a number of great passages that were more about the philosophical and personal experience of anxiety and the benefits of mindfulness and meditation practices. I appreciated those. 

4 stars for the reflective passages
2 stars for the parts that strayed into psedoscientific territory.