How We Break: Navigating the Wear and Tear of Living

Deary, a clinical health psychologist at the Fatigue Clinic and Northumbria University, specializes in helping people cope with the challenges and traumas (like illness) that come their way. That makes him the perfect author for this book, which elucidates what happens when people push their bodies to the limit and beyond. Using anecdotes, science, and even reflective questions, his book asks readers to consider what happens to their body when they are stressed and what lies in store. Deary writes that, in the process of explaining how people can break, he can’t help but also indicate how people can protect themselves. He reminds readers that their mental and physical well-being are closely linked. Once people fully understand how their bodies are impacted by worries and fears, he says, they have a much better chance of overcoming them. He asserts that through love, positive emotions, rest, kindness, and more, readers can find relief from stressors and start the healing process.