How do you ‘Stop Overreacting'? (Answer: Read the book)

When you are criticized or rejected, do you have a tendency to lash out or withdraw entirely? Both types of impulsive reactions can have lasting and unintended consequences, affecting friendships, careers, families, and romantic relationships. The truth is, overreacting hurts us as much as it harms the people around us. Yet this kind of tendency, like any other, can be unlearned.

Stop Overreacting: Effective Strategies for Calming Your Emotions, by Judith P. Siegel, an associate professor at the Silver School of Social Work at New York University, has just been published by New Harbinger Publications (Oakland, CA). The book is designed to help readers identify their emotional hot-buttons, find new ways of processing impulsive thoughts and feelings, and feel more collected and in control in moments of crisis and stress.

“Stop Overreacting is a valuable guidebook for navigating the basic struggles of our emotional word,” comments Beth Jacobs, Ph.D., clinical psychologist and the author of Writing for Emotional Balance.

Siegel has been a faculty member of the Silver School of Social Work at NYU for the past 21 years. Prior to joining the school, she was a faculty member at Jane Addams College of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Her teaching and research deal with family and relationships, with a primary focus on couples treatment. Her previous book is entitled What Children Learn From Their Parents’ Marriage (Harper Collins). Siegel’s other books include Repairing Intimacy (published by Jason Aronson), and Countertransference in Couples Therapy, co-edited with Marion Solomon (WW Norton Press).