Dancing Away an Anxious Mind : A Memoir about Overcoming Panic Disorder

In this engaging memoir, Robert Rand tells the tale of how through dancing he helped free himself from the grip of panic disorder. Rand was a serious, shy, and intense scholar who had achieved national recognition in a career in writing and radio production. In the midst of his success, panic attacks overwhelmed him. For more than two years, he suffered their debilitating effects; the disease flattened his spirits and stripped him of self-confidence. Then he discovered social dancing, and in particular Cajun and zydeco dance and music. Dancing became a cathartic and liberating endeavor, helping him beat back his panic disorder to discover a world of passion and romance and to gain control of his life.

Robert Rand is former senior editor of the weekend edition of National Public Radio’s All Things Considered. He is author of Comrade Lawyer: Inside Soviet Justice in an Era of Reform and My Suburban Shtetl: A Novel about Life in a Twentieth Century Jewish-American Village. Rand works as journalist, writer, and independent public radio producer based in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.