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highly recommended |
This author is one brave man! 
Between his honest and touching recollection of what life was like for him growing up and the vast range of therapies he experimented with in search for some solid self-help, he is not afraid to reveal his humanness and make fun of himself. I love books that involve a serious subject and yet are infused with so much humor that they reassure you that it is okay to be vulnerable, kind of like Dry by Augusten Burroughs. I have tried many alternative therapies myself but Brian Frazer's willingness to try unorthodox approaches was impressive and the outcomes were hysterical. This book was not only entertaining, but actually could be useful for people suffering from anxiety who seek alternatives to medication.
great read!!
Great book, super entertaining and funny, yet overall, very thoughtful. A must read for anyone who knows a "hyper-chondriac", let alone is one themselves.
Great book!
Brian Frazer has written a funny, touching, wonderfully memorable book that I'd recommend to anyone who asked. One of the most impressive things about the text is how it starts with a great momentum that never lets up (not an easy thing to do). Most memoirs leave me cold--they tend to fall prey self-pity or self-congratulations. Frazer avoids the traps, and leaves us with a great memoir.
He's a REALLY talented writer and I look forward to whatever he comes up with next. A fan.
I have never laughed this hard while reading
HYSTERICAL.
Such a creative and imaginative writer. The scenarios he comes up with are AWESOME. I sometimes find myself thinking "oh my God, is he living in my head?!?". His humor and ridiculous stories have actually helped me past certain things in my life and have helped me to realize that i'm not insane (not certifiably anyway)!!
I love, love, love this book. I recommend it to anyone and everyone.
A How-To Guide for the Budding Sick-o-holic
If you're the kind of person who's almost disappointed when it turns out your headache doesn't actually signal a brain tumor, or that your stiff neck is not the result of viral meningitis, then here's an aspirational book for you! Author Brian Frazer is one sick guy. He acquires obscure ailments, conditions and disorders with the ease of a web millionaire accumulating Russian mail-order brides. And boy, is Brian ever angry! Funny, but angry. Apparently, his rage pilot light never goes out. Turns out he grew up in a clan of kooks, and the effect on Brian was nature vs nurture in an internal war that still rages today - much to the delight of his vast retinue of acupunturists, yoga gurus, Kabbalah coaches, Indian nutritionists, etc. One of my favorite aspects of this well-written quirkfest is the child-like trust he places in each new "healer", even in light of their quack credentials. Brian's genuine desire to calm his unruly brain and body, along with the comedic self-awareness of his excesses, helped counter my amused horror at his bizarre outbursts and episodes. Brian's rudder appears to be his forebearing wife, Nancy, who tolerates his various quests with saintly mildness. "Poor Nancy!" was my unspoken refrain as Brian's full weirdness unfolded. The funniest thing was when I tried to discuss the memoir with my husband after I'd finished, but it was like we'd read two different books. I'd enjoyed the tale of an ultra-intense fellow who embarks on ridiculous procedures to control unrealistic amounts of stress brought on by seemingly nothing at all. By contrast, my husband found it to be a highly-relatable account of a can-do guy ingeniously coping with everyday problems. Now I'm wondering who I married.
reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
"I'm a hyper-chondriac. My prescription? Whatever you've got. And quickly, please. I'm in a hurry." With these words, Brian Frazer strikes the keynote for his quixotic quest for total wellness -- a seemingly paradoxical goal for a young man who doesn't smoke, rarely drinks and never misses an opportunity to floss. Chronicling his relentless search for inner peace, Frazer takes readers on a hilarious guided tour of his dysfunctional childhood, marked by an extraordinary ability to contract a new disease almost every month, a disturbing obsession with bodybuilding and a veritable sampler platter of disorders of every imaginable type. Snake oils, old wives' tales and oddball remedies dispensed by charlatans quickly become mother's milk to him. While other children are playing Little League, Brian visits his first hypnotist. As an adult, Frazer proves even more high maintenance. His forays into analysis, Kabbalah, yoga, anger management, psycho-pharmacology and puppy rearing are all attempts to achieve some sort of lasting happiness and inner peace. He discovers that almost everything works. For about five minutes. Achingly funny, uncomfortably true and always entertaining, Hyper-chondriac abounds with an antic energy one would not expect from so sick an individual.
one man's quest, calm, chondriac, down, hurry, hyper, hyper-chondriac, quest
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