Welcome to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books, the podcast that features conversations with writers of all types.

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I'm here today with Andrea Peterson.

Andrea is a contributing writer at the Wall Street Journal and the author of the book On Edge,

A Journey Through Anxiety.

She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and her nine-year-old daughter.

So welcome to Andrea.

Thanks for having me.

So you share in your book that you've spent your life since sophomore year in college

coping with serious anxiety disorder involving panic attacks and some other debilitating

symptoms, which I really want to talk about.

But I also really want to talk about your recent Wall Street Journal article, The Overprotected

American Child, which outlined how to prevent anxiety from forming in children, assuming

genetics don't doom them from the outset with their parents.

So let's start with the article, if that's okay.

Sure.

You began by sharing your experience when you left your daughter at home for a few minutes for

the first time and how you both felt, quote, a bit rattled by the whole thing afterwards.

Can you tell me more about that situation and how your feelings afterwards made you think about

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