Bev Aisbett is an authority on anxiety and depression, who has sold more than 500,000 copies of her many books, which include Living with IT: A Survivors Guide to Overcoming Panic & Anxiety and Taming the Black Dog: A Guide to Overcoming Depression. Her latest, Worry-Proofing Your Anxious Child, is published by HarperCollins.

Self Help for Your Nerves Claire WeekesThis 1962 book helped thousands of people overcome anxiety, including me. Her facing down a tiger concept influenced me to create IT, the cartoon version of the Inner Critic in my illustrated books. Ive actually come to see IT in a friendlier light over the years hes just an obedient servant doing what hes told to do: worry or dont worry.

Bev Aisbett's 'up-front' style was influenced by Luke RhinehartCredit:

The Book of est Luke Rhinehart Around 1993, on a visit to the Gold Coast after a relationship breakup, I was awash in self-pity and misery when this book jumped into my hands. A fictionalised account of the 1970s est workshops, it was both a slap in the face and an awakening. It snapped me out of my angst and to a degree influenced my up-front style in my later work.

First Love, Last Rites Ian McEwan Prior to fate steering me in the direction of writing self-help, I had aspirations to be an author of fiction and had a few published pieces. In 1983 I came across Ian McEwans first collection of short stories and this began a love affair with McEwans works that has lasted to this day. His ability to explore the minutiae of the human mind is beyond peer.

Understanding Comics Scott McCloud My first work as a freelancer after years of paid employment (a move that initially unleashed my anxiety) was as a cartoonist and my work appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Age and The Bulletin. Scott McClouds extraordinary treatise on the history, vocabulary and versatility of cartoons in the form of a 215-page graphic novel elevates the humble cartoon to its rightful place as an art form worthy of the deepest exploration.

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Books That Changed Me: Bev Aisbett - Sydney Morning Herald