Having found the answer to the question posed by her book, Who Would I Be If I Weren't So Afraid?, Ginger Grancagnolo, Ed D, teaches us how to do the same thing ourselves. The author describes seemingly endless years that she has spent struggling with paralyzing fear to help others comfort our own insecurities and anxieties. Through comprehensive analyses of the different kinds of relationships in which we engage and of the various models through which we define ourselves, she emphasizes that even the most fearful among us can escape from the psychological obstacles that prevent us from leading healthy lives. The simple exercises that she provides enable us to regain our self-worth and to discover the tools we need in facing intimidating environments. Who Would I Be If I Weren't So Afraid? is beneficial to anyone who knows what it is like to be a victim of fear.

What Happened to Me The worst of it, as far as I can recall, was in 1975 when in my own way I thought I had lost a sense of perspective or reality. I thought I had lost a sense of who I really was. In fact, I was so riveted in fear I could no longer focus on any one point or thought or feeling for more than a minute at a time. I lived in fear that racked my body, that gave me chest pains, stomach distress, difficulty in swallowing, and headaches that finally ended in a migraine that lasted for almost three weeks. I was ashen to look at, weak, without rest, unable to eat, and I got to a point where I thought the only alternative was simply not to live. I lost focus of where anything was right or wrong, where there was power, where there was a sense of self that could bring me back to reality. I felt totally disconnected from everything and everyone around me. Perhaps the sharpest irony is that I continued to function... quite normally, according to everyone else... as a high-school English teacher in an inner-city school in Newark called Barringer High School. I remember in between classes having to go into the ladies' room, wash my hands and face, and look in the mirror and say, "You're going to make it. Just two more classes. Just one more class, then you can go home and hide." I'd rinse my face with cold water just o that I coul dhave the sense of touch, so I could know that my body was real and that I was not just a thought. I'd take a deep breath, not knowing if I could exhale. I'd walk out into the hall, face thirty to thirty-five kids, and begin to try to explain the parts of speech.

Ginger Grancagnolo, Ed D, D Min, is a dynamic lecturer, author, and private counselor. Thirty years experience in the fields of education, psychology, and theology have earned her many degrees and a sound practical approach to helping others toward self-assertion.

Dr. Ginger has lectured throughout the country and has been a guest expert on many radio and TV shows, including Montel Williams and Ricki Lake. She is the author of The Father Principle, Poems and Prayers, and Direct Your Self.

Dr. Ginger has been an adjunct professor at Bloomfield College in the Department of Education. She has a doctorate in ministry and spiritual studies.