“We owe a debt to the legions of scientists whose insights and discoveries, over the years, have improved our chances of well-being. Alas, too many of them are unknown to us.  One name that was once broadly known has fallen into lamentable obscurity – that of Claire Weekes.”  - Sally Satel, M.D., Wall Street Journal, June 14, 2020

Dr. Claire Weekes spent her remarkable, long career as an outsider, choosing not to engage in research or publish in scientific journals in an era dominated by psychodynamic theory. She forged a path to solve her debilitating problem with anxiety and then shared her knowledge with millions of sufferers directly through self-help books and media appearances. She was a pioneer in treating anxiety, though today, many clinicians have never heard of her.  

Born in Sydney, Australia in 1903, Dr. Weekes received her doctorate in zoology. During her studies, she developed anxiety after having had an illness that was misdiagnosed as tuberculosis, for which she was sent to a sanitorium for six months. There, she lost weight and developed palpitations. When she was allowed to return to her studies, she was nervous and continued to have palpitations that her doctors could not treat. It was not until several years later that she talked of her distressing symptoms to a friend who had been in World War I and had seen the effects of fear in the trenches. He explained that feeling physical symptoms of anxiety was a normal experience and that she was making it worse by fearing it. Dr. Weekes immediately connected this comment with her education about fear in animals. Suddenly, she had an answer to her two years of suffering and a way forward. She was free of the constraints that she had imposed on herself due to her fear of her palpitations, and she was eager to resume work and share these insights with others who were suffering as she had.  

She made a career change in her 30’s, shifting from zoology to working with people, and at 42, she graduated from medical school. As a general practitioner, she prided herself on her ability to consider her patients' physical and psychological ailments, and other doctors in Sydney began to send her their complex anxiety cases. She spent 20 years working with patients and refining the way she understood and explained how to get well from anxiety. Her first book, Self Help for Your Nerves, was published in 1962 and became a bestseller in Australia, Britain, and the United States. At 59, she left her full-time medical practice to begin the next chapter of her life as an author and speaker. She brought her revolutionary ideas directly to sufferers and the response was dramatic. Dr. Weekes became a celebrity in her sixties, seventies, and eighties as she traveled and spoke hundreds of times to TV and radio audiences, connecting directly with sufferers and offering them hope.  She died in 1990 at the age of 87.  

In 2019, Judith Hoare’s marvelous book, The Woman Who Cracked the Anxiety Code: The Extraordinary Life of Dr. Claire Weekes, was published.  As Hoare says, “Weekes, with her emphasis on the nervous system and the concept of first and second fear, anticipated the return to biology and the physiology of the brain decades later.” I talked to Judith as she was researching and writing the book and was happy to be a part of documenting this important woman’s life. 

Though I never met Dr. Weekes, two of my mentors knew her well: my father, Robert DuPont, MD, and Jerilyn Ross, two of the co-founders of the ADAA. They invited Dr. Weekes to come to speak at one of the early conferences, though the recording of her talk no longer exists. I have come to think of Dr. Weekes as the grandmother of cognitive behavioral treatment of anxiety for her early, pioneering use of direct exposures to feared situations to treat anxiety and her focus on the importance of attitude in getting well.  Some of my favorite quotes from her include, “Panic is nothing but a few chemicals temporarily out of order in my brain,” “Peace lies in the places we fear; it lies on the other side of panic,” and “Noodle legs will get you there.”  As revolutionary as those phrases were during her lifetime, they are just as powerful with my clients now.  

Watching this short clip of Dr. Weekes is like seeing an old friend – except one I only know through the powerful legacy of hope she has left us all.