Tom Sykes with his wife Oge and baby Amara

We all suffer from anxiety at some time but few worry to such an extent that it becomes seriously debilitating.

Academic and former Islington resident Tom Sykes, 46, an international explorer who has experienced extreme nervousness all his life, has devoted an entire book to the problem, The Years of Travelling Anxiously: A Travel Writer’s Search for Peace of Mind.

The fascinating memoir, published by Islington-based Icon Books, has already received positive interest.

Emeritus Professor Sue Harper thought it is unusual for male writers to admit to their anxieties and misgivings. “It is usually female writers who work with their own lack of confidence. I would say that anxiety is a powerful driver of creativity.”

Tom writes that there have been times when his life was really in peril but he managed to keep reasonably calm. “I’ve been at risk of drowning twice – both times off the beaches in Southeast Asia. Some survival instinct dulled my fear, took possession of my limbs and propelled me like some clockwork toy against the overbearing current back to the safety of the shore.”

For stress, doctors told Tom to try breathing exercises, think positively and exercise more. None of it worked, although beer seemed to help – although obviously not in the long run.

One day he met a Nigerian woman travel consultant called Oge in Covent Garden. They became friends, then a couple, and eventually decided to get married. They now have a 17-month-old baby called Amara.

And guess what? Tom, while still suffering from his nerves – don’t we all? – is a lot happier and healthier.

His book relates to the many frightening experiences of his life in far-off places like India, Manila, Kathmandu, Nigeria and Vietnam. They include moments when suddenly for no apparent reason he begins to shake, suffer breathing difficulties and nausea.

“It’s ironic that someone who started travelling to overcome anxiety should become an anxious traveller,” Tom told Review.

His earliest memory of extreme fear was when he became lost in a supermarket aged six. “I couldn’t spot my mum and dashed around looking for her for what seemed like hours. I catastrophised for perhaps the first time in my life. I squatted down by a kiosk and just sobbed.”

He was finally saved by the voice of the store’s PA system which declared: “Would young Tom Sykes please report to till number seven.” It was where he was reunited with mum.

Later in life he would visit a poor Indian town containing people “dead or dying in the street, hungry children, disfigured women, and near fatal driving – I’d never seen anything like it. I had to keep reminding myself why I was putting myself through it. Witnessing the worst of the world should have made me tougher and sharpened my understanding of humanity and of myself.”

On two occasions while abroad he says he considered flying home because of acute stress.

In Hanoi, Vietnam, a teenage girl on a moped crashed into him. “It was one hell of a whack, after initial numbness pain whisked through my leg like I’d been injected with it.”

Another time a Balinese Chinese waiter gave him a glass of muddy-looking cola. He drank it noting the bitter taste. Heading for the beach, his arms and legs seemed far away, as if his neck had stretched to the height of a tree.

“I felt I was ceding physical control,” he says. He had been given psilocybin mushrooms, a legal high in Bali. “Shit! I’m an anxiety sufferer, I chided myself. I shouldn’t be taking such substances.”

Tom suggests that most places where he has suffered from anxiety he has also grown to enjoy.

“Arriving in India was probably the biggest shock because it was the first time I’d been out in the world. It was the extreme poverty, pollution and streets covered in rubbish. But after several months I found I loved it.”

Today Tom is associate professor in creative writing and global journalism at Portsmouth university. He says that having a child and writing about his experiences has really helped him. Since Amara appeared he hasn’t had a critical episode.

“Focusing on someone else’s welfare over your own has helped. Fatherhood has also obliged me to be a more responsible human. However, I’ve learned that I can’t live a life completely void of anxiety. There’s no journey without obstacles.”

• The Years of Travelling Anxiously: A Travel Writer’s Search for Peace of Mind. By Tom Sykes, Icon Books, North Road, N7, £20