The Anxious Truth – A Panic, Anxiety, and Mental Health Podcast
- Épisodes
- 350
- Parution
- toutes les deux semaines
- Dernier épisode
- 4 Nov 2026
À propos du podcast
Struggling with panic attacks, agoraphobia, or other anxiety problems? The Anxious Truth will educate you, empower you, encourage you, and inspire you to get your life back!
* Featured in the New York Times: "6 Podcasts to Soothe An Anxious Mind" (April 27, 2024)
* Featured in Vogue Magazine: "The 15 Best Mental Health Podcasts Recommended by Therapists" (October 2023)
Listen to the podcast, read the books, join the social media community, and get on the path to recovery.
Participants
Épisodes 350
Is Calming Anxiety and OCD Even Real? | EP 356
Send in a question or comment via text.When you're really anxious, panicking, or in the middle of an OCD flare up, you feel strongly compelled to do something. A compulsion, a ritual, a safety behavior …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
When you're really anxious, panicking, or in the middle of an OCD flare up, you feel strongly compelled to do something. A compulsion, a ritual, a safety behavior, reassurance seeking, an escape. It feels like you're doing something important. In this episode I explain why I call all of that theater. It looks and feels like you're accomplishing something, but all it really does is change how you feel in the moment.
I start by walking through the anxiety and OCD cycle and where anxiety disorders branch off from regular garden variety anxiety. Then I talk about imaginary connections, a concept you'll recognize if you know the inferential confusion model of OCD. A thought about an apple is not an apple, and if I start biting the air because I'm craving one, you'd look at me funny. Your fear of death, insanity, moral failure, or being overwhelmed works the same way. The fear is not the actual outcome, so the things you do to calm that fear have zero impact on the outcome itself. Powerful emotions can make those connections feel completely real anyway.
I also acknowledge that wanting to feel better is not a crime or a failure. I wanted to feel better too. But recovery relies on the transient nature of all internal experiences. Feelings come and go on their own, and calming down tends to happen when we do less about how we feel. That's why so many recovered people look back and say, "I can't believe I used to do that."
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.When OCD Comes Back w/Jess Marriner | EP 355
Send in a question or comment via text.If you have OCD, you've probably heard that it can never be cured, only managed. That can leave you wondering what happens if it comes back. This week I talk with …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
If you have OCD, you've probably heard that it can never be cured, only managed. That can leave you wondering what happens if it comes back. This week I talk with Jess Marriner, an OCD therapist in the UK who also has OCD, about what that actually looks like and what she does when it happens.
A few days before we recorded, Jess had a morning where she fell down the rabbit hole of ruminating about one of her classic themes. She's open about that because she doesn't want anyone with OCD to think they're failing when it happens to them. The way Jess sees it, when people say their OCD is back, what's really going on is they've started doing compulsions again. Looking at it that way gives you some agency, because compulsions are something you can choose to stop doing.
We talk about why OCD tends to flare up during times of high stress, how to recognize when you're in the rabbit hole, and how physical sensations can be a clue that you're ruminating. OCD will try to tell you those sensations are proof that the thought matters. Jess shares her rule that no rumination is good rumination, the difference between problem solving and problem spinning, and why accepting the presence of a thought is different from accepting what it might mean. We also get into measuring recovery by impact. An hour down the rabbit hole is a very different thing from months of your life.
Find Jess on Instagram at https://instagram.com/jessmarrinertherapy and at https://www.jessmarrinertherapy.com
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/355
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.How To Turn Off Anxious Self-Scanning and Checking | EP 354
Send in a question or comment via text."How do I stop scanning and checking myself all the time?" If you struggle with anxiety or OCD, you've probably asked some version of that question. Scanning your …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
"How do I stop scanning and checking myself all the time?"
If you struggle with anxiety or OCD, you've probably asked some version of that question. Scanning your body for sensations. Scanning for bad thoughts. Checking whether a thought or emotion is the right one. I get asked how to make it stop almost every day.
In this episode I tell you the honest answer. You can't turn it off. Even my therapist brain scans and checks. I get migraine aura, and while I've learned to carry on with my day when it happens, my fully recovered anxiety expert brain still spends hours afterward scanning for signs it might come back. I know logically that it's over. My brain scans anyway.
That scanning function is normal and it serves a purpose. It's thinking that happens outside our awareness, and it naturally goes after the things that matter most to us, like safety, health, identity, and what we value. So the work in recovery is learning to recognize that process running and let it do its thing without making it the most important thing in the room. That takes practice with attention and a willingness to act courageously when your brain is telling you something is wrong. Over time, your brain may learn it doesn't need to scan as much.
I also talk about why this simple strategy is so hard to put into practice, and why you aren't failing when the scanning kicks in.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/354
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety And The "Almost" Story | Ep 353
Send in a question or comment via text."I almost passed out.""I almost made a scene.""I almost ruined everything."If you have an anxiety disorder or OCD, you probably recognize that sentence. The word almost …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
"I almost passed out."
"I almost made a scene."
"I almost ruined everything."
If you have an anxiety disorder or OCD, you probably recognize that sentence. The word almost shows up constantly, and treating it like a fact is one of the things that keeps the cycle going.
In this episode I want to talk about what I call the almost story: the narrative anxiety and OCD write after a difficult moment to give your escape behaviors and compulsions credit for preventing a disaster that was never actually going to happen. The almost story feels completely real. The sensations were intense, the fear was overwhelming, and then you did your ritual or your avoidance and you felt better. So obviously the almost thing almost happened and your action stopped it, right?
That framing is a cognitive distortion, and a costly one. Because when the almost story gets written on the back end of a triggered episode, it fuels anticipatory anxiety on the front end of the next one. The cycle repeats. You never get to see anxiety and discomfort rise and fall on their own because the almost story keeps telling you that giving it that chance would be reckless.
I walk through where the almost story shows up in the cycle, why it's a story rather than a fact, what the proof of that actually is, and what it looks like to start recognizing and challenging it bit by bit.
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety, OCD and the Cost of Negotiated Avoidance | EP 352
Send in a question or comment via text.Every time you give in to an avoidance or a ritual, it seems reasonable. Skip one social event, spend a few extra minutes on a compulsion, take one "me day" instead of …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Every time you give in to an avoidance or a ritual, it seems reasonable. Skip one social event, spend a few extra minutes on a compulsion, take one "me day" instead of pushing through. In isolation, none of it feels like a big deal. What's the harm?
That's the trap. Not the individual behaviors themselves, but what happens when you add them all up.
In this episode I want to talk about what I call negotiated avoidance: the process by which each individual accommodation to anxiety or OCD feels justified, smart, even cautious in the moment, while the cumulative cost quietly hollows out your life. Life gets smaller. Restrictions mount. Anxiety and OCD keep moving the goalposts. And the reason you can never seem to satisfy them is that they're not reasonable. You can't negotiate with a terrorist, and that's what anxious and OCD-driven demands actually are.
I talk through why each individual avoidance feels like no big deal, why that feeling is part of the trap, and what it looks like when you start asking a different question: not "what's the harm in this one thing?" but "what does all of this cost me in total?" The answer is usually more than people expect. I also talk through why change here doesn't happen overnight and what it actually looks like to chip away at this bit by bit without declaring yourself a failure when things don't click instantly.
The Act Triflex Episodes:
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/352
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety and OCD: The Strategy Mismatch Issue | EP 351
Send in a question or comment via text.Anxiety disorders and OCD are what you get when a perfectly functioning brain applies its usual problem-solving strategies to the wrong problem. Your brain is good at …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Anxiety disorders and OCD are what you get when a perfectly functioning brain applies its usual problem-solving strategies to the wrong problem. Your brain is good at solving things. The trouble is it keeps trying to solve something that isn't actually the problem, and that's what keeps you stuck in the loop: trigger, fix, feel better for a while, repeat.
In this episode I want to introduce the concept of strategy mismatch. The things that seem to need fixing in anxiety and OCD (the intrusive thoughts, the physical sensations, the worries about health or relationships or moral character, the uncertainty you can't seem to resolve) are not the actual problem. The actual problem is the fear and discomfort those things produce, and the endless attempts to eliminate that discomfort are what keep the disorder running.
How do you know? Because when you escape, avoid, reassure yourself, or perform a compulsion and feel better for a little while, the problem isn't solved. You just bought temporary relief until the cycle starts again. The strategy doesn't match the problem in front of you.
I talk through what the right strategy looks like, why it's counterintuitive, what gets in the way of applying it, and why this whole framing is actually good news. You don't have to solve your heartbeat, or the opinions of others, or the unpredictability of being alive. That was never going to work anyway.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/351
Want to talk about this episode or interact with me, Josh Fletcher, and folks that are sharing your experience and understand it? I'm hanging out on the Disordered community app:
https://disordered.fm/community
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety and Avoidance Explained | EP 350
Send in a question or comment via text.Anxiety and avoidance go hand in hand, and most people struggling with an anxiety disorder have been told that avoidance makes things worse. But there's a lot of …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Anxiety and avoidance go hand in hand, and most people struggling with an anxiety disorder have been told that avoidance makes things worse. But there's a lot of confusion in this community about what avoidance actually means. What are you avoiding? What aren't you avoiding? And why does it feel like letting go of the scary thought is the same as ignoring the problem?
In this episode I want to clear that up. The key is understanding the difference between the content of your anxiety and the process. The content is the scary thought, the intrusive image, the somatic symptom, the worry your GAD has decided is urgent today, the OCD theme that won't let go. None of that is what you're avoiding. What you're actually avoiding is the discomfort that content triggers inside of you.
Avoidance is everything you do to make that discomfort stop. The reassurance seeking. The compulsive looping and arguing with thoughts. The safety behaviors, the escape, the checking, the constant attempts to prove the thought wrong or calm the body down. That's the avoidance. And the action of letting a scary thought or sensation just be there without responding to it? That is not avoidance at all.
This distinction matters because it changes the whole picture of what you have to work on. I walk through how this plays out across panic disorder, OCD, health anxiety, GAD, and agoraphobia.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/350
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Want to talk about what you heard in this episode, or interact with me, Josh Fletcher, and others that share and understand your experience? I'm hanging out in the Disordered Community Space:
https://disordered.fm/community
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety Recovery Relapse Prevention - The Morning Routine | EP 349
Send in a question or comment via text.One of the more common mistakes people make as they progress in anxiety disorder recovery is treating recovery as something separate from the rest of their lives. You do …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
One of the more common mistakes people make as they progress in anxiety disorder recovery is treating recovery as something separate from the rest of their lives. You do the therapy work in one box, and everything else goes in another. That tends to backfire.
In this episode I want to introduce the concept of relapse prevention, and I want to do it in the context of building a daily routine that keeps you connected to the strategies and principles that helped you make progress in the first place.
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Want to talk about what you heard in this episode? I'm hanging out in the Disordered Community Space:
https://disordered.fm/community
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This is not a magic morning routine. I'm not going to promise you'll be unrecognizable in six weeks or that you'll never have a setback. What I will say is that people who build consistent habits around these practices do tend to fare better when life gets hard again, and life always does. The old pathways never get deleted. They just get unused for a while. So it's worth building habits that make it harder to accidentally fall back into them.
I walk through a four-pillar framework for building that kind of routine: attention and mindfulness practice, physical movement, emotional expression, and what I'm calling exploration, which is the part where you stay connected to the things that actually matter to you and feed something other than your anxiety.
I also talk about the trap of feeling good, because feeling good is exactly when a lot of people start quietly abandoning the habits that got them there. And I have a word for the internet, which tends to ruin this kind of thing with aesthetics, comparison, and influencer nonsense.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/349
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.How Do I Stop Obsessing Over ...? | EP 348
Send in a question or comment via text.Everybody wants to know how to stop obsessing over whatever has them scared right now. In this episode I explain why that's the wrong question, and what to ask …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Everybody wants to know how to stop obsessing over whatever has them scared right now. In this episode I explain why that's the wrong question, and what to ask instead.
In OCD and anxiety disorders, an obsession isn't just a strong thought or a passing worry. It functions like a threat. That's why you can't just decide to turn it off. You can't out argue it, out logic it, or replace it with a happier thought, and I'm guessing you've already tried all three.
The real leverage is in the compulsion, the thing you do to try to feel safer once the obsession fires. Checking, reassurance seeking, mental rituals, researching, arguing with your own fear in your head. Those are learnable, even though resisting them is genuinely hard. I get into why the distress that shows up when you resist a compulsion doesn't mean you've made a mistake, and why stopping the obsession ends up being a side effect of working on the compulsion, not the goal itself.
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Want to talk about what you're hearing in this episode? You can interact with me on the Disordered Community Space:
https://disordered.fm/community
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Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.The Truth In Anxiety Recovery. There Are No "Game Changing" Moments | EP 347
Send in a question or comment via text.In my anxiety recovery journey, there were no game-changing moments. No mic drops, no epiphanies, no single concept or technique that suddenly moved me forward. And when I …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
In my anxiety recovery journey, there were no game-changing moments. No mic drops, no epiphanies, no single concept or technique that suddenly moved me forward. And when I look at the people I've worked with in my therapy practice and the community I've built around this podcast, that's pretty much how it goes for everyone.
You're probably searching for one, though. I get it. Everybody has a right to want to feel better quickly, and the endless scroll is very good at promising you the ONE thing that changes everything. But that search can quietly become its own problem.
In this episode I share what my recovery actually looked like: slow, quiet, and mostly unnoticeable until it wasn't. The progress showed up as backward-looking realizations, not forward-looking epiphanies. I moved out of that "anxiety disorder apartment" one item at a time over a long stretch. Then one day I looked around and the place was empty and it was time to leave. So anti-climactic!
I also talk about the important moments that did show up along the way, why even those weren't game changers, what the actual mistake is when you've been searching and scrolling for years, and what a genuine shift looks like when you're ready to make one.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/347
Want to talk about this episode, interact with me and Disordered co-host Josh Fletcher, and participate in a community of supportive people that are sharing your experience? I'm hanging out in the Disordered community space:
https://disordered.fm/community
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Core Principles of OCD Recovery w/Kimberley Quinlan | EP 346
Send in a question or comment via text.In this episode, we are breaking down five core principles of OCD recovery. To help explore this topic, I am joined by Kimberley Quinlan, an anxiety and OCD specialist …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
In this episode, we are breaking down five core principles of OCD recovery. To help explore this topic, I am joined by Kimberley Quinlan, an anxiety and OCD specialist practicing in Los Angeles and host of the Your Anxiety Toolkit podcast.
OCD recovery is often viewed as a rigid list of steps, but it is better understood through specific attributes and ingredients that you can learn to practice and strengthen over time.
Here is what you need to know about the core components of OCD recovery:
1. Clarity of Vision
Having a clear picture of what you want your life to look like is a powerful predictor of success. This does not mean you must have every detail mapped out perfectly, but you need a general template of the life you want to live. Recovery is not merely the absence of intrusive thoughts or anxiety; it is about deciding what your life will look like when you choose to let those thoughts exist without letting them run the show.
2. Willingness to Endure Discomfort
You must be willing to let OCD come along for the ride. This means moving forward with your valued life plans whileexperiencing discomfort, intrusive thoughts, feelings, sensations, urges, and images. Whether you are practicing driving in your neighborhood or returning to school, you must learn to slow down and be in relation to actual physical discomfort.
3. Self-Compassion and Kindness
Practicing while uncomfortable is difficult, and it requires kindness toward yourself. This means eliminating the critical, negative inner dialogue that tells you that you are a failure or that you should be further along in your journey. Kindness also means physically validating your own distress, acknowledging your racing heart or somatic symptoms, and making space for them rather than fighting them.
4. Attentional Awareness
Attention training is your ability to intentionally choose where to direct your focus in the midst of chaos. Intrusive thoughts feel chaotic, but you have the agency to anchor your attention to a focal point in the present moment, whether that is a sound, a physical task, or a loved one's voice. This is a muscle that you strengthen through small, repetitive daily actions.
5. Focus on Response Prevention
While exposure and response prevention (ERP) is the gold standard for treatment, the emphasis belongs heavily on response prevention. Identifying your compulsions and safety behaviors, and then slowing down or stopping them, is far more critical than seeking out the most intense exposures. Take an honest inventory of your compulsions and work consistently to reduce them.
A Note on Consistency These attributes are not static personality traits, nor will they remain at a constant level every day. Some days your willingness will be low, or your self-compassion will wane. Recovery is messy, and consistency matters far more than intensity. Be gentle with yourself, allow space for humor when you catch your OCD trying to trick you, and keep making small, practical choices to move forwardFind Kim online:
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/346
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.How Does an Anxiety Therapist NOT Get Triggered? | Ep 345
Send in a question or comment via text.How Does an Anxiety Therapist Talk About Anxiety All Day Without Getting Triggered?People ask me this constantly. I'm a former sufferer of panic disorder …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
How Does an Anxiety Therapist Talk About Anxiety All Day Without Getting Triggered?
People ask me this constantly. I'm a former sufferer of panic disorder, agoraphobia, OCD, and depression — and now I spend my days immersed in all of it. Therapy clients, podcasts, books, social media. Anxiety is basically my entire professional life. So how does a person like me not end up right back where they started?
The answer isn't a trick or a technique. It's what recovery actually produces — and once you understand it, it reframes what you're working toward in a pretty significant way.
In this episode I explain why talking about anxiety all day doesn't trigger me, what changed through my own recovery process, and why the same change is available to you. I also share a real example from the last few months involving my dog Copper, some stress-related symptoms that showed up during a difficult time, and what it looked like to have those experiences without fear driving the whole thing.
We also get into my OCD history with existential thoughts — something that used to pin me down for weeks — and what that same material looks like now. Same discomfort. Completely different relationship to it.
This one is old school Anxious Truth. No script, no notes. Just an honest answer to a question a lot of you have been asking, and what I think it means for where you're headed.
For show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/345
Want to talk about this episode with me, Josh Fletcher, and others that are sharing your experience and know what it feels like? I'm hanging out on the Disordered Community Space:
https://disordered.fm/community
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.OCD and Acceptance - How Does That Work? | Ep 344
Send in a question or comment via text.Many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) struggle to understand how the concept of acceptance applies to their recovery. While it seems straightforward in the …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) struggle to understand how the concept of acceptance applies to their recovery. While it seems straightforward in the context of panic disorder or health anxiety, where sufferers learn to accept temporary physical sensations, applying acceptance to distressing intrusive thoughts and images can feel confusing or even dangerous.
In this episode of The Anxious Truth, I'm joined by OCD specialists Joanna Hardis (Cleveland) and Lauren Rosen (Los Angeles) to clarify the role of acceptance in obsessive-compulsive disorder treatment.
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Want to talk about this episode with me and others that share your experience? I'm hanging out in the Disordered Community Space
https://disordered.fm/community
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Key Takeaways
- Accepting Thoughts vs. Agreeing with Content: Acceptance in OCD does not mean you agree with, like, or approve of your intrusive thoughts. It means acknowledging the realistic presence of the thought or image in your mind at that moment instead of trying to fight, fix, or erase it.
- The Role of Uncertainty: A major hurdle in obsessive-compulsive disorder recovery is the urge to reach 100% certainty about your fears. True acceptance requires sitting with the discomfort of uncertainty regarding your thoughts, feelings, and what they might imply.
- Experiential Discomfort: Ultimately, the core of OCD acceptance is learning to tolerate internal uneasiness and anxiety without turning to compulsions, safety behaviors, or rituals to get rid of it.
- The Reality of Progress: Giving up the struggle against your thoughts doesn't result in a dramatic parade or instant relief. It is a gradual, quiet process of allowing discomfort to exist while you choose to move forward with your day anyway.
Find Joanna Hardis at https://joannahardis.com
or on Instagram at https://instagram.com/joannahardis
Find Lauren at https://theobsessivemind.com
or on Instagram at https://instagram.com/theobsessivemind
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/344
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Neuroscience and Therapy w/Ana Lund | Ep 343
Send in a question or comment via text.This episode of The Anxious Truth dives into the messy intersection of neuroscience and psychotherapy. I’m joined by Ana Lund, a UK-based psychotherapist specializing in …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
This episode of The Anxious Truth dives into the messy intersection of neuroscience and psychotherapy. I’m joined by Ana Lund, a UK-based psychotherapist specializing in the link between brain science and clinical practice, to discuss how we actually use research to help you recover.
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Want to discuss what you heard today? I'm hanging out on the Disordered Community Space
https://disordered.fm/community
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We often hear about "evidence-based practice," but translating a laboratory study into a therapy session is a significant challenge. Ana and I discuss the reality of staying current with research, the limitations of single studies, and why "neuro-nonsense" often takes the place of actual science in social media mental health content.
Key Topics Covered:
- The Challenge of Staying Current: Why it is nearly impossible for any single practitioner to keep up with the massive volume of new neuroscience research.
- Research vs. Practice: The gap between understanding how the brain works and knowing how to "work" the brain in a practical, therapeutic way.
- The Role of Meta-Analyses: Why looking for trends and body-of-knowledge reviews is more reliable than hanging your hat on one exciting new study.
- Constructed Emotion: How modern theories like Lisa Feldman Barrett’s "Theory of Constructed Emotion" change the way we approach feelings in the therapy room.
- Affect Labeling: How describing what you feel (without needing a "perfect" word for it) helps regulate distress and prevents the jump to catastrophic predictions.
- The "Secret Sauce" of Mindfulness: How neuroscience helped validate and secularize eastern practices by stripping away unnecessary "bells and whistles" to find what actually works: slowing down.
Our goal is to demystify how science informs recovery. Understanding that your brain isn't "broken" but is instead following natural, albeit difficult, processes can empower you to take the small, practical steps necessary for long-term change.
Find Ana on her Substack:
https://neuroscienceandpsy.substack.com/
or on her website:
https://www.neuroscienceandpsychotherapy.com/
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/343
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Blood Pressure Anxiety. How To Stop Checking and Start Living | EP 342
Send in a question or comment via text.If you recognize the sound of a Velcro rip and your heart starts to pound the minute you hear that familiar hum, we need to talk. You likely bought a home blood pressure …
Notes de l’épisode
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If you recognize the sound of a Velcro rip and your heart starts to pound the minute you hear that familiar hum, we need to talk. You likely bought a home blood pressure monitor to feel safer and healthier, but now you might feel like a slave to a rubber tube and a plastic screen.
In this episode, we are looking at how a responsible health habit turns into a psychological nightmare in the form of fixation and obsessive fear. We discuss why blood pressure anxiety happens, often in the complete absence of an actual medical issue. Let's talk about how you can start living your life again without being tethered to a machine.
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Want to talk about this episode?
I'm hanging out in the Disordered Community space:
https://disordered.fm/community
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What we covered in this episode:
- The Paradox of Stress and Vitals: How the act of worrying about your blood pressure is exactly what drives the numbers up.
- The Certainty Trap: Why checking for reassurance only leads to more uncertainty and more frequent checking loops.
- The ACT Lens: Learning to accept the reality of health uncertainty rather than trying to perform behaviors to make the fear go away.
- Metacognitive Beliefs: Examining why you think worrying about your vitals is protective and learning to treat these thoughts as mental events.
- Detached Mindfulness: Using tools like the Blue Tiger exercise to recognize when you are being hooked by a scary thought.
- Rebound Anxiety: Why it feels reckless and scary to stop checking, and why that feeling is a normal part of the recovery process.
Recovery from blood pressure anxiety is not about reaching a perfect, guaranteed number. It is about changing your relationship with your physiology so you can move your energy back toward the things that actually matter in your life.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/342
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Regular Emotions ... or Anxiety Recovery Problem? | EP 341
Send in a question or comment via text.Want to talk about what you heard today? Interact with me and others that understand your experience on the Disordered Community app.https://disordered.fm/community----In …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Want to talk about what you heard today? Interact with me and others that understand your experience on the Disordered Community app.
https://disordered.fm/community
----
In this episode, we tackle a common trap: viewing every uncomfortable emotion through the lens of anxiety recovery. When you spend months practicing desensitization, acceptance, tolerance, and exposure, it is easy to mislabel normal human stress as a setback, a relapse, or a recovery problem.
Disordered vs. Non-Disordered Anxiety
- Disordered Anxiety: This is defined by a fear of the internal experience itself. You become afraid of your own symptoms, thoughts, and sensations.
- Non-Disordered Anxiety: This is a natural response to external stressors like grief, job loss, or relationship conflict. You cannot "float" or "mindfulness" your way out of a legitimate life crisis.
The Recovery Trap
Many people "hijack" normal human emotions and try to apply recovery techniques to them. Trying to use willful tolerance, acceptance, or principles of exposure on a situation that requires practical action or just feeling emotions only keeps you stuck. We often do this because the recovery framework feels more familiar and safe than facing complex life problems.
Moving Forward
- Check the Context: Before assuming you are having a "relapse," look at your life. Are you under actual pressure from work, finances, or family?
- Validate the Stress: It is expected and healthy to feel stressed by difficult circumstances. This is not a failure of your recovery.
- Take Action: If the problem is external, it requires a practical solution, not just a psychological one.
- Accept Your Humanity: There are no "hacks" for being human. Recovery means learning to live with a full range of emotions, not eliminating discomfort.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/341
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety and OCD Are Like Cult Leaders In Your Head! | EP 340
Send in a question or comment via text.Want to talk about what you heard today? I'm hanging out on the Disordered Community space. https://disordered.fm/community----Living with an anxiety disorder or OCD …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Want to talk about what you heard today? I'm hanging out on the Disordered Community space.
https://disordered.fm/community
----
Living with an anxiety disorder or OCD often feels less like a medical condition and more like being trapped in a dysfunctional, predatory relationship. In this episode, we explore the metaphor of the "cult leader in your head" to explain why you keep getting tricked by your thoughts—even when you logically know they aren't true.
We discuss five specific ways anxiety and OCD mirror the tactics used by cults and gangs to maintain control:
- Us vs. Them Mentality: Your anxiety insists that the outside world is dangerous and that only it truly understands or can protect you. It will often cast friends, family, and even your medical team as reckless or ignorant for telling you it's safe to ignore the "rules".
- Love Bombing and Relief: The cult leader rewards your obedience with brief moments of relief. When you perform a compulsion or safety behavior, the temporary drop in distress feels like "love," making it seem like the anxiety is the only thing providing peace, ignoring the fact that it created the distress in the first place.
- High-Stakes Punishment: If you consider disobeying or stopping a ritual, the cult leader ramps up the threats. It tells you that dissent won't just result in feeling anxious; it will result in death or disaster for you or the people you love.
- Secret Knowledge: Anxiety claims a special ability to see "real" dangers that "normal" people are too ignorant or brave to notice. It uses this perceived secret insight to keep you hyper-vigilant and dependent on its guidance.
- Moving the Goalposts: The cult leader is never satisfied. It promises that "one more" check, "one more" article, or "one more" scan will finally bring certainty. But that certainty never arrives because if you felt safe, you would leave the cult.
Recovery is operationally very similar to leaving a cult. It’s difficult, it feels incredibly risky, and it requires you to rebuild your life outside of a rigid, fear-based framework. Recognizing these tactics can help you lean into your exposures and realize that while the "leader" is loud, it is also lying.
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety Recovery Questions & Answers | Ep 339
Send in a question or comment via text.Want to discuss what you heard today with Drew, Josh Fletcher, and others that share your struggle and experience?https://disordered.fm/community----Overcoming an anxiety …
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Want to discuss what you heard today with Drew, Josh Fletcher, and others that share your struggle and experience?
https://disordered.fm/community
----
Overcoming an anxiety disorder comes with a TON of questions, so let's answer some!
Questions Answered in This Episode
- 03:45 — Why is it so hard to "just let the symptoms be"? I discuss why doing nothing in the face of fear is the biggest hurdle in recovery and why your struggle to do so is completely normal.
- 08:15 — Can you exercise your way out of anxiety? I explain why movement is a great health tool but not a "fix" for an anxiety disorder. We also look at exercise as a form of interoceptive exposure.
- 12:50 — The trap of "Compulsive Recovery" and Perfectionism. Many people become paralyzed by the fear of doing recovery "wrong." I explain why there is no such thing as an optimal or perfect recovery process.
- 19:05 — Why does anxiety feel like Stockholm Syndrome? We explore the fear of "normal" life and why some people feel protective of their anxiety or OCD, even while wanting to get better.
- 24:30 — "Pure O" and ruminative thoughts. I clarify the difference between "shutting the door" on thoughts and simply choosing not to interact with the "noisy room" of your mind.
- 28:10 — Should you push yourself on "good days"? I talk about whether you should bask in the comfort of a low-anxiety day or use that window to push your boundaries further.
Full Show Notes:
https://theanxioustruth.com/339
Resources Mentioned:
Disordered Podcast - https://disordered.fm
Why Does Exercise Make My Anxiety Worse (Past Episodes)
https://theanxioustruth.com/panic-anxiety-and-the-exercise-problem-part-i-tag019/
https://theanxioustruth.com/panic-anxiety-exercise-problem-part-2/
Interoceptive Exposure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sigXTV5QXik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygAi4MidIhM&t=5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2byXYrlDkZs
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Negative Self Beliefs in Anxiety Recovery | Ep 338
Send in a question or comment via text.Want to discuss this episode with me and others that share your experience?https://disordered.fm/community-------In this episode of The Anxious Truth, we look at why the …
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Want to discuss this episode with me and others that share your experience?
https://disordered.fm/community
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In this episode of The Anxious Truth, we look at why the lessons of floating, mindful acceptance, and exposure can feel out of reach. While the principles of recovery are simple, they are difficult to execute because they are counterintuitive and require facing the things you fear most. Beyond the initial fear, deeper obstacles rooted in background, culture, and personal experience often stop people from embracing a mindful approach.
I discuss two primary belief systems that keep people stuck in control-based strategies:
- The "Anxiety as Failure" Belief: The idea that being anxious means you have already failed. This leads to a harsh, self-critical view where having an anxiety disorder is seen as a structural or moral defect rather than a challenge to navigate.
- The "Managing Others' Emotions" Belief: The fear that fully feeling and showing your anxiety will ruin someone else's day or cause distress to those around you. This belief often stems from childhood environments where you were taught to stay neutral to avoid triggering a parent or caregiver.
If you hold these beliefs, you may be trapped in an endless cycle of trying to control your internal state because you feel that being "impacted" or "impaired" is not allowed. We talk about how to recognize these invisible rules and why recovery requires more than mechanical exposure—it requires challenging these long-held beliefs about your value and your responsibility for others' happiness.
Recovery takes time to work through these layers. If you have been struggling to "get it," this episode explains why.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/338
Listen to Disordered every Friday:
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Understanding Mental Compulsions in OCD and Anxiety | EP 337
Send in a question or comment via text.Questions about what you've heard today? Want to interact with Drew and other listeners of this podcast? Check out the Disordered Community space.-----When …
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Questions about what you've heard today? Want to interact with Drew and other listeners of this podcast? Check out the Disordered Community space.
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When compulsions are behavioral, like hand washing or door checking, they are easy to identify. But when they are mental in nature, things get much fuzzier. In this episode, I’m joined by OCD specialist Lauren Rosen to take the mystery out of mental compulsions and explain why your "problem-solving" brain is actually keeping you stuck.
We break down the critical difference between having an intrusive thought (the obsession) and what you intentionally dowith that thought (the compulsion). Whether you are struggling with OCD, panic disorder, or health anxiety, learning to recognize internal behaviors like mental review, rumination, and self-flagellation is a vital step toward psychological flexibility.
What We Discuss:
- Defining Mental Compulsions: Why internal behaviors like rumination, mental review, and rehearsing are active choices, not just "thoughts".
- The "No Equipment" Sport: How the ease and invisibility of mental compulsions make them particularly consuming and re-triggering.
- Thoughts vs. Thinking: Using the "square root of 17" analogy to identify when you have moved from a passive thought into an active mental behavior.
- The Identity Trap: Why we often mistake worrying and "thoughtfulness" for a core part of our identity or a tool for safety.
- Shifting Attention: How to stop compulsing without suppressing thoughts or getting into a perfectionistic battle with your own mind.
About Lauren Rosen:
Lauren is a licensed psychotherapist and the Director of The Center for the Obsessive Mind. She is the author of The Mental Compulsions Workbook for OCD and co-host of the Purely OCD podcast.
Recovery is a journey of small, brave leaps of faith. You feel real fear, but you are not in real danger. Let’s get into it.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/337
The Mental Compulsions Workbook for OCD
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety And The Bad Weather Trap | EP 336
Send in a question or comment via text.When a blizzard or thunderstorm is in the forecast, do you find your anxiety levels spiking long before the first snowflakes or raindrops fall? You aren’t alone. Many …
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When a blizzard or thunderstorm is in the forecast, do you find your anxiety levels spiking long before the first snowflakes or raindrops fall? You aren’t alone. Many people struggling with anxiety disorders or chronic states of anxiety find themselves extra triggered by significant weather events. In this episode, we’re looking at why anxiety and weather often go hand-in-hand and why it isn't actually the snow or rain that is the problem.
We dive into the two underlying processes that create the "bad weather trap." First, we explore the "trapped" or isolated feeling that arises when a storm might prevent help from reaching you—or you from reaching help. Second, we discuss how any major stressor, like an unprecedented storm, can quickly morph into an internal experience of fear and panic for an anxious person.
I’ll explain why building metacognitive awareness is a critical part of the recovery process and how you can use these weather events as opportunities to watch the "anxiety machine" at work.
Key Topics Covered:
- Why bad weather feels like a medical or psychiatric emergency.
- The "rescue" myth: Why you feel you need saving, even when you aren't in danger.
- How stress and apprehension quickly turn into fear and vulnerability.
- Using mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches to navigate the storm - internally.
- Practical steps for building awareness when your brain insists on going into emergency mode.
For full notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/336
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxiety and Fear: Anxiety Disorders Are Just ONE Fear | EP 335
Send in a question or comment via text.When you have an anxiety disorder, it can feel like your list of fears and triggers just keeps getting longer. You might have started being afraid of one or two things …
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When you have an anxiety disorder, it can feel like your list of fears and triggers just keeps getting longer. You might have started being afraid of one or two things, but now it seems like everything sets you off. Driving, being home alone, intrusive thoughts, physical sensations, even opening a new bottle of medication.
Despite what it feels like, you're actually only afraid of one thing.
All those different triggers lead to the same place, no matter how varied they seem. Whether it's a health worry, a fear of losing control, or an intrusive thought, they all create the same internal experience. Your heart races, your body floods with adrenaline, and you feel overwhelmed by fear and discomfort. You've learned to fear how you feel, and those feelings trick you into believing your thoughts must be accurate.
This is different from regular anxiety, where people worry about external things happening in their lives. In an anxiety disorder, the internal experience becomes the problem.
Understanding this might be helpful because it means you don't have to tackle 35 different fears one by one. You're working on one thing: learning to be okay with uncomfortable internal experiences, even when they feel terrible. You're experiencing real fear, but you're not in real danger.
I talk about why this happens, how it keeps you stuck, and what you can do about it.
As always, this episode contains suggestions based on acceptance and mindfulness approaches that may be helpful in your recovery journey. I'm not promising fixes or cures, just offering a different way to think about what you're experiencing.For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/335
The Disordered Podcast (weekly with me and Josh Fletcher)
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Mental Health Misinformation: Why is Online Anxiety "Science" So Confusing? | EP 334
Send in a question or comment via text.If you've been searching online for ways to deal with your anxiety, you've probably noticed there's an avalanche of information claiming to be …
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If you've been searching online for ways to deal with your anxiety, you've probably noticed there's an avalanche of information claiming to be "science-based" or "evidence-based." But here's the problem. That isn't always true.
This week I'm joined by Dr. Birthe Macdonald, a research psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist, to talk about why online mental health information is so confusing and full of misinformation. We discuss why things that aren't actually science still look like fact when you're struggling and searching for relief.
We touch on polyvagal theory and vagus nerve claims, SPECT brain scans and their limitations, genetic testing for antidepressants, and why confident voices with credentials can be so convincing even when the science doesn't support their claims.
Dr. Macdonald shares insights on what makes good science (hint: it's humble and tries to disprove itself) and why you should probably be most skeptical of those who sound the most confident.
The goal here is helping you become a more critical consumer of mental health information so you can make informed decisions about your wellbeing. Be skeptical of everything you consume online, including me. If someone claims something is science-based, question it.
That said, if you find something helpful that's moving you forward and not hurting you, keep using it. You deserve information you can actually trust.Useful Links:
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Stoicism, Anxiety, and and Marcus Aurelius ... Gone Wrong? | EP 333
Send in a question or comment via text.If you're struggling with panic disorder, health anxiety, OCD, GAD, or other anxiety issues you've may have encountered online content that references Stoicism …
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If you're struggling with panic disorder, health anxiety, OCD, GAD, or other anxiety issues you've may have encountered online content that references Stoicism, warrior philosophy, and Marcus Aurelius. The message: master your emotions, be tough, control your fear through discipline and suffering.
But that's not what Marcus Aurelius was actually writing about.
In this episode, I dig into what Marcus actually wrote in his Meditations—his personal diary that accidentally survived 2,500 years. When you read his actual words, you see a man repeatedly struggling with the same issues: getting out of bed, dealing with difficult people, managing anger. The repetition isn't proof of mastery. It's evidence of practice.
For people with anxiety disorders, the modern misinterpretation of Stoicism can be harmful. Panic disorder, OCD, health anxiety, and GAD are all fueled by attempts to control internal experiences. The therapeutic approaches that work—acceptance and commitment therapy, exposure therapy, mindfulness—work because they teach psychological flexibility, not control.
Real courage isn't "I don't feel fear." Real courage is "I feel afraid AND I'm doing this anyway."
Topics covered:
- What Marcus Aurelius actually wrote (specific passages from Meditations)
- Why the "warrior approach" doesn't work for anxiety disorders
- The masculine shame trap that keeps men stuck
- What Stoicism really teaches about control
- Why flexibility beats toughness in anxiety recovery
Resources mentioned: The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Modern Library translation)---
The Disordered Guide to Health Anxiety is here
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For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/333
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.When Coping Skills for Anxiety Go Wrong | EP 332
Send in a question or comment via text.Anxious people love coping skills and coping strategies. Everybody loves to cope. But today we're going to talk about how coping can go off the rails and become part …
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Anxious people love coping skills and coping strategies. Everybody loves to cope. But today we're going to talk about how coping can go off the rails and become part of the problem instead of part of the solution.
When you're dealing with chronic anxiety or an anxiety disorder, coping strategies can actually backfire. Every time you frantically reach for your grounding techniques or breathing exercises because you desperately need to calm down, you might be reinforcing the belief that your internal state is dangerous and must be controlled at all costs. If you've been stuck in the trigger-cope-trigger-cope cycle for months or years and you're still terrified of the next episode, something isn't working.
This episode breaks down the difference between internally and externally generated anxiety, and why that matters when we talk about coping. We'll look at how coping can create conditional okayness that shrinks your life, and we'll explore what it might look like to use coping techniques as brave experiments instead of frightened control attempts.
This is a challenging topic, but if you've been wondering why all your coping skills don't seem to be moving you forward, this episode might help you understand what's actually happening.For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/332
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Kids, OCD, Anxiety, and Implications for Adult Recovery | EP 331
Send in a question or comment via text.Children with OCD and anxiety disorders have the same diagnoses as adults, but their experience looks and feels different in important ways. In this episode, I sit down …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Children with OCD and anxiety disorders have the same diagnoses as adults, but their experience looks and feels different in important ways. In this episode, I sit down with child anxiety and OCD specialist Natasha Daniels to explore those differences and what they reveal about the fundamental nature of these disorders.
When you ask a young child why they're doing a ritual, they often can't tell you. They report vague discomfort or say "it just feels weird if I don't." Adult brains, on the other hand, build elaborate narratives about danger, responsibility, and catastrophic consequences. This difference isn't random—it reflects how our brains develop the capacity for abstract thinking and meaning-making as we mature. Children operate in the realm of concrete experience, while adults layer complex interpretations onto those same uncomfortable sensations and intrusive thoughts.
This developmental perspective reveals something crucial about anxiety recovery: the core problem isn't the thoughts and sensations themselves, but the meaning-making machinery of the adult brain that treats every uncomfortable internal experience as significant and predictive. If children can learn to overcome OCD by tolerating discomfort without an attached narrative, what does that tell us about the stories we tell ourselves as adults?
This episode isn't just for parents supporting anxious kids. If you're an adult struggling with OCD or anxiety and find yourself stuck because the perceived risk feels too real to challenge, this conversation may help you see your experience in a new light. The narrative feels compelling and true, but as Natasha and I discuss, that's just a function of how human brains develop—not evidence of actual danger.
Natasha Daniels is a childhood anxiety and OCD therapist with two decades of experience and specialized training in treating pediatric anxiety disorders. Find Natasha here:https://atparentingcommunity.com/
Find full show notes and more links to Natasha's work athttps://theanxioustruth.com/331
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.When Life Naturally Makes You Anxious | EP 330
Send in a question or comment via text.Sometimes life throws real challenges at us—loss, relationship changes, health concerns, financial struggles—that naturally trigger anxiety. But when you're dealing …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Sometimes life throws real challenges at us—loss, relationship changes, health concerns, financial struggles—that naturally trigger anxiety. But when you're dealing with an anxiety disorder, these moments become especially confusing. How do you tell the difference between "normal" anxiety and disordered anxiety? And what do you do when recovery concepts don't seem to apply?
In this episode, we explore what happens when bad things really do happen in life and trigger genuine anxiety. We'll talk about why not all anxiety is disordered anxiety, how anxiety disorders create a unique challenge when facing legitimate life stressors, and why there are no tricks or hacks to make these feelings instantly disappear.
If you've ever found yourself struggling with big emotions during difficult life events and wondering how you're "supposed to" handle them, this episode may help you understand what's actually happening—and offer a more compassionate perspective on being human during challenging times.
For full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/330
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Anxious Parenting? Learning to do LESS with Joanna Hardis | EP 329
Send in a question or comment via text.Anxious parenting can feel overwhelming, especially when your own anxiety drives you to do more - more rescuing, more protecting, more intervening. But what if the path to …
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Anxious parenting can feel overwhelming, especially when your own anxiety drives you to do more - more rescuing, more protecting, more intervening. But what if the path to better parenting actually requires learning to do less?
In this episode, I'm joined by anxiety/OCD specialist Joanna Hardis to talk about how anxious parenting patterns keep us stuck and what we can really do about them. Joanna just released her new book "Just Do Nothing (For Parents): Parenting Better by Doing Less". Joanna brings training, experience, and insight into why anxious parenting makes us want to swoop in and fix everything our kids feel.
We discuss:
- Why anxious parenting drives us to do MORE when we need to do LESS
- The false binary many parents feel trapped in (super involved vs cold and callous)
- How to tell if you're reacting to your own distress or responding to the actual situation
- The difference between danger and discomfort in anxious parenting
- Practical ways to build distress tolerance as a parent
- Why anxious parenting patterns don't stop when kids get older
- How to practice "microdosing discomfort" to break anxious parenting cycles
If you struggle with anxious parenting, whether you have toddlers, teenagers, or adult children, this conversation will give you a new framework for understanding why you do what you do and how to make different choices that serve both you and your kids better.
ABOUT JOANNA HARDIS Joanna is an anxiety and OCD specialist practicing in Cleveland with extensive experience working with families and training in SPACE (Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions).
Find her at joannahardis.com
RESOURCES Find show notes and links at theanxioustruth.com/329
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.Questions and Answers About Anxiety And Recovery | EP 328
Send in a question or comment via text.This week we're doing a special "no frills" edition of The Anxious Truth (just like the old days). I asked my Instagram audience for questions, and I'm here to …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
This week we're doing a special "no frills" edition of The Anxious Truth (just like the old days). I asked my Instagram audience for questions, and I'm here to do my best to answer them.
If you're dealing with panic disorder, agoraphobia, OCD, health anxiety, or generalized anxiety disorder, you've probably asked yourself many of these same questions.
I cover the most common questions about anxiety symptoms—heart palpitations, dizziness, nausea, breathing difficulties—and explain why treating them as individual problems to solve actually keeps you stuck. We also tackle common questions about intrusive thoughts, including fears about insanity, self-harm, death, and never recovering.
One of the biggest categories of questions revolves around control: How do I stop feeling this way? How do I quiet my mind? How do I prevent panic attacks? I explain the fundamental difference between acceptance-based approaches and control strategies, and why the frantic attempt to control your internal experiences is part of what creates the disordered state.
I also address:
- The often-overlooked meta-emotions (frustration, despair, feeling like you've lost yourself)
- Whether lifestyle changes like diet and exercise help with anxiety recovery
- How to handle family dynamics and unsupportive relationships
- Morning anxiety and nocturnal panic attacks
- How to actually learn from exposure experiences instead of wasting them
This episode clarifies why most common questions about anxiety point to the same answer: you don't need special instructions for your specific symptom or thought. Recovery is about building a new relationship with your own body and mind.
Resources mentioned:
- Books by Dr. Sally Winston and Dr. Martin Seif
- Disordered podcast (Disordered.FM)
- The Anxious Truth website (theanxioustruth.com)
Remember: Small changes and experiments add up over time. Any move in the right direction counts, no matter how small.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/328
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.How Anxiety Is Constructed In The Brain | Ep 327
Send in a question or comment via text.Anxiety that you cannot control, that keeps coming back, that you don't understand and are terrified of, will trick you into believing that something is really wrong …
Notes de l’épisode
Send in a question or comment via text.
Anxiety that you cannot control, that keeps coming back, that you don't understand and are terrified of, will trick you into believing that something is really wrong. But what if that intense fear you experience—while absolutely real—is based on a prediction your brain is making that isn't actually true?
In this episode, I speak with Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, neuroscientist and author of How Emotions Are Made and 7 1/2 Lessons About The Brain about how anxiety is constructed in the brain. Dr. Barrett explains the theory of constructed emotions and how your brain uses predictive processing to create your internal experience of fear and anxiety.
In this conversation, we explore:
- How anxiety is constructed in the brain through predictive processing, not reactive circuits
- Why your brain's primary job is managing your "body budget" and how this relates to anxiety
- The difference between your experience being real versus the prediction being accurate
- How your brain uses past experiences to construct categories and predict future threats
- Why anxiety disorders may involve predictions that are either too general or too specific
- What "practicing predicting differently" means and how it can help with anxiety recovery
- Dr. Barrett's personal experience using these principles to manage stage fright before her TED talk
- The role of interoception in how your brain constructs anxiety
- Why changing how anxiety is constructed in your brain is hard work that requires practice
This conversation gets technical at times, but offers valuable insights into why anxiety feels so real and compelling, even when you're not actually in danger. Understanding how anxiety is constructed in the brain has important implications for how we approach recovery from panic disorder, agoraphobia, OCD, and other anxiety disorders.
Resources mentioned:
- Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett's website: LisaFeldmanBarrett.com
- How Emotions Are Made by Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett
- Dr. Barrett's TED Talk
- 7 1/2 Lessons About The Brain by Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett
For Show Notes On This Episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/327
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website. None of this is never required, but always appreciated!
Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.
Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.
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