Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast

This episode with sustainability expert Jo Linehan explores overconsumption as a quiet anxiety loop. We're examining the way constant wanting, trend cycles, and ‘buy it now’ urgency can keep our nervous systems on edge and what to do about it in a realistic way. This is a vulnerability factor that contributes to anxiety that most of us are unaware of. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my...

Join me for a quick solo episode that asks the questions you may be overlooking that help you map out exactly why you might be suffering from anxiety. Not because you need to answer everything perfectly, but so that you can become curious about the layering of vulnerability factors that may be at play for you personally. Here we are exploring the factors not in your nature but in your immediate en...

Here I’m joined by Dr David Clark, one of the world’s leading experts in anxiety disorders and cognitive behavioural therapy. This episode centres around intrusive thoughts, health anxiety, and the reassurance-seeking trap that so many anxious people find themselves caught in. We explore why those behaviours make sense and why they can become so compulsive. Dr Clark’s work has helped shape modern...

For the longest time we were told our 5 year old son was suffering with severe anxiety. Turns out he fits the PDA profile which is a nervous system disability and a neurotype of its own within autism. Treating it as just anxiety never helped, but anxiety is absolutely part of it when a sensitive nervous system is set to be more reactive, requiring more control and autonomy in order to feel safe. H...

On this episode I am joined by GQ Jordan to talk about nutrition. Not just the foods we should ease off when we are anxious, or eat more of to support our mental health and nervous system but the cultural noise around nutrition, all or nothing extreme advice and label-related anxiety. Is our health anxiety worsening because we have too much information? Is the information we are receiving blown ou...

Solo episode this week to take pause as the book launches. In this reflective episode I revisit the anxiety that punctuated my life since childhood, compare how it was when it was all consuming to how it can appear these days, what it really means to overcome anxiety and why having a hard time now in this chapter of parenting does not mean I undo any of how far I have come with myself. Please plea...

Another excellent expert episode this week with neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr Chad Sylvester who specialises in anxiety and comes with a wealth of information as a practitioner but also as a researcher. Here we look deep into the brain state that shapes anxiety, the patterns and sequences that make it harder to move away from and the surprising insights learned from babies as young as a few h...

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr Brennan Spiegel , a physician, researcher and author whose work sits at the intersection of the brain, the body and lived experience. Together, we explore why anxiety so often shows up physically, why being told “it’s just anxiety” can feel dismissive rather than reassuring, and how the mind and body are far more interconnected than we’ve been taught. Brennan intr...

This one's for the parents. In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Naomi Fisher , a clinical psychologist and author known for her work on anxiety, trauma, demand avoidance and nervous-system-led parenting. I adored her books 'When the naughty step makes things worse' and 'A different way to learn'. We talk about why so many traditional parenting approaches — rewards, consequences, charts and pressure...

In this particularly helpful episode, I’m joined by Louise Thompson , a career coach who specialises in helping people navigate confidence, leadership and anxiety in the workplace. It's one of the most practical episodes I've done. It's not about when work is causing anxiety, but what to do when you still have to go to work but your anxiety or mental health is getting in the way. Together, we talk...

For this episode I’m speaking to clinical psychologist and author Dr Alexandra Shaker about her book The Narrowing and about how prolonged stress and trauma can constrict not just our nervous systems, but how we experience our lives and how we can identify when our narrowing might need to open up. When we’re anxious, especially chronically anxious, our worlds can begin to shrink. We say no mo...

On this first episode of my new season it's just me, welcoming you back and filling you in on everything that's been going on for me since I've last shared an episode plus I include an exclusive excerpt from my new book which offers readers and listeners reassurance from the other side: the very words I so desperately wanted to hear when I was in the depths of despair with crippling anxiety. Welco...

Welcome back to Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast. This fifteenth season of the series will begin on March 2nd with weekly episodes each Monday. The series coincides with the launch of my latest book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap Back To Yourself which you can order here on Eason or here on Amazon. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd K...

For this episode I am joined by the incredible Dr Joanna Fortune who has been a guiding light through my experience of supporting my child with significant anxiety (separation anxiety in particular). We discuss different types of play therapy, why some might work better than others, the limbic leap for the brain and lots more around anxiety and development. Learn more about Joanna here . Order you...

I'm breaking up my output of experts with a first person account of what it's like living with a level of generalised anxiety that can come into play at various points of life. Rosemary MacCabe, journalist and author shares her story which includes her anxiety reaching a crescendo while working in a toxic environment - it was the wrong workplace that lit the match for my own anxiety too. From work...

For this episode I am joined by Dr Vanessa LaPointe who is an incredibly successful and widely celebrated psychologist specialising in parenting. We talk about behaviourist parenting - the way most of us were likely parented - and the impact that would have on us when it comes to anxiety later on. We focus heavily on the experience of parenting a highly anxious child (which is my personal experien...

Millie Mackintosh returns to Owning It to take a deep dive into her experience of anxiety, with a particular focus on alcohol. Her new book, Bad Drunk , is out now and a wonderful read whether or not you question your relationship to alcohol. In this episode we also discuss how Millie's anxiety shows up and her decision to start taking medication and the unhelpful, societal shame that often goes a...

Join me and returning guest Dr Ethan Kross - neuroscientist, psychologist and NY Times Bestseller - to talk about emotional regulation, what exactly is an emotion, how to reign in the ones that are tough to experience and what power we do and do not have when it comes to difficult emotions. His new book, SHIFT: Managing Your Emotions So They Don't Manage You is out now. You can support this podcas...

Join me and world renowned expert Owen O'Kane for what I would describe as a lifechanging episode, one that will transform the way you think about anxiety and feel about it too. We talk about anxiety as an addiction - why that makes sense and what we can do to move ourselves out of an anxiety cycle. Addicted to Anxiety is out now. You can support this podcast by sharing it with a friend or signing...

Chartered statistician and cancer researcher Dr David Robert Grimes returns to Owning It to help me bust through the many myths that are fuelling our health anxiety, from full body health checks to worries about carcinogens and vaccines. What can we safely stop worrying about? David's book, The Irrational Ape is widely available and well worth a read if you like this episode. You can support this...

I think I have finally stumbled upon the missing piece of the puzzle to help with my son's severe separation anxiety. A fascinating listen on The Goulding Method and how it's melting away the anxiety experienced by kids. My guest is the Highly Sensitive Child Whisperer, Jen Bunting who works with thousands of families to implement this technique that parents do for their children while they sleep....

Dr Julie returns to Owning It to talk about her new book, Open When - which offers real time practical advice for a series of anxiety inducing scenarios - as well as her own personal experience with having been diagnosed with breast cancer just last year. When your body feels enormous fear for something as tangible as a health concern, is anxiety something we should even try not to feel? Dr Julie...

For this episode, I want to bring it back to the body. How anxiety shows up in your body, particularly in your gut. Here with the help of Dr Sally Bramley, functional health doctor and founder of Tru Health , we get a sense of how she as a practitioner would get to the bottom of YOU. How she would help you get the fullest picture of your anxiety, looking at everything from a holistic perspective,...

For this episode I chat with psychotherapist Duygu Balan who regularly appears on CNN and Psychology Today among others. She's also the lead author of Confidentially Chill: An Anxiety Workbook for New Adults. We cover everything from the impact that covid had on our collective experience of anxiety - do we know yet what living through a pandemic did to our minds? We also talk about breaking genera...

You can support this podcast by sharing it with a friend or signing up to my Substack. Read my personal essays on Substack here with a 20% (lifetime) listener discount. Join Dr Russell Kennedy and I to talk about anxiety as alarm in the body, the root causes of it, why he believes all anxiety is separation anxiety, how much anxiety is driven by nature or nurture and so much more. His book The Anxi...