The Anxious Truth - A Panic, Anxiety, and Mental Health Podcast

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. E...

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 an...

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 th...

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...

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. -- Want to discuss what you heard today? I'm hanging out on the Disordered Community Space https://disordered....

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...

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 nor...

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 get...

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 bi...

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 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 mo...

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 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 o...

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'...

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....

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 onli...

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...

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 brea...

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&apo...

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...

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. Jo...

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 mos...

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 o...

If you're struggling with anxiety and searching for ways of calming your feelings, this episode is for you. I break down why the most popular strategies for calming your feelings - like using logic to talk yourself out of anxiety, trying to replace negative emotions with positive ones, attempting to control your body's responses, or avoiding triggers - often backfire when you're dea...

There's whole industry built around helping people feel good about feeling bad, and while validation has its place, this endless cycle of anxiety content might actually be keeping you stuck. In this episode, we explore how consuming validation-focused content can become a form of modern reassurance-seeking that maintains anxiety disorders rather than promoting recovery. We'll discuss the...

If you're struggling with anxiety disorders and constantly being told you need a positive mindset, stronger beliefs, and better motivation to recover, this episode is for you. I'm breaking down why these three concepts are tragically misunderstood and misapplied in anxiety recovery—and why they might actually be keeping you stuck. What You'll Learn: Why you can't just "dec...

Exposure for anxiety is the gold standard treatment for anxiety disorders, but most people get it wrong, especially when trying to use exposure without professional help. In this episode, we're breaking down why so many people struggle with exposure for anxiety and how to avoid the common traps that lead to frustration and giving up. If you've ever tried exposure therapy for panic disord...