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

This week we answered some common - and not so common - questions about anxiety and recovery. Thanks to everyone on Instagram that submitted a question. I appreciate it! First I reviewed some basic principles you can fall back on when asking many of the questions that were asked. That's about the first 15 minutes of the episode, which will be useful if you're new to this or need a refres...

This week my guest is anxiety and OCD specialist Joanna Hardis who stopped by the podcast to talk about the art of doing ... nothing. Wait ... what? Nothing? Yes. Nothing. Humans are conditioned to automatically spring into action to solve problems, and often we declare that our emotional and mental states are automatically problems that must be solved. When we experience discomfort, distress, anx...

If this is all new to you, asking for more information is normal, expected, and healthy! Everyone needs more information and explanation to start. But if you are not new to this and you've heard me and others talk about your scariest symptom or stickiest recovery issue over and over, ask yourself what you are hoping to get when you ask us to talk more about it. After multiple books, videos, s...

Help! I can't get motivated to do my exposures and work on my recovery! This is a thing I hear often in this community, so this week let's address motivation and the myth surrounding it. Often we think that getting motivated means that we create a certain feeling, then we act on that feeling. This is incorrect. In fact, it's almost entirely backwards! Demanding to conjure of a feeli...

EMDR. It's become an insanely popular therapy over the last few years. Originally developed as a trauma recovery tool, EMDR is often touted as being appropriate or effective in many more clinical circumstances. But ... is it? Is EMDR an anxiety disorder recovery treatment? This week I'm joined by Florida therapist Anne Thomas to talk about EMDR, what it is, what it isn't, and how it...

Just a quick update on reaching the field/clinical work phase of my masters degree and why there's no actual podcast episode this week. We'll be back with another episode of The Anxious Truth next week as usual, but in the meanwhile why not check out Disordered, the podcast I do with Josh Fletcher. Find that podcast at https://disordered.fm Of course, you can also check out any of the 26...

It's not really what I did in my recovery that matters. Its WHY I did it. This week we're talking about why its far more useful to focus on the principles I followed in recovery than to try to mimic my recovery step by step and action by action. Don't use my recovery as a literal blueprint for yours because you are not me and I am not you. We are all different and those differences...

Let's talk about the dreaded social media doom scroll and the negative impact it can have in your recovery. Learning to be a bit more mindful and intentional with your social media use can go a long way toward helping you get what you need while avoiding some of the more common traps and pitfalls that default scrolling without purpose can have. For full show notes on this episode: https://the...

When you decide to start facing your fear, doing exposures, meeting challenges, and breaking your avoidance cycle, that's awesome! You're being brave and choosing to do hard things because it's help you in the long run, so take the credit for making that leap! But you may - like many do - accidentally fall into the trap of only meeting challenges, doing your exposures, and generally...

There is no automatic immune response that fixes an anxiety disorder while we retreat, rest, wait, and hope. This is an active process that requires that you do more than just hope and wait. This week we're trying a little experiment! I'm re-visiting episode 11 of the podcast from way back in 2015 to give it a little update, add some detail, clarify a few things, and make some much neede...

Recovery from an anxiety disorder can impact not only the recovering person, but the people close to them. Sometimes our helpers wind up needing help themselves! When that happens, we may want to be supportive of them, but anxious fear may also turn this into a disaster. Anxiety may tell you that your helper reaching out for help is a nightmare and that the fear, uncertainty, and discomfort you fe...

HOW CAN I ACCEPT OR ALLOW ANXIETY WITHOUT SPIRALING? This week on The Anxious Truth let's answer a common question about "spiraling". This is a term used every day in our community so lets dismantle it a bit and re-conceptualize spiraling in two parts. One spiral - the downward spiral - is based on how you feel. The other spiral - the anxiety itself - is an UPWARD spiral, which is m...

End Stage Anxiety Recovery - What Does It Look Like? What does end stage recovery from an anxiety disorder look and feel like?  How do you know when you're recovered? Is there a moment when things change?  Will you automatically be happy and joyful? What will like look like as you get closer to the recovery "finish line".  Lets talk about end stage anxiety recovery so you can have a...

If you love anxiety success stories, you're gonna love Jon Brandon Cruz (aka "Cruz'). Cruz went from stuck in his apartment, riddled with panic and afraid to leave, to back at work on a world tour to promote the Black Adam film with Dwayne The Rock Johnson. How did he do it? Cruz is an almost textbook case of how to apply the principles of recovery in a committed, tenacious way. Gra...

I CAN'T STOP SCANNING FOR HOW I FEEL!!! This is a common issue for anxious people that leads to frustrating and a fear/scanning/fear cycle that seems like it never ends. This week we're talking about that cycle and answering the question, "How can I stop constantly scanning and checking how I feel?" For full show notes on this episode: ⁠ https://theanxioustruth.com/259 --- My b...

VALUING YOURSELF MEANS MORE THAN JUST SOOTHING AND SMOOTHING... This week we're examining the idea that in recovery we must value ourselves in such a way that we go beyond the common sense of soothing and smoothing to allow ourselves to struggle for a reason. There are lessons - critical lessons - in the recovery struggle. Allowing oneself to struggle is important. We must be mindful of eithe...

This episode was recorded on a beach by myself in a spot where my cell/mobile phone gets no signal, where there were no people to save me if I needed to be saved, and where I was far from help. This is a place I would never have come by myself when I was struggling, but I don't even think about it now. This is part III in a series of podcasts where I'll take you to places that I was once...

Distraction For Anxiety: Does It Work? "When I panic, I have to scroll through Instagram to distract myself!" Distraction is one of the most popular "techniques" for getting away from high anxiety, panic, and any thoughts or sensations that people hate or fear. It's talked about all the time.  A quick look on social media would likely reveal many many posts about "tip...

I can't stop thinking, "What if it comes back?" This is one of the most common issues I hear almost daily from people traveling along the path toward anxiety recovery. This week on the podcast we look at why we often overlook a very important aspect of the recovery process that renders this question almost irrelevant. The important part is that YOU change in recovery. Anxiety doesn&...

When I was struggling with anxiety, panic attacks and agoraphobia, I was terrified to go just 3 or 4 miles from my house the the business I owned. Anxiety made it really difficult for me to go there or stay there for any length of time. This is the second in a series of podcast episodes where I'll take you to places that anxiety, panic, and agoraphobia used to tell me I should never go. This...

For many in our community, addiction coexists alongside an anxiety disorder. Maybe one precluded the other, or maybe they developed concurrently. Regardless, this can often add additional shame and a sense of hopelessness. This is a topic we'll talk more about going forward so today my friend Adam Jablin stopped by to talk about his addiction story and how it related to his struggles with anx...

This week I want to introduce you to a new anxiety and mental health resource. Disordered: Anxiety Help with me and Joshua Fletcher (aka "AnxietyJosh").Josh popped in to chat about why we started Disordered, what we hope to achieve with it, and why we think its a resource everyone should take advantage of. To learn more about Disordered, to contact us with questions or comments, and to h...

Trauma And Anxiety. Are There Conflicting Messages In Recovery? Trauma and anxiety often co-exist.  That's not news.  For many in this community, the lingering effects of traumatic experiences are real, and they can impact the anxiety recovery process.  Today I want to take a look at something a little out of the ordinary.  I want to talk about how some of the core principles of anxiety recov...

No new podcast this week, but we'll be back next week with episode 252.  I asked my Facebook group which of the old podcast episodes they like the most and these are a few that came up often in the discussion: Episode 150: How Do I Talk TO My Anxiety Episode 51: Panic Attacks - The Critical Moment of Decision The Exposure Episodes: 13, 17, 192 and 226 Related to Exposure: Episode 116 - Are Yo...

WHY Did I Have A Panic Attack? I NEED To Know! "Why did I have a panic attack?" is a question asked many many times every day in the community surrounding this podcast.  People early on in the anxiety journey labor under the assumption that in order to get better they must uncover and decode their panic triggers and understand WHY panic attacks are happening to them repeatedly. This migh...