Am I Doing Too Much Recovery/Exposure? This week Drew and Josh tackle a common question in anxiety recovery: "Am I pushing myself too hard with exposures?" The guys explore the nuanced balance between challenging yourself and recognizing when you might genuinely need rest. In this episode: How to distinguish between being genuinely depleted versus being scared Why feeling anxious after successful exposures doesn't mean you've done "too much" The difference between active, reasoned decisions to r...
Jun 27, 2025•39 min
This week Drew and Josh are answering questions from listeners. Questions addressed in this episode include: Is it "normal" to feel a letdown after completing and big successful exposure/challenge? What work can we do to address the fawn response? Isn't a panic attack a medical emergency? How can it possibly be safe to experience panic?! Staying off social media is good for mental health, right? But is that anxiety avoidance? How can I learn how to NOT tense my body? It's such a habit now! We're...
Jun 20, 2025•45 min
Death anxiety - an obsessive fixation on death, dying and existence driven by intense fear of the inevitability of death - is a very common experience for listeners of Disordered. This week Josh and Drew were lucky enough to have a chat with Professor David Veale, one of the leading authorities in in the UK on the topic of death anxiety and mental health issues related to death and existence. David helped spread some light and some much-needed humor on this topic that might help you change the w...
Jun 13, 2025•40 min
What's the difference between rumination and reflection? Ruminators, worriers, and over thinkers often struggle to recognize the useful limits of thinking. They can become unsure when they are engaging in helpful reflection or problem solving .... and when they are ruminating and worrying with no good outcomes and often actual negative outcomes. This week on Disordered Drew and Josh are digging in to the difference between rumination and reflection. Reflection is good. Rumination ... not so much...
Jun 06, 2025•40 min
This week on Disordered we're discussing the all too common narrative in wellness circles that demands that we ascribe all anxiety or suffering of any kind to unhealed or unprocessed trauma. And while its certainly a good thing that we are more concerned with life experiences than structural defects now, this narrative can be unhelpful or even harmful in the context of anxiety disorders. All humans experiences crises. Some of those crises remain unresolved and create trauma. In some of those cas...
May 30, 2025•46 min
"Help! I started doing exposures and trying to accept my anxiety and its getting worse!" This is a very common experience in anxiety disorder recovery. Its been spoken about at great length in the community surrounding the Disordered podcast. This week we're tackling the "worse before better" issue. When you stop running, hiding, avoiding, escaping, distracting, and otherwise drowning out your anxious thoughts, fears, and sensations, you will find yourself in a situation where you feel them more...
May 23, 2025•41 min
When we struggle with chronic or disordered anxiety, we regularly experience powerful emotions that tend to look like fear or tension. We may experience intense feelings of being vulnerable, or doomed. We talk about these things all the time. But what about when you have emotions about having those emotions? Struggling to overcome an anxiety problem that is creating disruption in your life is going to trigger actual emotions beyond just fear. Many feel: Frustrated - because they can't seem to ge...
May 16, 2025•39 min
"Hey ChatGPT. Please tell me how I'll know if I'm accepting my anxiety or avoiding it." "Hey ChatGPT. When I get anxious my vision gets weird. Can anxiety do that? " "Hello Reddit. Does anyone else feel like ...." The guys are back after a short break to talk about the use of ChatGPT, AI, Reddit, Google, and the Internet in general in the context of anxiety and mental health issues. There's no doubt that large language models - software that aggregates extremely large amounts of information foun...
May 09, 2025•45 min
We're taking a short two week break, so no new episode of Disordered for April 18 or April 25. We'll be back again on May 2! In the meanwhile, head over to disordered.fm and check out our back catalog of episodes. We've done some cool (and fun) stuff over the last two years so check it out. Thank you for all your support. We really appreciate all of you guys! --- Disordered Roundtables are here! Think of it as "Disordered Live", a way for members of our audience to spend time with us in an intim...
Apr 18, 2025•2 min
When working on anxiety recovery, sometimes we're DOING. Other times we have to focus on NOT doing. How confusing is that!? This week Drew and Josh are chatting about how DOING things specific to anxiety recovery and NOT DOING things specific to anxiety recovery are related and how these two concepts work together. In a nutshell, doing is about activating and engaging in behavior that anxiety says you should avoid. On the flip side, not doing is about refraining from the actions (including menta...
Apr 11, 2025•40 min
Emetophobia - an intense fear of vomiting and any thoughts or sensations associated with vomiting - is a more common struggle among anxious people than anyone might initial think. But Emetophobia can make its way into virtually every aspect of life, often resulting in a highly restricted lifestyle and a dramatic decrease in the ability to function. This week Dara Lovitz and Dr. David Yusko join Drew and Josh to talk about emetophobia. Dara suffered for over 30 years before finally overcoming eme...
Apr 04, 2025•48 min
One of the perfect storms in the anxiety disorder world is the combination of existential related anxiety with the sensations/experiences of depersonalization and derealization. Unfortunately for many, this is a common combination and it can be so difficult to understand and address that it seemed an episode dedicated to this issue was in order. As you might expect, the overall message in this episode is that while this is a very scary combination that be difficult to accept without fighting or ...
Mar 28, 2025•44 min
Do you feel like you've "mostly" overcome your chronic or disordered anxiety issues but there are still challenges that linger? Maybe you've felt fully recovered once before, or even several times before, but you keep finding yourself back in the thick of it or unable to overcome a few specific challenges. If this is you, then tune in as Josh and Drew talk about the concept of "incomplete" anxiety disorder recovery. We're looking at the red zone concept - that set of triggers or circumstances th...
Mar 21, 2025•38 min
When working to overcome an anxiety disorder, the biggest challenge many in our community can identify is flying. For chronically anxious people, the idea of getting on a plane, being trapped for hours, and being terrified or out of control for that long seems like something they will never be able to. Even for people that are well on the way to recovery, flying can still feel like the "ultimate test" of recovery. The fear that they will crumble and be in a totally uncontrollable, inconsolable s...
Mar 14, 2025•42 min
How can I learn to self-soothe when I get anxious and I'm terrified of my body or my thoughts? Well ... while it might seem like launching into a soothing technique designed to control the fight or flight response is a good idea, this week Josh and Drew are talking about why the concept of self-soothing doesn't automatically make sense in the context of anxiety disorders. Self-soothing, supporting yourself while you naturally work through difficult moments and experiences, is awesome. There are ...
Mar 07, 2025•45 min
Breathing anxiety! This is such a common issue in the Disordered community. Breathing or breath focused anxiety often involves a few key concepts: "I feel like I can't get a deep enough breath!" "When I get really anxious it feels like I can't breathe." "I'm super focused on my breath all day long and I hate it!" Today we're joined by clinical psychologist Dr. Amy Janzen-Claude to chat about breathing and breath-focused anxiety, and the most effective ways to approach and address this common str...
Feb 28, 2025•44 min
To celebrate the 100th episode (and over a million downloads) of Disordered, we thought celebrating listener and community wins would be a great way to mark the occasion! Disordered would not exist without you, and when you guys do brave things, face your fear, learn lessons from that, and rise to meet challenges you previously thought impossible to meet, that needs to be acknowledged. If you find inspiration and encouragement in the victories of others that share your struggle, tune in for this...
Feb 21, 2025•42 min
What is existence? What is the point of all this? Do I even really exist? The universe is so insanely huge! What even is time? What happens when we die? These are questions all humans ask - and have been asking since we developed language. They are normal. They can even be fun questions to ask. An entire section of the human race dedicates itself to studying and pondering these questions. But for people struggling with OCD and other anxiety disorders ... these questions can be huge triggers that...
Feb 14, 2025•43 min
When Drew and Josh form a band, they will call it " Willful Tolerance and the Sensitized State ". Kinda like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble .... but way cooler. But before then, they're releasing this episode of Disordered, which takes a look at the relationship between a sensitized state - where everything seems scary and triggering and you feel stuck - and the principle of willful tolerance (acceptance, surrender, non-resistance, etc.). This episode is especially useful for anxious peopl...
Feb 07, 2025•39 min
If being anxious means you are less than, defective, doing it wrong, or that you are at fault for not being able to control or stop your anxiety, you may be struggling to move forward in recovery. If you feel that being an anxious person is proof that you are unworthy or defective, or if you feel that you are bringing it all on yourself because you do not deserve a better life, you may be struggling with self-compassion. This is one of the primary obstacles to improvement when addressing an anxi...
Jan 31, 2025•48 min
I hate anxiety and panic. I hate my intrusive scary thoughts. I fear them. Why does everyone keep talking about "not judging". I MUST judge them! When addressing anxiety disorders, most modern, empirically validated effective treatments involve elements of mindfulness and acceptance. This means learning to experience anxiety without judgment or evaluation. That's difficult, isn't it! This week the guys are talking about "anxiety without judgment" and what that might look like in common scenarios...
Jan 24, 2025•40 min
BUT THIS REALLY HAPPENED! You have an event in your past that you just can't stop thinking about and ruminating on, and the feelings you are getting about that event are incredibly intense and feel overpowering. Those feelings might include guilt, shame, embarrassment, anxiety, or worry about your status as a good person. But no matter how much you replay the event in your head or seek reassurance that it wasn't' as bad as you think, that never lasts and the cycle continues. Welcome to Real Even...
Jan 17, 2025•40 min
This week on Disordered we're having a good old anxiety Q&A session, except the people answering the questions are legends in the area of anxiety disorders! Drs Sally Winston and Marty Seif are here this week to take questions from our listeners and to share some of the insights they gained over years of working with anxiety disorders. There's a reason why Sally and Marty are looked up to by so many in this field (including us!) so tune in to learn from two of most well informed and experien...
Jan 10, 2025•54 min
"I MUST BE CALM OR ALL BETS ARE OFF!" If this feels like a rule you're living by, you may find that you're chasing calm all the time, looking for ways to force your way into the coveted parasympathetic "rest and digest" state. Anxious people tend to work very hard to create calm and to maintain it at all costs. This week on Disordered the guys are talking about "rest and digest" or the state of neutral calm that an anxious person would pay a large sum of money to achieve. What is rest and digest...
Jan 03, 2025•45 min
There is a default thought that stands as thread that weaves itself throughout the life of a person struggling with disordered or chronic anxiety. "How do I feel?" This week Josh and Drew are looking at this default thought and the impact it has on an anxious person. All living humans will ask this question probably every day in some form, but anxious humans ask it as their default appraisal and monitoring strategy. It becomes inflated and twisted and takes over life at a level that is not in al...
Dec 27, 2024•36 min
"When I am ill, my anxiety goes through the roof!" Does this sound familiar? Many people struggling with disordered anxiety will say that if they get sick or feel unwell (i.e. a cold, a sore throat, the flu, etc.) they find that they are extremely anxious. If you experience this struggle, its not just you. This week Drew and Josh are examining the mechanics behind your over-productive threat monitoring system and why being sick or unwell can often push you into high alert mode with your anxious ...
Dec 20, 2024•40 min
"Spiraling" is one of the terms heard quite often in the community of people struggling with anxiety disorders. There's a trigger like a thought or a sensation, then in short order you feel completely out of control, being dragged down into the pit of fear where you thrash about trying to make it stop but failing and just feeling worse and worse. This week on Disordered we're taking a closer look at what it really means to spiral. Is it a spiral, or an endless loop? Are you really out of control...
Dec 13, 2024•40 min
How important is the concept of attention in driving an anxiety disorder and influencing the recovery process? VERY important! This week on Disordered we're up to our usual hijinks but also we're digging into the idea that attention - choosing to pay very close attention to how one feels and what one is thinking - is the primary driver of disordered anxiety. And if this is true - which we say it is - then working on moving your attention elsewhere even when that feels risky or unsafe or impossib...
Dec 06, 2024•45 min
The struggle in an anxiety disorder is seen in two almost automatic responses to anxiety - we either obey it and do what it tells us we must do, or we resist it by trying to fight it, argue with it, and wish it away over and over. This week on Disordered Dr. Russ Harris - one of the world's leading advocates for Acceptance and Committment Therapy (ACT) - is here to chat about the principles of ACT, how we get hooked by anxiety, fear, and anxious thoughts, and how this can lead to a smaller and s...
Nov 29, 2024•47 min
How can you tell if you're getting better? How do you measure or at least see progress when working on recovery from an anxiety disorder? What happens if you're "doing it anyway" but not seeing progress? This week on Disordered we're looking at the "green flags" of anxiety recovery. What are the signs that tell you that you're making progress even when you might feel like you're not? How much of recovery is found in just doing it anyway? What if you're already doing it anyway and don't feel like...
Nov 22, 2024•40 min
