Send in a question or comment via text. This week on The Anxious Truth we're talking about what your anxiety support system looks like. We'll dismantle the common misconceptions about what support should be, and how those can be problematic in recovery. For full show notes on this episode: https://theanxioustruth.com/203 --- My books, social, and other links: https://theanxioustruth.com/links Support The Anxious Truth: https://theanxioustruth.com/support Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (wit...
Apr 13, 2022•17 min
Send in a question or comment via text. How does a highly respected psychologist approach panic attacks? This week on The Anxious Truth we’re going to find out as we talk to Dr. Dave Carbonell about panic, panic attacks, and the second edition of his book, The Panic Attacks Workbook. --- For full show notes on this episode: https://theanxioustruth.com/202 My books, social, and other links: https://theanxioustruth.com/links Support The Anxious Truth: https://theanxioustruth.com/support Music Cred...
Apr 06, 2022•35 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Depression is a hot topic in our community. I get asked about my personal experience with depression all the time. It had taken me a while to get around to this but on this week's episode of The Anxious Truth I will share my experience with depression. Let's talk about how I handled it then, and how I handle it now. Disclaimer: I am not an expert on depression or is this a substitute for therapy. I can only share my own experience with this topic and what ...
Mar 30, 2022•20 min
Send in a question or comment via text. This is the 200th episode of The Anxious Truth podcast. When I started this podcast in 2014 all by myself, talking to myself in my living room (it was called "That Anxiety Guy") back then, I would never have imagined where it would go. The podcast was something I did just to pay things forward into the universe. I had no plan, no desired outcome, and no real interest in doing any more than that. I just hit the button on my four dollar podcasting app, and s...
Mar 23, 2022•14 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Many people get confused and worried when they cry while anxious or afraid. Let's clear this up, because this is NOT a problem. Highlights From This Episode: Is Crying Wrong? Is Crying Avoidance? Does Crying Mean I’m Not Accepting? I cry because I am upset. I am upset because I cry. --- For full show notes on this episode: https://theanxioustruth.com/199 My books, social, and other links: https://theanxioustruth.com/links Support The Anxious Truth: https:/...
Mar 16, 2022•18 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Jen Kirkman is a comedian, author, actor, TV writer, and podcaster that has lived through anxiety and panic for large portions of her life. I was fortunate enough to have Jen on the podcast this week to talk about her path into anxiety and panic, then out the other side. I’m sure her story will sound familiar to most listeners. While talking with Jen (I was on her podcast last week), I realized that we had lived very different experiences emotionally and m...
Mar 09, 2022•35 min
Send in a question or comment via text. In today's episode of The Anxious Truth, we are going to talk about success and struggle within the anxiety recovery process and how, for many people, the two can look very similar at face value. As I have said many times, anxiety recovery is possible when we are able to sit in the discomfort of doing the hard things. Doing the things that scare us. Doing the things that purposefully put us in an anxious state so that we can learn to disassociate it from a...
Mar 02, 2022•20 min
Send in a question or comment via text. In episode 196 of The Anxious Truth, we will explore the urge to focus on the outcome in anxiety recovery rather than giving our attention to the process. Everyone wants to feel better. Clearly, this is the outcome we are all after. That’s fine, but this outcome is a long-term thing. Feeling better, experiencing less panic and anxiety, and having a “normal” life is something that happens over time, and it only happens when we learn the lessons of recovery....
Feb 23, 2022•20 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Today we will tackle the paradox of letting go in the anxiety recovery process. The concept of letting go - giving up the struggle - is a key concept in anxiety recovery. But in the context of recovery, letting go is not a thing designed to create instant calm or tranquility. In fact, the initial act of letting go will do quite the opposite. It will likely increase tension and discomfort. Over time we find a reduction in tension. As we progress, we do find...
Feb 16, 2022•20 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Making up your anxiety recovery as you go along is not a good plan. An anxious person will wait to see how they feel before deciding what to do, so avoidance and taking the more comfortable way can accidentally become the default. Anxious people are also not very good at making productive decisions about what to do while anxious. Building structure and having a plan to execute without assessing how one feels or having to think about it is a very useful too...
Feb 09, 2022•18 min
Send in a question or comment via text. So much of the anxiety and fear struggle is based on what we feel, what we think, and what we think about what we feel. What if thinking and feeling were NOT the most important things in the universe all the time? What if you could learn to pay attention to other things instead? How would that help you in your anxiety recovery journey? --- For full show notes on this episode: https://theanxioustruth.com/193 My books, social, and other links: https://theanx...
Feb 02, 2022•22 min
Send in a question or comment via text. “I’m doing things, but it doesn’t seem to be working! Why?” If you feel like you’re doing all the exposures but nothing is changing, you may be doing “half exposures” without even knowing it. Let’s look at what full, effective exposures really require. Exposure is what we do when we intentionally place ourselves into situations that purposefully trigger anxiety, panic, fear and all the things that come with them. We do this in order to learn a new way to r...
Jan 26, 2022•18 min
Send in a question or comment via text. This week I’m joined by my friend Kimberley Quinlan to talk about responsible use of social media as it relates to mental health and anxiety recovery. Kimberley starts from the premise that social media is neutral, but that the way we use it defines it as healthy or unhealthy. Let’s take it from there! Kim and I went over: Taking responsibility for your mental health and social media use Recognizing the limits and pitfalls of social media Knowing the diffe...
Jan 19, 2022•34 min
Send in a question or comment via text. “I know what I’m supposed to do, but it’s just so hard to do it!” Am too broken or too weak? No. You are not broken or too weak. This is a difficult process. I say all the time that recovery is a simple plan, but that plan is very hard to execute. Let’s look at the two main reasons why this is such a hard road to travel. Why is recovery so damn hard? There are many reasons that all come together to make the process of recovery from an anxiety issue as hard...
Jan 12, 2022•26 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Everyone wants to "overcome anxiety" in 2022. Totally doable, but we do not slay this dragon in one epic swing of a sword. This is a journey of small steps that add up. Recovery is granular. It happens in small bits as the result of small changes and small individual experiences that add up over time. Recovery does not come in giant leaps and broad sweeps. Successful recovery is very much about starting small, being incremental and being consistent. Really...
Jan 05, 2022•27 min
Send in a question or comment via text. The Anxious Morning is a project I've been working on for about a year. On January 3, the first edition of The Anxious Morning will hit the street, and the airwaves! For all the ways to listen or to subscribe free to the email newsletter, visit https://theanxiousmorning.com My goal with this project is to give you a more in-depth discussion of important anxiety and recovery topics that you can consume outside the chaos and algorithm madness that is the end...
Dec 29, 2021•5 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Recovery is based so much on intentionally doing things that are scary and difficult. This concept is often interpreted as being a “mind over matter” thing. While I understand the spirit and intention of this interpretation, is it quite incorrect and can actually be counterproductive. In reality, recovery is the exact opposite. Recovery is about allowing MATTER (reality) to take precedence over MIND. ---- For full show notes on this episode: https://theanx...
Dec 22, 2021•17 min
Send in a question or comment via text. When gripped by an anxiety disorder, much of life is dictated and driven by fear. We make our choices and our decisions based on what we fear in an effort to avoid feeling the things we do not want to feel. When we work to build a new relationship with our anxiety, and we learn to no longer fear it, our lives become less about fear and more about what we truly value. The process of recovery is in many ways a march from a fear-driven life to a value-driven ...
Dec 15, 2021•22 min
Send in a question or comment via text. "Why can't I feel happiness and joy?!?!?!" This question gets asked all the time. It's a question I am personally quite familiar with. When we are in the middle of the recovery process, still in the grips of anxiety and fear, we often find that we are unable to experience feelings of happiness, joy, or gratitude, at least not the way we think we should be experiencing them. But really, this is not a matter of being unable to feel happy. This is really a pe...
Dec 08, 2021•17 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Why on Earth am I talking about living recklessly? Most of us would agree that being reckless involves intentionally doing dangerous things and being somewhat responsible. Let’s take a few minutes to relate that to the process of anxiety recovery. And no, I am not going to teach you how to be truly reckless. It might just feel that way. When we do the hard and scary recovery things that we’re always talking about, that often feels really dangerous. You res...
Dec 01, 2021•19 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Positive self-talk is awesome. But not in the way you may think. When I tell people that positive self-talk is bullshit, I mean that it does not belong in your arsenal in the heat of the moment when experiencing that high anxiety spike or a panic attack. Positive self-talk, mantras and affirmations are great as a setup tool BEFORE things get rough for you. Use them when calm. Use them when getting yourself ready to do hard things. But ritualizing positive ...
Nov 24, 2021•22 min
Send in a question or comment via text. "BUT WHAT IF THERE ARE REAL HEALTH ISSUES OR LIFE CHALLENGES????" This is a question I get asked all the time. In this week's episode, we find some inspiration and encouragement from the awesome Jessica Sidener. Jessica is an inspiring example of a real human that was forced to handle two of the most stressful events imaginable at the same time. Jessica not only managed to get through it all intact, but she also turned her experience into something positiv...
Nov 17, 2021•34 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Coping skills. This is a term heard every day in mental health circles when trying to get a handle on anxiety problems. But what are coping skills? What are they designed to do? Do we really want or need them? Traditionally, the most common coping skills are all targeted at helping you escape the discomfort, fear and distress of anxiety. They may try to distract you, "ground" you, or help you find assistance from people that will help you get away from the...
Nov 10, 2021•18 min
Send in a question or comment via text. One of the more common mistakes, especially in early recovery, is trying to actually reach a recovered state before you do the recovery work. If you're trying to figure out a way to not be afraid so that you can start your recovery, you're putting the cart before the horse. If you're hoping that you'll find some magic words that will make all this hard stuff "click" so you can get started, you're doing it backwards. You must do the recovery things first, t...
Nov 03, 2021•17 min
Send in a question or comment via text. While you may want to ask for specific instructions on exactly what to do to feel better right now, this is not always the best approach to recovery in the long term. Asking for instructions can become a bit frustrating and overwhelming as you find yourself returning again and again for instructions based on today's thought, sensation, or specific fear. Focusing on understanding and applying the concepts and principles of recovery is a better approach that...
Oct 27, 2021•21 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Everyone wants instant competence and confidence in recovery, but unfortunately it does not work that way. Competence and confidence in recovery are things we build through doing the hard things, and the hard things are carried by courage. So the three C's of anxiety recovery are COURAGE, COMPETENCE, AND CONFIDENCE. Start with finding your courage, which will lead to and increased sense of competence, which when used to its fullest potential builds the con...
Oct 20, 2021•24 min
Send in a question or comment via text. So much of the recovery process brings us discomfort. Discomfort is woven into everything that we talk about with anxiety, panic, exposure, and recovery. Being uncomfortable is something that we unfortunately have to accept as part of the process. When it comes to doing exposures, we often feel hesitant about it. We have that anticipatory discomfort that builds up and sometimes leads to us choosing not to do the exposure. But then, we have the discomfort o...
Oct 13, 2021•19 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Therapist and author Joshua Fletcher returns to the podcast this week. In this episode, Drew and Josh talk about understanding the fear of fear, compassion and its role in exposures and recovery, and why Josh’s course is so heavy on the concepts of compassion and proper reactions. Drew and Josh also engage in a slightly spicy discussion about all the ‘dangerous’ courses out there that should be avoided. For full show notes on this episode: https://theanxio...
Oct 06, 2021•34 min
Send in a question or comment via text. Self-compassion. We hear about it all the time. It's quite a popular buzzword in mental health social media circles. But what really is self-compassion? What does it look like? What role does it play in the recovery process? How important it is? This week we are fortunate to Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT on the podcast to teach us about this oh-so-important concept. Kimberley is the author of The Self-Compassion Workbook for OCD , an amazing resource that hit th...
Sep 29, 2021•34 min
Send in a question or comment via text. You may feel powerless over your anxiety, pain, and past. But in reality, you DO have power and influence in this process. In this episode I am joined by Dr. Bridget Cooper to discuss awareness, choice, power and responsibility in the recovery process. Becoming aware that you DO have choice means that you do gain power and responsibility that you can use to propel yourself in the right direction toward recovery. It's not easy and not always pretty, but you...
Sep 22, 2021•33 min
