Send in a question or comment via text. Let's do an old fashioned anxiety questions and answers session, shall we?  Today we're answering questions from our friends on Facebook.

02:24 How do I face a scary exposure?05:58 Is it normal to still have symptoms or scary thoughts in recovery?08:48 What do I do when I'm not anxious and have no symptoms or thoughts to deal with?10:40 Which comes first, scary sensations or scary thoughts?12:37 How can I be sure if it's just anxiety or my intuition?15:01 The selfish nature of anxiety and anxiety disorders
For full show notes on this episode or to access more anxiety recovery resources:
https://theanxioustruth.com/286 Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. This is never required, but always appreciated!

Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.

EP 286 - Anxiety and Recovery Questions and Answers

Struggling with panic attacks, agoraphobia, or other anxiety problems? The Anxious Truth will educate you, empower you, encourage you, and inspire you to get your life back! &nbsp;

* Featured in the New York Times: "6 Podcasts to Soothe An Anxious Mind" (April 27, 2024)

* Featured in Vogue Magazine: "The 15 Best Mental Health Podcasts Recommended by Therapists" (October 2023)

Listen to the podcast, read the books, join the social media community, and get on the path to recovery.

Health & Fitness

Mental Health

Send in a question or comment via text. Thinking and feeling are important to humans. Thinking and feeling about thinking and feeling is important to anxious humans!

In the world of recovery from disordered or chronic anxiety, what we thinking and feeling about thinking and feeling - our metacognitive beliefs - play an important role in the process but are often overlooked.

This week on The Anxious Truth I'm pretty exhausted so we're going to take a look at that to highlight some important recovery lessons.  Why is being so exhausted, drained, and emotional not leading to anxiety and panic? Because my recovery experience taught me a new way to think and feel ... about how I think and feel.

Let's take a closer look at what we think and feel about what we think and feeling. Metacognitive beliefs can sometimes be the glue that keeps us stuck to our symptoms, thoughts, and big emotions.  Recognizing when strong beliefs about thoughts and feelings are leading us astray can be an important first step  in challenging those beliefs and using the principles of acceptance, tolerance, surrender, and exposure in the recovery process.

For full show notes on this episode including a full transcript:
https://theanxioustruth.com/293 Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. This is never required, but always appreciated!

Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.

Thinking and Feeling ... About Thinking and Feeling | EP 293

Send in a question or comment via text. You’re in the middle of a huge wave of intense anxiety and fear, or maybe you’re experiencing a full blown panic attack.  Someone with all the best intentions and trying to be helpful instructs you to identify five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. This is the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise. If you’ve followed along with me for any length of time you know that I don’t speak too kindly about grounding exercises. But today we’re going to revisit 5-4-3-2-1 and grounding exercises in general.  

What if there is a  way to use them to our benefit rather than having them blow up in our faces?  

For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/292


 Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. This is never required, but always appreciated!

Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.

Anxiety Grounding Techniques Revisited | Episode 292

Send in a question or comment via text. Among people that struggle with chronic or disordered forms of anxiety, there are a wide range of individual primary fears or concerns. When you ask a large enough number of our friends what they are afraid of, you’re going to get a pretty wide range of answers primarily because everyone experiences fear, worry, concern, and anxiety in a slightly different way. 

But hidden within this apparently wide range of specific and individual fears are some common thread and themes.

This week on The Anxious Truth we're exploring four common themes found when a few hundred anxious people expressed the fears and worry they're struggling with right now.Fear of Immediate Physical/Medical ThreatFear of Immediate Psychological/Mental ThreatFear of Being Overwhelmed or Unable to Adequately CopeObsessive Fixation on Specific Feared Outcomes
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/291

For more anxiety and recovery resources:
https://theanxioustruth.com


 Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. This is never required, but always appreciated!

Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.

Common Themes in Anxious Fears | Ep 291

Send in a question or comment via text. People struggling with chronic or disordered states of anxiety often find themselves in a situation where they are hyper aware and therefore overwhelmed by sensory input. 

Non-anxious humans are so oblivious to what we sense that we sometimes pay to have people tell us to notice what our eyes, ears, noses, and skin are sending and perceiving. But for anxious people dealing with chronic or disordered forms of anxiety, this is not a problem at all. We have the opposite issue. We are constantly paying very close attention to sensory input. We are hyper aware. Why are we hyper aware?  Because we MUST evaluate ourselves constantly to stay ahead of our triggers. Anxious people are continually checking themselves for physical sensations that don’t seem right, thoughts that might be going south, or emotions that they won’t be able to handle.  If you’re here today listening or watching, I would wager a large sum that a good portion of your time is spend checking on yourself, then evaluating the results of that internal scan to to see if you’re OK, or you have to start taking evasive action to stay safe … from yourself.

Episode 290 of The Anxious Truth provides a reframe on sensory overload and overwhelm that ties the experience directly to an overactive, overprotective threat detection and response system. This reframe and explanation could be helpful in informing new action that helps us learn the experiential lessons we need to learn in recovery.

For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/290

For more anxiety and recovery resources:
https://theanxioustruth.com

 
 Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. This is never required, but always appreciated!

Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.

Anxious Sensory Overload & Overwhelm | EP 290

Send in a question or comment via text. Sometimes the toughest opponent we have in anxiety recovery is the belief we can't outrun. This episode challenges you to question the certainties that have defined your battle with anxiety. Is the intensity of our emotions a reliable compass? Is our self-knowledge as accurate as we believe? We'll explore the potential for a fleeting moment of power even amidst the storm of fear, and how reassessing our core beliefs can unlock new possibilities. The thought that what was once unthinkable can become thinkable, what felt impossible can indeed become possible. Reflect on the resilience hidden in your stories and perceptions as we navigate through the complexities of anxiety together.

For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/289 Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee. This is never required, but always appreciated!

Disclaimer: The Anxious Truth is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to The Anxious Truth does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the host or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your own well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.

EP 286 - Anxiety and Recovery Questions and Answers

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