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

By Drew Linsalata

What's The Anxious Truth - A Panic, Anxiety, and Mental Health Podcast about?

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

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EP 191 - Social Media, Ment...

01.19.2022

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 ...

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

01.19.2022 EP 191 - Social Media, Mental Health, and Anxiety Recovery W/Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT 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 ...
01.12.2022 EP 190 - Why Is Anxiety Recovery So Damn Hard? “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 ...
01.05.2022 EP 189 - How To Slay Your Anxiety Dragon in 2022 (In 27,000 small steps) 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 ...
12.29.2021 EP 188 - The Anxious Morning Podcast/Newsletter Launches Jan 3, 2022! 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 ...
12.22.2021 EP 187 - MATTER over MIND 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 ...
12.15.2021 EP 186 - Moving Away From Fear Toward A Value-Driven Life 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 ...
12.08.2021 EP 185 - Finding Happiness Again Step-By-Step "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 ...
12.01.2021 EP 184 - Learning To Live Recklessly (But Not Really) 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. ...
11.24.2021 EP 183 - Revisiting Positive Self-Talk 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 ...
11.17.2021 EP 182 - Meeting Multiple Challenges At The Same Time: A Success Story "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 ...
11.10.2021 EP 181 - What Are Coping Skills, And Do We Want Them? 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? ...
11.03.2021 EP 180 - Are You Trying To Recover BEFORE Recovery? 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 ...
10.27.2021 EP 179 - Recovery Principles Or Recovery Instructions? 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 ...
10.20.2021 EP 178 - The Three C's Of Anxiety Recovery: Courage, Competence, and Confidence (Oct 2021) 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 ...
10.13.2021 EP 177 - The Discomfort Of Hesitation 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 ...
10.06.2021 EP 176 - Compassion And The Fear Of Fear with Joshua Fletcher 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 ...
09.29.2021 EP 175 - The Art and Importance of Self-Compassion w/Kimberley Quinlan 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 ...
09.22.2021 EP 174 - Finding Your Power In The Recovery Process 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 ...
09.15.2021 EP 173 - Why You Need To Slow Down (Seven Percent Slower Preview Chapter) If you can learn to slow down, while anxiety, fear, panic, and stress are telling you to speed up, good things will happen over time. On this podcast episode we take a look at the speed response that is baked ...
09.08.2021 EP 172 - Not Accepting The Lessons Of Recovery The magic of recovery lies in allowing and passing through fear, not for fun, but so that we can learn the lessons that reality hands us afterward. Specifically, "That was really hard and scary, but nothing bad happened." Often, we ...
09.01.2021 EP 171 - Dealing With Unplanned Exposures and Challenges At some point in recovery, every one of us faces unplanned exposures and challenges that life throws at us. This is just part of the deal, so we must accept that. In this episode we'll answer a very common question: ...
08.25.2021 EP 170 - Dean Stott from DLC Anxiety on Recovery and The Online Mental Health Community Today we have an anxiety success story that goes beyond just anxiety! My friend and frequent collaborator Dean Stott from the DLC Anxiety Worldwide platform stopped by to talk about his anxiety journey, how he created the DLC platform, and ...
08.18.2021 EP 169 - Anxiety Success Story: Shannon Goes From Sufferer To Teacher! Let's do another anxiety success story! Today we have Shannon Jackson (AKA "ahealthypush" on Instagram). Shannon joins us to tell the story of her anxiety journey, her recovery, and how she went from suffering to teaching and providing hope for ...
08.11.2021 EP 168 - The Panic Attack Hangover And What To Do About It What happens AFTER a panic attack? Do you suffer from panic attack "hangover"? Does it impact you for hours, or even days after the attack ends? In this podcast episode we'll look at the panic attack hangover, what it is, ...
08.04.2021 EP 167 - Morning Anxiety and What To Do About It Morning anxiety. It was a thing for me, and I know based on massive amounts of feedback on this topic that it's a thing for many others. In this episode of the podcast, we'll look at morning anxiety and how ...
07.28.2021 EP 166 - Finding Strength and Confidence In Playful, Empowering Ways w/ Lora Plank Cheadle Sometimes we take our inspiration and encouragement from outside the anxiety disorder realm. Sometimes we find someone that had been knocked down HARD, yet found a way to stand back up and get back into the game of life on ...
07.21.2021 EP 165 - Winning the Anxiety Recovery War: Stop Fighting. Start Learning. Anxiety recovery is a strange war. You only win it when you stop fighting. In this episode we look at the need to stop being an anxiety warrior, and start being an anxiety student. Learning, not fighting, is the way ...
07.14.2021 EP 164 - Lily's Anxiety Journey - Part 2 (w/ Lily Bloomberg) This is part 2 of my conversation with my friend and social media collaborator Lily Bloomberg. In this episode Lily talks about the process of her recovery. There are twists in Lily's story that I found fascinating, and I hope ...
07.07.2021 EP 163 - Lily's Anxiety Journey - Part 1 (With Lily Bloomberg) I had the privilege of spending an hour with my friend and some-time collaborator Lily Bloomberg. Lily is a school psychologist and anxiety coach that has lived her own struggles with anxiety disorders and other mental health challenges. Today Lily ...
06.30.2021 EP 162 - Listener Questions and Answers (June 2021) In this episode I take questions from listeners. Some questions came in as voice messages on my Anchor podcast page. Others were submitted on Instagram. I wasn't able to answer all the questions because I only have 30 minutes or ...
06.23.2021 EP 161 - Are You Choosing TEMPORARY Comfort Over Long-Term Recovery? "What does it take to really recover?" Good question. I can tell you one thing it takes. It takes this. Calling out our habit of choosing temporary relief and comfort when we avoid and escape and run and refuse to ...
06.16.2021 EP 160 - How Can You Be SURE That It's Just Anxiety? This is a question I get asked literally every day. The answer may not be the one you want, but it's the one you need. In this episode we examine how we can learn to be sure (enough) that it ...
06.09.2021 EP 159 - Examining Social Anxiety With Sadie Hall SOCIAL ANXIETY - LET’S TALK ABOUT IT My guest today is Sadie Hall, creator and host of the Your Social Anxiety Bestie podcast and a lifelong social anxiety sufferer. Sadie was kind enough to spend some time with me to ...
06.02.2021 EP 158 - Seeing Your Anxiety Problem As "Punishment" This is a theme that has come up now and then in the community surrounding the podcast. When I asked my Instagram community how many people felt that anxiety means they are being punished in some way, I was blown ...
05.26.2021 EP 157 - Anxiety In Children and Other Family Issues w/ Dr. Jacque Bogdanov ANXIETY IN CHILDREN AND OTHER FAMILY ISSUES Today we're joined by Dr. Jacque Bogdanov, a licensed clinical psychologist specializing in anxiety and behavioral issues in children. Dr. Jacque is trained in using CBT and PCIT (Parent-Child Interaction Therapy) and was ...
05.19.2021 EP 156 - Anxiety Success Stories: Meg Learns To Roll With It! RECOVERY IS POSSIBLE! Meg is a great example of someone that spirals into a full blown anxiety disorder, then works really hard to follow that spiral back out of the jam she was in. If you're not sure if you ...
05.12.2021 EP 155 - Death and Existential Anxiety For many anxiety sufferers, an obsessive and consuming fear of death and existential issues becomes a real problem. Let's talk about it in this episode of the podcast. The most important thing to remember is that ALL humans struggle with ...
05.05.2021 EP 154 - LGBTQ+ Issues In Mental Health and Recovery w/ Tori Chavira In this issue I had the good fortune to chat with Tori Chavira about her journey through OCD and mental health issues while also handling the issues faced by a member of the LBGTQ+ community. Tori is a strong, positive ...
04.28.2021 EP 153 - Examining Your Inner Critic w/ Joshua Fletcher I HATE MY INNER CRITIC! Everyone does! Your inner critic will say all kinds of horrible things to you. This builds obstacles along the path to recovery. In this episode I am joined again by UK psychotherapist Joshua Fletcher to ...
04.14.2021 EP 152 - Agoraphobia Explained Agoraphobia goes well beyond "can't leave the house". In this episode, let's examine the nature of agoraphobia. We'll talk about: What agoraphobia really is What it isn't How it develops The impacts of agoraphobia Recovering from agoraphobia For full show ...
04.07.2021 EP 151 - Latinx Perspectives on Anxiety & Mental Health w/ Dr. Lisa Cortez A couple of months ago I did a "gender issues in recovery" episode with my friend Bridget Cooper. The response was good! ALL voices and experiences matter, so this week we chat with Dr. Lisa Cortez about anxiety and mental ...
03.31.2021 EP 150 - How Do I Talk TO My Anxiety? How do I talk to my anxiety? This is a common question. In this episode we'll explore why and HOW you can "talk" to your anxiety as part of an effective recovery strategy. For full show notes on this episode ...
03.24.2021 EP 149 - Health Anxiety Explanations and Recovery Strategies This is a topic that people have been asking me to talk about lately. In the last six months, I've developed much more an interest in health anxiety. If you had asked me a year ago about it, I would ...
03.17.2021 EP 148 - Generalized Anxiety Disorders, GAD Drivers, and Recovery Strategies I'm asked all the time ... "Does this recovery method apply to GAD?" The short answer is that it does, but there are extra wrinkles with GAD that we must be aware of. We must learn to relate in a ...
03.10.2021 EP 147 - My Antidepressant Withdrawal Story (Part 3 of 3) I used Paxil between 1996 and 2005. This is part 3 of a 3 part series detailing my experience. My experience with SSRI withdrawal was difficult, to say the least. I’ve been asked to tell this story, so I did ...
03.03.2021 EP 146 - Part 2 - Antidpressants, Anxiety and Me In this episode I finally discuss an issue so many people have been asking me to discuss for so long. My experience with anxiety medications. I used Paxil between 1996 and 2005. This is part 2 of a 3 part ...
02.24.2021 EP 145 - Part 1 - Antidepressants, Anxiety, And Me In this episode I finally discuss an issue so many people have been asking me to discuss for so long. My experience with anxiety medications. I used Paxil between 1996 and 2005. This is part 1 of a 3 part ...
02.17.2021 EP 144 - Therapy Tips, Anxiety Recovery, And The Most Interesting Thing In The Room (w/ Joshua Fletcher) On this episode I was able to spend 30 minutes or so chatting with Joshua Fletcher. Josh is a working therapist in the UK that runs a practice specializing in anxiety disorders. Josh is also the host of The Panic ...
02.10.2021 EP 143 - Hidden Gems: Starting Recovery INSIDE Your Safe Zone We often talk about starting recovery by taking small steps, but did you know that those small steps can often be taken right inside your "safe zone"? It's true! Odds are your home base - your safe zone - is ...
02.03.2021 EP 142 - Anxiety Success Stories: Donna Kicks Her Blood Pressure Monitor To The Curb Donna grew up surrounded by discussion of cardiac health and blood pressure. When she started experiencing panic attacks, and the blood pressure spikes that naturally come with them, her struggle with health anxiety and an obsession with her blood pressure ...

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