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

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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 mentally, yet both wound up in the same place with regard to anxiety and panic issues.  Panic attacks.  Irrational fears.  Driving anxiety.  Life restrictions.  Jen and I lived a similar experience with anxiety even when our emotional and thinking styles could not be more different.

I spent some time this week exploring this with Jen.

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For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/198

My books, social, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Support The Anxious Truth:

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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 actual danger.

Now, this might be what could be considered the 'struggle'.

Yet, how is it that one person can be seen doing the things, facing challenges, embracing the struggle, facing their fears, and make progress while someone else can appear to be doing the exact same things and remain feeling stuck?

Today, we discuss one possible reason for this.

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For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/197

My books, social, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Support The Anxious Truth:

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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.

Where do we find those lessons?

The PROCESS of recovery teaches us those lessons.  It would seem obvious to state that the process leads to the outcome, but this is often overlooked by anxious people that want to skip the process and go right to “no more panic”.

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For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/196

My books, social, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Support The Anxious Truth:

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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 increased contentment and calm. This is achieved through the repeated, long-term practice of letting go, even when letting go may increase discomfort at any given moment.

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For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/195

My books, social, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Support The Anxious Truth:

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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 tool in recovery.

In today’s podcast episode we’re going to discuss three reasons why it’s important to make an anxiety recovery plan.

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For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/194

My books, social, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Support The Anxious Truth:

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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? 

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For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/193

My books, social, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Support The Anxious Truth:

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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 relate to anxiety and fear so that we no longer fear it.

Successful and effective exposures require two primary ingredients:

Willingness: You must work to get to the point where you are willing to intentionally do these scary and challenging things consistently to get better. This does not mean you’re happy about doing them consistently, just that you are fully willing.

Acceptance: You must be fully accepting of the fact that doing scary and challenging things will - in fact - be scary and challenging. You must accept that this is the whole point. You must accept that you have to do your best to navigate through the scary and challenging stuff rather than trying to save yourself from it, stop it from happening, or otherwise “side by it sideways”.

The most common issues that result in “I’m doing exposure but it’s not working” involve being only partially willing (inconsistency) and lacking acceptance (trying to find ways to do scary things without being scared).

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For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/192

My books, social, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Support The Anxious Truth:

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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 difference between psychoeducation and behavioral change
• Why the ability to find everything on the Internet can be a bad thing
• And more!

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For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/191

My books, social, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Support The Anxious Truth:

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

Music Credit: AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Additional Music Credit In This Episode:

Local Forecast Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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 as it is. In this episode, let's focus on what I think are the big two. These are the primary reasons why recovery can be so challenging.

1. Humans HATE Fear and Discomfort

I’m not telling you anything you don’t know here. The bad news is that recovery requires that we intentionally and repeatedly move into a state of fear and discomfort.

2. Recovery Experiences Are NOT Conducive To Forming Good Habits

When we compare experiences that help build strong habits, and experiences that help us toward recovery, they are polar opposites. Recovery experiences - being afraid and uncomfortable on purpose - are more well suited to the inhibition or blocking of good habit forming. We don’t like to have negative experiences (see reason one above), and we sure as hell don’t want to repeat them when we have them. So there's almost nothing about intentionally creating panic or near panic that sounds encouraging in terms of forming productive recovery habits.

FOR FULL SHOW NOTES ON THIS EPISODE:

https://theanxioustruth.com/190

MY BOOKS, SOCIAL, and OTHER LINKS:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

SUPPORT MY WORK

https://theanxioustruth.com/support

MUSIC CREDIT: 

AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

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, recovery is about developing strong recovery HABITS.

Let’s look at five small anxiety recovery habits you can work on to start the new year.

For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/189

My books, social media, and other links:

https://theanxioustruth.com/links

Music Credit:

AfterGlow by Ben Drake (with permission)

https://bendrakemusic.com

Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.