The Panic Pod: Anxiety Help

"We don't have to be in danger to feel afraid" - Dr. Dave Carbonell.

We have a very exciting episode for you today on The Panic Pod, as I am joined by someone I hold in very high regard, Dr. Dave Carbonell.

Dr. Dave and I cover two topics in this episode - rumination and the fear of going crazy. Dr. Carbonell offers some incredible insights that will resonate and benefit so many of my listeners. We touch on the truth behind anxiety, which is that we aren't often afraid of the trigger itself, we are actually afraid that our response to the trigger will be out of control and this is what truly scares us.

Doctor Carbonell is a Clinical Psychologist who specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders as a therapist, author, and teacher. He offers exposure based treatment of fears and phobias in Chicago; is the author of four anxiety self help books; and teaches workshops for therapists who want to learn more about the treatment of anxiety disorders

He is the author of four self-help books:  Panic Attacks Workbook (2004) and Fear of Flying Workbook (2017) are both published by Ulysses Press. The Worry Trick (2016) and Outsmart Your Anxious Brain (2020) are both published by New Harbinger.

You can find out more about him on his website - www.anxietycoach.com

Enjoy!

The language we use in anxious recovery is so important and yet it is one of the things I see clients not giving the attention it requires. The language you use to describe yourself in anxiety, or yourself during recovery, is so crucial to your progress because the brain is always listening.

I often need to gently remind my clients to look at how they are speaking to themselves and ask them to reframe their words in a more positive and helpful way.

One of the main pillars of my teaching is wilful tolerance. Recovery is the wilful tolerance of anxiety, and it's a skill that we must practice. If we constantly criticize the inevitable blips in the road, if we dismiss the small victories, we aren't giving ourselves the best possible support we can give.

And so the language we use around our recovery is so important. And that is what this episode is dedicated to today.

Please enjoy!

Dental anxiety is a big topic of conversation among The Panic Pod and School of Anxiety community, and for understandable reasons.

Today on the Panic Pod we are joined by guest expert, Dr Niall Neeson a.k.a The Calming Dentist. Niall has a wonderfully empathetic approach to supporting those of us with dental anxiety to navigate our experiences in the dentist's chair.

Niall offers up some great tips and ways of communicating with your dentist in order to have the most comfortable experience possible. We discuss why dental anxiety is nothing to be ashamed of and that open communication between you and your dentist is the best way to ensure a calming experience. Your dentist wants this for you.

You can find Niall on Instagram @thecalmingdentist.

Enjoy this much needed conversation, we hope it makes your next trip to the dentist that much easier.

This week, we are joined by Dr Henrik Nordahl and Dr Lora Capobianco. Both guests today are experts in the field of metacognitive therapy.

We often discuss a range of different modalities and treatments on the Panic Pod, yet metacognitive therapy is still a lesser-known form of therapy (especially in the UK).

Metacognitive therapy (MCT) is a psychotherapy focused on modifying metacognitive beliefs that perpetuate states of worry, rumination, and attention fixation.

In today's episode, we discuss what metacognitive therapy is, why it's useful and how it differs from other popular anxiety treatments such as CBT.

If you have tried other popular modalities without success, you might find this episode enlightening.

Please enjoy!

If you have any questions, you can contact us here: [email protected]

Today we welcome a special guest, Seerut K. Chawla onto the podcast. Seerut is a fellow psychotherapist and self-confessed Lord of the Rings nerd. She has amassed a following of over 235,000 on Instagram for her straight-talking and IG-therapy busting content. Seerut works using an integrative model (which means incorporating different therapeutic styles) depending on the client and the circumstances.

Her main modality is psychodynamic psychotherapy which is derivative of the psychoanalytic tradition.

In this episode, we take a deep dive into the modern-day 'trauma trend' that has taken social media by storm. Unfortunately, the meaning of the word trauma is quickly becoming a diluted term and is often misused. 

This is one of the most important discussions we have had on The Panic Pod. We explore what genuine trauma actually is, and precisely what it is not. We discuss the misuse of the trauma label in modern-day society and social media, and the consequences of the trauma trend.

It may appear like a controversial conversation that we have today that very much goes against most of the content and advice we see across the internet at the moment, but this discussion is more necessary and relevant than ever.

Please enjoy.

Today on the Panic Pod, Josh is joined by counsellor, Louise Tyler to talk about anxiety and sleep.

It comes as no surprise that many of us who suffer from anxiety, also struggle with sleep. And in true anxiety style, before we know it we are not only having difficulty sleeping because of the original source of stress but because we are now ruminating on our lack of sleep. It's a tough cycle to break and a loop that is easily strengthened by the belief that a lack of sleep is dangerous and harmful to our health.

But in this episode, Josh and Louise discuss an alternative perspective that is more helpful in allowing us to live happy and healthy lives regardless of the amount of sleep we manage each night.

If you've ever heard experts out there hammering home the notion that a lack of sleep is the absolute worst thing imaginable where your health is concerned, this episode is for you.

Advice like this may come from a well-intended place but, for anxiety sufferers in particular, it only adds pressure and panic to our nighttime routine - which ultimately results in less sleep and heightened stress and anxiety.

We offer to you a fresh perspective and a different approach that will relieve the angst and pressure surrounding sleep so you can feel perfectly capable of functioning regardless of how many hours you get each night.

Joining Josh on the podcast today is Zohara Nguyen, one of the very first students to sign up to Josh's popular course - Stop Fearing Fear. 

In today's episode, Zohara takes us through her own personal struggles with anxiety, what motivated her to join the program, and the incredible progress she has made in her anxiety recovery since completing the course.

In this in-depth and delightful discussion, Zohara explains how her fear of panic was impacting her life. She explains how she has been able to implement the tools from the program to make huge positive changes in her life and make outstanding progress in her anxiety recovery journey.

Zohara is a great example of how it is possible for all of us to live a life that is in our control.

If you would like to join the program you can sign up here: www.courses.schoolofanxiety.com

If you have any questions, pop us an email at [email protected]

**CORRECTION: The biggest killer of men under 50 is suicide and depression**

Today, Josh is joined by one of his all-time favourite people, Drew Linsalata.

Fearing emotions is the topic discussed in today's episode. One that may not fit so cleanly into the category of anxiety or panic but, during their time helping clients manage their anxiety disorders, both Josh and Drew have noticed an overlapping theme that's worth a mention.

And that theme is the fear of our emotions. Or perhaps we should say, fearing emotions that we feel we 'shouldn't' be feeling.

Being able to express and feel our emotions freely and without judgement is a crucial part of the anxiety recovery process and of course, life! Unfortunately, social conditioning has taught us that certain emotions are to be feared. We are taught that negative emotions are inherently 'bad' and 'unhelpful' which becomes an unhelpful perspective in and of itself. When we believe these things to be true, it's understandable that we may fear our emotions and wonder what they might mean about us.

Today Josh and Drew debunk some myths and explain why we might fear our emotions, how that impacts our lives and what it means to express ourselves without judgement.

If you enjoyed listening to The Panic Pod, please do leave a review and let us know your thoughts on Instagram @thepanicpod or by emailing us at [email protected]

Driving is a responsibility that should be taken seriously, but what happens when the heightened sense of alertness for driving becomes a tense white-knuckle ride while battling one's own fear? In this episode, Josh and Ella discuss driving anxiety in the context of both post-traumatic incident driving and generalised anxiety disorder (i.e the fear of having a panic attack while driving). When was the last time you heard of someone losing control driving while having a panic attack? Although the fear of this is common, in reality the chances of it happening are extremely low compared to those who get into accidents related to factors like increased speed, impairment from drugs/alcohol, or from fatigue. Getting back behind the wheel after a long time away can be unnerving, but using graded exposure and a good helping of self-compassion, it is possible to overcome the irrational anxious feelings around driving.

Do you enjoy listening to The Panic Pod? Let us know by emailing [email protected], or by interacting with us on Facebook and Instagram as @thepanicpod.

Root causes of anxiety can be traumatic events that cause us to change our behaviour in response to triggers. A root cause may also be something very minor but calcified over time to seem much worse than the first “event” that set things off.

However, the idea that anxiety always has a narrative such as this is overused, and doesn’t help people who just want to untangle and understand their anxiety disorder. Sometimes anxiety does have a root cause, but when it doesn’t – which Josh says is the vast majority of the time – the “root cause” narrative doesn’t actually help a clients’ progress.

Using the analogy of a house fire as a panic episode, josh says “When a fire brigade is called, their aim is to put out a fire, and then maybe investigate how the fire started, but definitely not the other way around.”

Do you enjoy listening to The Panic Pod? Let us know by emailing [email protected], or by interacting with us on Facebook and Instagram as @thepanicpod.