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

This week we answered some common - and not so common - questions about anxiety and recovery. Thanks to everyone on Instagram that submitted a question. I appreciate it!

First I reviewed some basic principles you can fall back on when asking many of the questions that were asked. That's about the first 15 minutes of the episode, which will be useful if you're new to this or need a refresher to remind you of what you're dealing with.

Then we moved on to some specific questions.

• AFTER THE CRISIS HAS PASSED, DO YOU STILL NEED THERAPY? DO YOU STILL HAVE TO WORK ON YOURSELF?
• WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OCD AND GAD OR PANIC DISORDER AND HEALTH ANXIETY?
• HOW CAN YOU BE SURE THIS IS JUST ANXIETY?
• WHEN AM I ALLOWED TO REST?
• HOW DOES MINDFULNESS FIT INTO RECOVERY?
• ARE POSITIVE AFFIRMATIONS OK?
• HOW DO I ACCEPT ...?
• WHAT ARE THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAYS OF SELF-REGULATING WHEN ANXIOUS?
• WHAT ABOUT THIS KIND OF ANXIETY?

For full show notes on this episode:

⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/273

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My books, social, and other links:⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links⁠⁠⁠

Support The Anxious Truth:⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support⁠⁠⁠

This week my guest is anxiety and OCD specialist Joanna Hardis who stopped by the podcast to talk about the art of doing ... nothing.

Wait ... what? Nothing? Yes. Nothing.

Humans are conditioned to automatically spring into action to solve problems, and often we declare that our emotional and mental states are automatically problems that must be solved. When we experience discomfort, distress, anxiety, or any "negative" feeling we can get trapped into automatically trying to do something .... anything ... to solve that problem and make it disappear.

The thing is, this is often paradoxically harmful in that it can keep us trapped in the very state we're trying to escape. Learning that it is possible to do nothing about negative internal experiences - learning to ride through them without hitting the panic button - can go a long way toward getting us closer to where we want to be both in anxiety recovery and in life. And as it turns out, if we look at what Joanna wrote about in her book "Just Do Nothing", we see that even as we struggle with recovery from an anxiety disorder, we're not all that different from all the other humans walking the planet. The issues are often the same, just experienced at a different degree in our community. This is good news, because we're afraid and unsure, but not defective and not broken.

For more information about Joanna and her book:

https://joannahardis.com

For full show notes on this episode:

⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/270

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My books, social, and other links:⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links⁠⁠⁠

Support The Anxious Truth:⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support⁠⁠⁠

If this is all new to you, asking for more information is normal, expected, and healthy! Everyone needs more information and explanation to start.

But if you are not new to this and you've heard me and others talk about your scariest symptom or stickiest recovery issue over and over, ask yourself what you are hoping to get when you ask us to talk more about it. After multiple books, videos, social media posts, livestreams and podcast episodes on a given topic, it can be helpful to stop and consider what more you think you need to hear, and why you need to hear it.

Consider that asking for encouragement or cheerleading is likely more productive than getting stuck in the "tell me more" cycle, which can lead to judging yourself negatively because you can't seem to move forward.

For full show notes on this episode:

⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/271

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My books, social, and other links:⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links⁠⁠⁠

Support The Anxious Truth:⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support⁠⁠⁠

Help! I can't get motivated to do my exposures and work on my recovery!

This is a thing I hear often in this community, so this week let's address motivation and the myth surrounding it. Often we think that getting motivated means that we create a certain feeling, then we act on that feeling. This is incorrect. In fact, it's almost entirely backwards! Demanding to conjure of a feeling called "motivation" before you can act is selling yourself short and can accidentally lead harsh self-judgment that doesn't have to be there.

In this episode we talk about the myth of "feeling motivated", how feeling does not have to precede action, values and goals in relation to motivation and how to tap into self-compassion and smaller steps to build momentum and feelings of motivation through action.

For full show notes on this episode:

⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/270

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My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠⁠

Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠⁠

EMDR. It's become an insanely popular therapy over the last few years. Originally developed as a trauma recovery tool, EMDR is often touted as being appropriate or effective in many more clinical circumstances. But ... is it? Is EMDR an anxiety disorder recovery treatment? This week I'm joined by Florida therapist Anne Thomas to talk about EMDR, what it is, what it isn't, and how it might be applied in the context of panic disorder, agoraphobia, and other anxiety disorders.

The takeaway here is that EMDR is not going to magically fix your anxiety problem simply by moving your eyes back and forth. There's still real-world work to do as usual. But there may be instances where EMDR can be useful in addressing some of the negative beliefs about yourself and about past events that can be real obstacles in recovery. Expectations and a clear sense of what EMDR can and can't do, are always going to be important as they would be with any type of therapy.

In this episode we mentioned EMDRIA, which is the organization that trained Anne and trains other EMDR therapists.

https://emdria.org

To find Anne on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/sitwithanne

For full show notes on this episode:

⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/269

---

My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠

Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠

EMDR. It's become an insanely popular therapy over the last few years. Originally developed as a trauma recovery tool, EMDR is often touted as being appropriate or effective in many more clinical circumstances. But ... is it? Is EMDR an anxiety disorder recovery treatment? This week I'm joined by Florida therapist Anne Thomas to talk about EMDR, what it is, what it isn't, and how it might be applied in the context of panic disorder, agoraphobia, and other anxiety disorders.

The takeaway here is that EMDR is not going to magically fix your anxiety problem simply by moving your eyes back and forth. There's still real-world work to do as usual. But there may be instances where EMDR can be useful in addressing some of the negative beliefs about yourself and about past events that can be real obstacles in recovery. Expectations and a clear sense of what EMDR can and can't do, are always going to be important as they would be with any type of therapy.

In this episode we mentioned EMDRIA, which is the organization that trained Anne and trains other EMDR therapists.

https://emdria.org

To find Anne on Instagram:

https://instagram.com/sitwithanne

For full show notes on this episode:

⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/269

---

My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠

Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠

Just a quick update on reaching the field/clinical work phase of my masters degree and why there's no actual podcast episode this week. We'll be back with another episode of The Anxious Truth next week as usual, but in the meanwhile why not check out Disordered, the podcast I do with Josh Fletcher. Find that podcast at

https://disordered.fm

Of course, you can also check out any of the 268 previous episodes of The Anxious Truth that I've recorded over the last 8 years or so. They're all free on your favorite podcast platform and on my YouTube channel.

I'll see you next week! :-)

It's not really what I did in my recovery that matters. Its WHY I did it.

This week we're talking about why its far more useful to focus on the principles I followed in recovery than to try to mimic my recovery step by step and action by action. Don't use my recovery as a literal blueprint for yours because you are not me and I am not you. We are all different and those differences matter in terms of specific steps, actions, and instructions to follow in recovery.

Instead, connect to the principles I'm discussing and do your best to apply those principles within your specific situation. If you find a helper that just keeps going back to what they did and uses they own personal experience as the basis for much of what they say, be mindful of that and beware of the traps that lie in that approach. You can accidentally wind up feeling more confused, frustrated, and upset with yourself than you need to be.

For full show notes on this episode:

⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/268

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My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠

Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠

Let's talk about the dreaded social media doom scroll and the negative impact it can have in your recovery. Learning to be a bit more mindful and intentional with your social media use can go a long way toward helping you get what you need while avoiding some of the more common traps and pitfalls that default scrolling without purpose can have.

For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/267

---

My books, social, and other links: ⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠

Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠

When you decide to start facing your fear, doing exposures, meeting challenges, and breaking your avoidance cycle, that's awesome! You're being brave and choosing to do hard things because it's help you in the long run, so take the credit for making that leap!

But you may - like many do - accidentally fall into the trap of only meeting challenges, doing your exposures, and generally doing hard things only on the days when you feel "good". This week on the podcast we're talking about why that's a bad idea and why its so important to take action and do the hard things when you're having "bad days".

When you take action in your recovery on the days when you feel like you can't or shouldn't, you learn the most valuable recovery lessons. Let's dig a bit deeper into this idea so we can help you avoid or break free of this common trap that can leave you feeling stuck, frustrated, and down on yourself.

PS. Like the new show music? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know!

For full show notes on this episode:

https://theanxioustruth.com/266

---

My books, social, and other links: ⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠

Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠