Send in a question or comment via text.Unlock the secret to mastering your mental well-being by embracing the art of doing nothing. Join us as we explore this transformative concept with the insightful Joanna Hardis, an OCD and anxiety specialist from Cleveland. We delve into concepts rooted in Taoism and Buddhism that challenge the relentless drive for constant activity in Western cultures. Learn how surrendering to anxiety and panic attacks, without the urge to fix or solve, can lead ...

Send in a question or comment via text.Why is learning to trust your body again so difficult in the face of chronic or disordered anxiety? What if chronic anxiety could make you feel as disconnected from your body as a chronic illness might? Discover the surprising parallels between the two as we unravel the complex relationship anxiety sufferers have with their physical selves. This week on The Anxious Truth we're talking about how anxious people learn to fear their bodies, and lose tr...

Send in a question or comment via text.Resisting the reality of anxiety - the fact that it does exist in your life even when you are trying really hard to escape it or make it stop - means clinging to "feel good" expectations that are rarely met. This mismatch between expectations, demands, and reality can make overcoming chronic or disordered anxiety even harder than it already is.Let's take a look at how expectations and demands can get in the way of learning valuable acceptance and capabil...

Send in a question or comment via text.Journaling can be a useful tool in anxiety recovery, but how do you ensure it works for you and not against you? This episode challenges traditional journaling methods, especially when grappling with chronic or disordered anxiety, by offering a fresh perspective on how to modify these practices to align with your recovery goals. Beware of falling into the trap of rumination and learn how to use journaling as a constructive tool that supports your healing...

Send in a question or comment via text.Can you transform your relationship with anxiety by letting go and dropping your resistance? Well, the most effective acceptance-based treatments for chronic and disordered anxiety are based on this exact principle. The concepts are simple and the theory is sound, yet most anxious people struggle with fully letting to and engaging in mindful acceptance of anxiety, fear, panic, uncertainty, and other difficult internal experiences. Of course they struggle...

Send in a question or comment via text.Can skipping a daily calming ritual or delaying bedtime slightly really aid in anxiety recovery? Discover how these seemingly insignificant acts can accumulate into substantial progress on your journey to overcoming anxiety. This week on The Anxious Truth, we’re breaking down the concept of micro exposures—those small, yet powerful steps designed to help you face and manage your anxiety. By starting with these tiny, manageable experiments, you'll gradual...

Send in a question or comment via text.Are you struggling to identify whether your behaviors are forms of avoidance in your anxiety recovery journey? This episode of The Anxious Truth addresses the often murky and uncertain nature of avoidance habits, emphasizing that nobody navigates these waters flawlessly. We'll share insights on how distinguishing between necessary avoidance for safety and avoidance driven by anxiety can help you better understand your reactions and improve your recovery ...

Send in a question or comment via text.Is it possible to conquer an anxiety disorder without doing exposure? Well ... there are plenty of non-exposure concepts and techniques that can really help. No doubt about that. But in the end, thinking and feeling is rarely if ever all we need to change beliefs in a way that really makes a difference. Behavior and experience are almost always a part of this puzzle in some way, which means that like it or not, there's gonna be some exposure involv...

Send in a question or comment via text.The Internet is packed with anxiety and mental health advice, but not all of it is useful or helpful. Some of it can be harmful. This week I'm joined by Emma McAdam, the therapist behind the Therapy in a Nutshell YouTube channel, to dissect the often misleading and sometimes dangerous information circulating online about conditions like anxiety, depression, ADHD, and bipolar disorder. Emma shares her professional expertise as a practicing therapist...

Send in a question or comment via text.Healing from chronic or disordered anxiety. How do we do it? Do we do it at all? This week on The Anxious Truth we’re talking about healing from anxiety because this is a topic so many people want to hear more about!For full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/296If you are going to scroll through any of mental health social media today, you WILL see content that includes the word “heal”. Is that bad? Well...

Send in a question or comment via text.What if you could transform your relationship with anxiety simply by changing your approach? This week on the Anxious Truth, we tackle the misunderstood phrase "sitting with anxiety" and reveal how it doesn't mean you have to be physically still. We'll break down the true essence of this concept, emphasizing the importance of allowing yourself to experience anxiety without trying to escape or fix it. Whether you're at work, running errands, or simply rel...

Send in a question or comment via text.HELP! My panic attacks come totally out of the blue! I don't know how to handle that!For an anxious person struggling with the process of anxiety disorder recovery, it can sometimes seem like panic attacks strike completely randomly and "out of the blue", where no clear source of anxiety can be identified as triggering the attack. This can be frustrating, especially if you've been working overtime to manage your anxiety and prevent panic from happe...

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 recov...

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 tha...

You can send in a question or comment via text. Try it! 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 ...

You can send in a question or comment via text. Try it! 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 pr...

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...

DO I HAVE TO STOP BEING AFRAID TO TRULY ACCEPT ANXIETY (AND TO GET BETTER)? Good question.  But this is a backwards interpretation of acceptance so let’s clarify. Acceptance is not finding a way to turn off your fearAcceptance is not figuring out some method for hating your anxiety lessAcceptance is not about creating a new state of being or feeling from an emotional or mental standpointAcceptance is an ACTION, not a feeling. Acceptance is a precursor to less fear, acceptance is not the...

Anxiety Triggers: When The List Is Growing Many members of our community will find that over time their list of anxiety triggers or panic attack triggers is growing. More and more things become triggers, which starts to get frustrating and disheartening.  Let's talk about why that happens, and what it means in the recovery process. Important Timestamps: 02:17 - Everything becomes an anxiety trigger when you're in an anxious state 08:08 - If you feel like everything is a possible anxiety...

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...

Having panic attacks does not always mean you have panic disorder. This week on The Anxious Truth we're digging into what differentiates panic attacks - even recurring panic attacks - from panic disorder. In a nutshell, the primary differentiator here is fear/avoidance.  When you begin to fear panic attacks because you interpret them as dangerous or too overwhelming, then you begin to modify and restrict your lifestyle to prevent or avoid them, you are panic disorder territory. Compare this...

Struggling with constant anxiety, recurring panic attacks, or a full blown anxiety disorder? Avoiding anxiety and panic triggers might seem like the safest path, but let's look at why this understandable and common response can be more foe than friend. In this episode we'll look at some of the mechanics of panic attacks and panic disorder, shedding light on why evading anxiety can inadvertently feed the beast, intensifying and fueling the cycle of fear. Prudent prudent avoidance in the face...

LIVING WITH ANXIETY ... I HAVE TO RECOVER SO I CAN LIVE MY LIFE AGAIN! But really, do you?  Or is it better to do your best to re-engage in life so that you can recover? This week we're examining the concept of life AS recovery rather than life as something you get to do only after you've reached some magic state of "recovered".  Yes, at times recovery from an anxiety disorder involves manufactured exposures and doing things that don't look all that much like a regular life, but recovery...

HOW TO CALM DOWN FROM A PANIC ATTACK? This is one of the million dollar question in our community, so let's take a look at how to calm down from a panic attack. I know you likely want tips and tricks for how to stop a panic attack and calm down, but could the act of embracing, rather than fighting off a panic attack, be the hidden doorway to "calm"?  Let's look at true acceptance, and unpack the idea that true calmness emerges not from a frantic search for escape but through allowing and...