Disordered: Anxiety Help

When working on anxiety recovery, sometimes we're DOING. Other times we have to focus on NOT doing. How confusing is that!?

This week Drew and Josh are chatting about how DOING things specific to anxiety recovery and NOT DOING things specific to anxiety recovery are related and how these two concepts work together.

In a nutshell, doing is about activating and engaging in behavior that anxiety says you should avoid. On th...

Emetophobia - an intense fear of vomiting and any thoughts or sensations associated with vomiting - is a more common struggle among anxious people than anyone might initial think. But Emetophobia can make its way into virtually every aspect of life, often resulting in a highly restricted lifestyle and a dramatic decrease in the ability to function.

This week Dara Lovitz and Dr. David Yusko join Drew and Josh to talk about emetop...

One of the perfect storms in the anxiety disorder world is the combination of existential related anxiety with the sensations/experiences of depersonalization and derealization. Unfortunately for many, this is a common combination and it can be so difficult to understand and address that it seemed an episode dedicated to this issue was in order.

As you might expect, the overall message in this episode is that while this is a ver...

Do you feel like you've "mostly" overcome your chronic or disordered anxiety issues but there are still challenges that linger? Maybe you've felt fully recovered once before, or even several times before, but you keep finding yourself back in the thick of it or unable to overcome a few specific challenges.

If this is you, then tune in as Josh and Drew talk about the concept of "incomplete" anxiety dis...

When working to overcome an anxiety disorder, the biggest challenge many in our community can identify is flying. For chronically anxious people, the idea of getting on a plane, being trapped for hours, and being terrified or out of control for that long seems like something they will never be able to.

Even for people that are well on the way to recovery, flying can still feel like the "ultimate test" of recovery. The fear...

How can I learn to self-soothe when I get anxious and I'm terrified of my body or my thoughts?

Well ... while it might seem like launching into a soothing technique designed to control the fight or flight response is a good idea, this week Josh and Drew are talking about why the concept of self-soothing doesn't automatically make sense in the context of anxiety disorders.

Self-soothing, supporting yourself while you n...

Breathing anxiety! This is such a common issue in the Disordered community. Breathing or breath focused anxiety often involves a few key concepts:

"I feel like I can't get a deep enough breath!"

"When I get really anxious it feels like I can't breathe."

"I'm super focused on my breath all day long and I hate it!"

Today we're joined by clinical psychologist Dr. Amy Janzen-Claude to c...

To celebrate the 100th episode (and over a million downloads) of Disordered, we thought celebrating listener and community wins would be a great way to mark the occasion!

Disordered would not exist without you, and when you guys do brave things, face your fear, learn lessons from that, and rise to meet challenges you previously thought impossible to meet, that needs to be acknowledged.

If you find inspiration and encouragemen...

What is existence? What is the point of all this? Do I even really exist? The universe is so insanely huge! What even is time? What happens when we die?

These are questions all humans ask - and have been asking since we developed language. They are normal. They can even be fun questions to ask. An entire section of the human race dedicates itself to studying and pondering these questions.

But for people struggling with OCD a...

When Drew and Josh form a band, they will call it "Willful Tolerance and the Sensitized State". Kinda like Stevie Ray Vaughn and Double Trouble .... but way cooler.

But before then, they're releasing this episode of Disordered, which takes a look at the relationship between a sensitized state - where everything seems scary and triggering and you feel stuck - and the principle of willful tolerance (acceptance, sur...

If being anxious means you are less than, defective, doing it wrong, or that you are at fault for not being able to control or stop your anxiety, you may be struggling to move forward in recovery. If you feel that being an anxious person is proof that you are unworthy or defective, or if you feel that you are bringing it all on yourself because you do not deserve a better life, you may be struggling with self-compassion.

This ...

I hate anxiety and panic. I hate my intrusive scary thoughts. I fear them. Why does everyone keep talking about "not judging". I MUST judge them!

When addressing anxiety disorders, most modern, empirically validated effective treatments involve elements of mindfulness and acceptance. This means learning to experience anxiety without judgment or evaluation. That's difficult, isn't it!

This week the guys a...

BUT THIS REALLY HAPPENED!

You have an event in your past that you just can't stop thinking about and ruminating on, and the feelings you are getting about that event are incredibly intense and feel overpowering. Those feelings might include guilt, shame, embarrassment, anxiety, or worry about your status as a good person. But no matter how much you replay the event in your head or seek reassurance that it wasn't' as bad as you thi...

This week on Disordered we're having a good old anxiety Q&A session, except the people answering the questions are legends in the area of anxiety disorders!

Drs Sally Winston and Marty Seif are here this week to take questions from our listeners and to share some of the insights they gained over years of working with anxiety disorders.

There's a reason why Sally and Marty are looked up to by so many in this field (including u...

"I MUST BE CALM OR ALL BETS ARE OFF!"

If this feels like a rule you're living by, you may find that you're chasing calm all the time, looking for ways to force your way into the coveted parasympathetic "rest and digest" state. Anxious people tend to work very hard to create calm and to maintain it at all costs.

This week on Disordered the guys are talking about "rest and digest" or the state of neutral calm that an anxious person...

There is a default thought that stands as thread that weaves itself throughout the life of a person struggling with disordered or chronic anxiety.

"How do I feel?"

This week Josh and Drew are looking at this default thought and the impact it has on an anxious person. All living humans will ask this question probably every day in some form, but anxious humans ask it as their default appraisal and monitoring strategy. It becomes i...

"When I am ill, my anxiety goes through the roof!"

Does this sound familiar? Many people struggling with disordered anxiety will say that if they get sick or feel unwell (i.e. a cold, a sore throat, the flu, etc.) they find that they are extremely anxious. If you experience this struggle, its not just you.

This week Drew and Josh are examining the mechanics behind your over-productive threat monitoring system and why being sick o...

"Spiraling" is one of the terms heard quite often in the community of people struggling with anxiety disorders.

There's a trigger like a thought or a sensation, then in short order you feel completely out of control, being dragged down into the pit of fear where you thrash about trying to make it stop but failing and just feeling worse and worse.

This week on Disordered we're taking a closer look at what it really means to spira...

How important is the concept of attention in driving an anxiety disorder and influencing the recovery process?

VERY important!

This week on Disordered we're up to our usual hijinks but also we're digging into the idea that attention - choosing to pay very close attention to how one feels and what one is thinking - is the primary driver of disordered anxiety. And if this is true - which we say it is - then working on moving your att...