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 problem at all. We have the opposite issue. We are constantly paying very close attention to sensory input. We are hyper aware.Why are we hyper aware?  Because we MUST evaluate ourselves constantly to stay ahead of our triggers. Anxious people are continually checking themselves for physical sensations that don’t seem right, thoughts that might be going south, or emotions that they won’t be able to handle.  If you’re here today listening or watching, I would wager a large sum that a good portion of your time is spend checking on yourself, then evaluating the results of that internal scan to to see if you’re OK, or you have to start taking evasive action to stay safe … from yourself.Episode 290 of The Anxious Truth provides a reframe on sensory overload and overwhelm that ties the experience directly to an overactive, overprotective threat detection and response system. This reframe and explanation could be helpful in informing new action that helps us learn the experiential lessons we need to learn in recovery.For full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/290For more anxiety and recovery resources:https://theanxioustruth.comDisclaimer: 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.

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 become thinkable, what felt impossible can indeed become possible. Reflect on the resilience hidden in your stories and perceptions as we navigate through the complexities of anxiety together.For full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/289Disclaimer: 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.

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 result of less fear.   This is critical because it keeps quite a number of people stuck, so let's talk about it on episode 288 of The Anxious Truth.For full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/288Disclaimer: 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.

Anxiety Triggers: When The List Is GrowingMany 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 state08:08 - If you feel like everything is a possible anxiety trigger, remember this13:15 - Learning to face fear requires courage and it requires repetitionFull show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/287Disclaimer: 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.

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 anxiety disordersFor full show notes on this episode or to access more anxiety recovery resources:https://theanxioustruth.com/286Disclaimer: 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.

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 to the very large number of people that will have panic attacks now and then without ever treating them this way. They have panic attacks, which they experience as individual events that they do not link together, and go about their lives mostly unconcerned or worried about a next panic attack.This week we're also talking about why being anxious all the time is quite common in panic disorder and how panic disorder relates to other closely related conditions all categorized as "anxiety disorders" from a diagnostic point of view.For full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/285For more content and resources:https://theanxioustruth.comDisclaimer: 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.

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 of true danger is a helpful survival tool, but avoidance can become problematic when we use it to sidestep anxiety and fear themselves, rather than actual danger.So if avoidance is more harmful than helpful, what next?  Unfortunately, what's next is the dismantling of avoidance and a turn TOWARD what you fear most. This may sound ridiculous or unthinkable to you right now, which is perfectly OK. Everyone comes to grips with this approach - or doesn't - in their own way and in their own time. If you're not feeling this idea today, it doesn't mean you're doing something wrong, broken, worse than everyone else, or beyond hope. Take whatever time is needed to think about this and consider the concept. Everyone has to do that part - the mental wrestling with an unpleasant idea.As we move toward an acceptance based recovery, embracing discomfort becomes an unexpected and paradoxical compass.  This approach may appear daunting, yet it paves the way to teaching our brains that the alarm bells of anxiety and fear are false signals. that don't actually need to be interpreted and treated as disasters or emergencies.   There is quite a bit to digest when we decide to move away from avoidance and toward facing fear. It can't all be explained in one video or one podcast episode. There are lots of principles to follow and concepts to understand.If the idea of eliminating avoidance to recover is making sense to you know and you want to know HOW this works, first accept that you're going to have to take some time to listen, learn, contemplate, and get a better understanding of the principles and mechanics of acceptance based recovery. Take advantage of all the free podcast episodes, videos, and social media content I've created that all discuss these ideas. Check out the workshops I've created to help explain these principles. Consider consulting my recovery guidebook, also called "The Anxious Truth".  You won't solve this problem or change your relationship with anxiety overnight, but you can start to turn in the direction of recovery by reading, learning, listening and starting to consider this different approach.  Links from this episode:Episode 152 - Agoraphobia ExplainedMy Panic Attacks Explained WorkshopMy Agoraphobia Explained WorkshopMy Panic and Agoraphobia Recovery GuidebookDisclaimer: 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.

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 can be so much more.  We can also intermix life - as best we can - into the recovery process in such a way that we use life activities and experiences to help us practice handling anxiety, fear, uncertainty, and discomfort. Moving through an anxious moment while doing something that feels like life is generally more valuable and will likely lead to a deeper and more durable recovery, so consider living (to the best of your ability today) to recover, even when you're convinced that you're not ready for life.  For full show notes on this episode visithttps://theanxioustruth.com/283To find my books, workshops, social media links, and all the other anxiety and recovery resources I produce, visit my website at theanxioustruth.com.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.

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 riding out the panic storm.This isn't about finding a quick fix. It's about redefining your relationship with anxiety and recognizing the strength in vulnerability. Remember, every moment of openness to the experience is a step toward lasting improvement and recovery.Episode Links:My Recovery Guidebookhttps://theanxioustruth.com/recoveryguidePanic Attacks Explained:https://learn.theanxioustruth.com/panic-attacks-explainedAgoraphobia Explained: https://learn.theanxioustruth.com/agoraphobia-explainedMy website:https://theanxioustruth.comFull show notes for this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/282 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.

WHAT DOES A PANIC ATTACK FEEL LIKE?Let's unpack the harrowing reality of a panic attack, peeling back the layers to expose the heart-thumping, breath-stealing beast it can be. My journey as a therapist in training, fused with raw personal encounters, brings a unique perspective to the forefront. We dissect those suffocating episodes, where your own body feels like an unwieldy adversary, and thoughts of impending doom loom over you like a dark cloud. In this episode we can work together to comprehend the true gravity of those moments and the relentless quest for an escape hatch.Links from this episode:The Anxious Truth, my panic/agoraphobia recovery guideMy Panic Attacks Explained WorkshopMy Agoraphobia Explained WorkshopEpisode 239 of The Anxious Truth - Anxiety SymptomsEpisode 168 of The Anxious Truth - The Panic Attack HangoverEpisode 152 of The Anxious Truth - AgoraphobiaDisordered - "Does Anyone Else? (The Symptoms of Anxiety)"My WebsiteMy Workshops and CoursesFollow me on InstagramMy YouTube ChannelFollow me on TikTokFor full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/281Disclaimer: 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.

Ever wondered how to recognize a panic attack? Want to understand the physical and mental symptoms that hint towards an oncoming episode? Not sure if what you're experiencing are panic attacks or something else? This episode of The Anxious Truth is for you. Tune in as we delve into panic and panic attacks, demystifying the sensations, the thoughts, the fear,  and the need to escape that often accompany these episodes.This is the first in my "Foundations of Panic" series so come back in the next 4-5 episodes for a deep dive into the mechanics of panic and panic attacks, how to best approach them, why they happen, why they're not dangerous, and what turns panic attacks into chronic conditions like panic disorder or agoraphobia.Find the symptoms video I mentioned in this episode:https://youtu.be/a5xQ2Q5rZp0?si=R1bS1SNshXFPloqLMy Panic Attacks Explained Workshop:https://theanxioustruth.com/panicMy Books on Anxiety and Recovery:https://theanxioustruth.com/booksFor full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/280Disclaimer: 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.

Struggling to find the right anxiety therapist?Are you curious about how a therapist becomes a therapist?Let's take a look  through the maze of credentials - from Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC) to Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), and Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW). Let's shed some light on the demanding journey of training and education, from undergraduate studies to intensive graduate training and clinical experience.Understanding how a therapist becomes a therapist, and what that means to you, can go a long way toward untangling confusion that comes with finding qualified mental health assistance.Wondering about the difference between a master's level therapist and a doctoral level psychologist? I've got you covered!  I'll also cover the role of psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners in the mental health field and explain how to determine which therapist is right when  struggling with anxiety disorders.Join me on a stroll through the world of mental health professionals. You might pick up a few things that you can use in your recovery journey. xxFor full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/278-----For all the resources I offer related to anxiety, anxiety disorders, and recovery visit my website:https://theanxioustruth.comDisclaimer: 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.

Do you need to find a therapist that knows and follows the "Claire Weekes method"?This week we unpack the impact of Dr. Claire Weekes, shedding light on her influential role in the therapy world, specifically in the realm of anxiety disorders. Dr. Weekes' groundbreaking principles of acceptance have proven to be timeless, remaining relevant in therapy practices today. We go beyond the surface, debunking myths about her work and examining the current relevance of her methods in therapy. It's a bonus if your therapist is familiar, but its definitely not a deal breaker if they aren't.Dr. Weekes' methods, although foundational, are not the be-all and end-all. We discuss how therapies like ACT or mindfulness-based CBT or metacognitive therapy have broadened and deepened the roots she established. Even if your therapist isn't familiar with Dr. Weekes, there's no cause for alarm - I promise it's not absolutely necessary. For full show notes on this episode:https://theanxioustruth.com/278-----For all the resources I offer related to anxiety, anxiety disorders, and recovery visit my website:https://theanxioustruth.comDisclaimer: 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.

Anxiety recovery can be a highly individual journey. This is especially true if you have ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or otherwise identify as neurodivergent. While there are certainly general principles we rely on, every person will find recovery to present specific and unique challenges that have to be addressed as part of the process. For neurodivergent members of our community, this is also true.This week Dr. Terri Bacow took some time to chat with me about the intersection of anxiety, recovery, and neurodivergence. Terri is experienced, well trained and qualified in these areas, and does a great job of presenting an accessible, kind, compassionate view of how recovery strategies can be adapted and tailored for neurodivergent folks working on overcoming chronic/disordered anxiety.Find Dr. Terri Bacow:https://instagram.com/drterribacowhttps://drterribacow.comFor full show notes on this episode:⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/277---My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠⁠⁠Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠⁠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.

Anxiety and the recovery process do not exist in a vacuum. You are an entire person, and all the parts of you come into this process. Holistic is not a word you hear me use often, but it is a word we need to acknowledge because when dealing with chronic/disordered anxiety and the recovery process, your background, experiences, beliefs, and views of yourself and the world will enter the picture in various ways.* They will influence how you conceptualize your anxiety.* They will influence how you embrace and approach the recovery process.* They will influence the parts of recovery you "get" and the parts you may need to adjust here and there.* They will cause you to confront emotions, situations, and challenges that aren't always about anxiety, but may be indicative of other parts of you and other parts of your life.Forgetting this - forgetting that anxiety and recovery do not exist in a vacuum - can lead you into a trap where you're judging yourself negatively, giving up, or seeing your situation as hopeless when you don't have to see it that way.As always, comments and questions are welcomed. I hope you find this episode helpful in some way.For full show notes on this episode:⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/276---My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠⁠Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠⁠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.

The anxiety cycle starts as a seemingly never ending loop where you get triggered, you fight through it, you calm down, then you worry and fret over the next time you might get triggered. It can become an exhausting merry-go-ground if you're new to this process and convinced that high anxiety and panic are horrible disasters that must be avoided or "managed" at all costs.But over time, you will likely begin to notice that your logical brain will question that assertion, and you will start to see that you are not just being triggered into an anxious state, but that you are being TRICKED by that anxious state. When you begin to see the trickery involved in internally focused disordered anxiety, things can begin to change.When you can nail a "tricked" point to the circle, that can become the point at which you start to peel off the circle on a tangent toward recovery. Noticing and understanding that anxiety is tricking you into behaving as if you are in danger creates a fork in an otherwise endless circular road. It gives you a point at which you can choose a new path and ultimately break the cycle that has trapped you up to this point.For full show notes on this episode:⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/275---My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠⁠Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠⁠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.

No new podcast episode this week, but we will be back next week with a new episode on September 27, 2023. Going forward, new episodes of The Anxious Truth will be produced every other week. I'm making this change based on time constraints and the fact that we are producing episodes of "Disordered" every week, and that's a really good podcast!Listen to Disordered here:https://disordered.fmOn the weeks with no new episode of The Anxious Truth, you can catch my "Recovery Monday" livestreams on YouTube (either live or via replay any time):https://youtube.com/@TheAnxiousTruthSee you next week, and thank you for all your support! 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.

Self-care in anxiety recovery. We hear about it all the time, but is self-care always essential oils and hot baths and candles and soothing? It certainly can by, but self-care is also giving yourself what you really need, which isn't always what you want. Sometimes self-care means challenging yourself a bit to help break the avoidance cycle. Sometimes self-care means you choose to be uncomfortable now to feel better about yourself later.Let's take a closer look at self-care in a way that might not all that obvious.For full show notes on this episode:⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/274---My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠⁠Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠⁠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.

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---My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠⁠Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠⁠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.

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.comFor full show notes on this episode:⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/270---My books, social, and other links: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/links ⁠⁠⁠Support The Anxious Truth: ⁠⁠⁠https://theanxioustruth.com/support ⁠⁠⁠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.