292 episodes

Struggling with panic attacks, agoraphobia, or other anxiety problems? The Anxious Truth will educate you, empower you, encourage you, and inspire you to get your life back! Listen to the podcast, read the books, join the social media community, and get on the path to recovery.

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

    • Health & Fitness
    • 4.9 • 55 Ratings

Struggling with panic attacks, agoraphobia, or other anxiety problems? The Anxious Truth will educate you, empower you, encourage you, and inspire you to get your life back! Listen to the podcast, read the books, join the social media community, and get on the path to recovery.

    EP 288 - Do I Have To Stop Fearing Anxiety To Fully Accept It?

    EP 288 - Do I Have To Stop Fearing Anxiety To Fully Accept It?

    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/288
    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.

    • 19 min
    EP 287 - When Everything Becomes An Anxiety Trigger (Foundations of Panic #6)

    EP 287 - When Everything Becomes An Anxiety Trigger (Foundations of Panic #6)

    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 trigger, remember this
    13:15 - Learning to face fear requires courage and it requires repetition

    Full show notes on this episode:

    https://theanxioustruth.com/287
    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.

    • 20 min
    EP 286 - Anxiety and Recovery Questions and Answers

    EP 286 - Anxiety and Recovery Questions and Answers

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

    • 25 min
    EP 285 - Panic Attacks Or Panic Disorder? (Foundations of Panic #5)

    EP 285 - Panic Attacks Or Panic Disorder? (Foundations of Panic #5)

    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/285

    For more content and resources:
    https://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.

    • 21 min
    EP 284 - Anxiety Recovery and Why Avoiding Panic Triggers Isn't A Good Plan (Foundations of Panic 4)

    EP 284 - Anxiety Recovery and Why Avoiding Panic Triggers Isn't A Good Plan (Foundations of Panic 4)

    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 Explained
    My Panic Attacks Explained Workshop
    My Agoraphobia Explained Workshop
    My Panic and Agoraphobia Recovery Guidebook



    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.

    • 21 min
    EP 283 - Living With Anxiety: Recover to Live, or Live To Recover?

    EP 283 - Living With Anxiety: Recover to Live, or Live To Recover?

    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 visit
    https://theanxioustruth.com/283

    To 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.

    • 21 min

Customer Reviews

4.9 out of 5
55 Ratings

55 Ratings

Bubblejuliusbhjj ,

Hope

The first place I ever received actual steps to recover. I now have hope. Which is priceless. Thankyou and may you and yours be blessed.

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It’s the absolute truth!

I wish I could give you 10 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️! This podcast is the bomb. Drew, you’re the best 💛.

shamwow995 ,

The best podcast EVER!

Best podcast, I suffer with panic attacks multiple times a day, he really speaks about anxiety in depth and he’s voice is reassuring. been listening for over a year now best podcast there is if you’re suffering from anxiety!!! 5 stars.
Have put so many onto this podcast, also my partner learns from having to listen at nights in bed so it’s a plus !

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