Show Notes
Send a question or comment via text message Is distraction the same thing as running from your feelings? This week we answer a listener question about where that line actually is, and why the answer isn't as simple as always sit with it. We talk about why attention plays such a big role in anxiety disorders, why getting caught up in your life is not automatically avoidance, and why the real question isn't am I distracting myself but what am I actually running from. We also get into why ever...
More from Disordered: Anxiety Help
Send a question or comment via text message "Yeah, but it feels so bad." We hear it constantly, and this week we answer it directly. When panic, dread, or intrusive thoughts are at full volume, how do you practice willful tolerance? This is where courage enters the chat. We talk about why waiting to feel less scared first keeps the cycle going, why brave people are usually terrified, and why fear and danger only feel linked when you have an anxiety disorder. We also get into what ...
Send a question or comment via text message Depersonalization and derealization (DPDR) can feel like not recognizing yourself in the mirror, or like living behind a pane of glass. This week, clinical psychologist Dr. Claudia Hallett joins us. She leads a specialist DPDR clinic in London and works with this condition full time. We talk about why the experience is so hard to describe, and why that makes it fertile ground for catastrophic interpretation (“I’m losing my mind,” “I’ve broken my bra...
Send a question or comment via text message Cognitive reframing in anxiety disorders is not about arguing with a thought until it loses. This week we take some of the most common phrases we hear in this community and look at them from a slightly different angle, without trying to prove them wrong or talk anyone into feeling safe. We work through "I'm spiraling," "what if," "I'm back to square one," "I'm a burden to my family," and "what if I lose my progress," and talk about why a reframe you...
Send a question or comment via text message 175 episodes in, we're finally talking about medication. This week we get into questions we hear constantly: if I take medication for my anxiety, does that mean I'm failing, or that I'll never really recover? Is medication cheating? Is it evil? Is there even an answer to these questions? We talk about why these questions don't even really hold up, why medication combined with therapy is genuinely the gold standard for treating some anxiety dis...
Send a question or comment via text message Exposure isn't about proving you can sit in traffic, go to the supermarket, or make it through dinner with a friend. This week we talk about what exposure is actually for: practicing being uncomfortable, on purpose, without trying to fix or manage the feeling once it shows up. We get into why the specific trigger, whether it's a bridge, a dentist's office, or a work presentation, barely matters compared to the discomfort underneath it, why reaching ...