Disordered: Anxiety Help

This week Josh and Drew do a deep dive into this million dollar question:

"What would non-anxious you do?"

The concept of "non-anxious you" and connecting to the way you would live your life if you were not accommodating the fear of fear is powerful. Josh talks about this all the time, and for good reason! Today we take a look at why acting like non-anxious you might act (even when you're clearly anxious) is so helpful.

The guys also chat about how the idea of "non-anxious you" can lead you down the path that re-connects you with yourself, even when you feel like you're not even sure who you are and what you like any more.

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If you love Disordered and think you might benefit from spending 30 full days in an everyday intensive small group recovery support group led by Josh and Drew,⁠ check out Disordered Boost:

https://disordered.fm/boost⁠

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Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast?

Visit us on the web at ⁠⁠https://disordered.fm⁠⁠

Disclaimer: Disordered is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to Disordered does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the hosts 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 on Disordered Drew and Josh walk you through the biological threat response and how it drives states of disordered anxiety. The guys cover the following important concepts that all anxiety sufferers should understand as part of the recovery process:

• Anxiety is normal and needed in life. All humans experience anxiety.
• The threat response system in your brain was designed to keep you alive at all costs. It served - and still serves - an important purpose.
• Disordered anxiety states are generally driven by an over-sensitive threat response that fires and sounds alarms when it doesn’t have to - there is no danger.
• Recovery is essentially about re-modulating that overactive threat response to bring it back into a healthy, normal state.
• You can’t talk to the part of your brain in charge of the threat response. It doesn’t understand words. Only behavior and experience.
• You have to SHOW your brain that you are safe, even when it is convinced that you are not.
• It is a common mistake to interpret the sensations and experiences of the threat response as a sign that something is broken or wrong. You are not broken and nothing is wrong that needs to be fixed.

Josh and Drew both shared some of their own experiences with respect to how they interacted with the threat response to turn it down over time while they were both working on recovery from anxiety disorders. They did not heal their threat responses ... they were teaching them.

As always, the guys answer questions from the community and share a few wins and success stories from listeners. Always inspiring!

Bonus content: Strudel and Copper both chime in today. Clearly, even dogs have opinions about the threat response and anxiety.

For more information about Josh, Drew and the Disordered podcast, visit us on the web at https://disordered.fm

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Disclaimer: Disordered is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to Disordered does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the hosts 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 on Disordered Josh and Drew address the topic of setback or relapse. What is it? Does it even exist, or is a "setback" just another experience along the way to recovery? Of special note is the concept of "reversion" which frames this issue not as failure or return of some anxiety monster, but as a return to hold habits. Did you get triggered and fall back into old habits? No problem! You're human like everyone else and this can happen to all of us. When you see that you're back in those old habits, now you can make new choices and "get back on that horse".

Being triggered or feeling intense anxiety after having a long break is certainly discouraging and disappointing. You're allowed to have emotions about that. Just don't set up permanent residence in "It's back, I'm powerless, and I've failed" land. That's not fair to you.

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Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast?

Visit us on the web at ⁠⁠https://disordered.fm⁠⁠

Disclaimer: Disordered is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to Disordered does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the hosts 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 have our first official guest on Disordered! Our friend and highly respected anxiety/OCD expert Kimberley Quinlan is here to help us explore and understand the role of self-compassion in the anxiety recovery process.

Kim literally wrote the book on self-compassion when it comes to OCD recovery. There's nobody we know that speaks more knowledgeably and eloquently on this topic. Give this one a listen. There's a ton of good stuff in here you can use in your journey.

Find Kimberley online at:

https://kimberleyquinlan-lmft.com

https://cbtschool.com

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If you love Disordered and think you might benefit from spending 30 full days in an everyday intensive small group recovery support group led by Josh and Drew, check out Disordered Boost at https://disordered.fm/boost

-----

Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast?

Visit us on the web at ⁠⁠https://disordered.fm⁠⁠

Disclaimer: Disordered is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to Disordered does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the hosts 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.

White knuckling. What is it? Why do we use that phrase all the time in the context of anxiety recovery? This week Drew and Josh talk about what "white knuckling" means in recovery, why it's a natural and expected part of the process for almost everyone, and how to kindly and compassionately take small incremental steps toward letting go of your tight grip.

How do you stop white-knuckling and holding on so tightly when anxious and afraid? A little bit at a time. :-)

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Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast?

Visit us on the web at ⁠⁠https://disordered.fm⁠⁠

Disclaimer: Disordered is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to Disordered does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the hosts 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.