Disordered: Anxiety Help

"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 or unwell can often push you into high alert mode with your anxious mind constantly scanning, measuring, evaluating, and worrying about how you feel moment to moment.

Anxious people are generally terrible at tolerating discomfort and uncertainty, and that nasty sinus infection that has you down is probably also doing a good job of triggering both of those things.

Here's a spoiler alert (but listen anyway) ... choosing to actively involve yourself in persistent worry and body scanning and evaluating your safety when sick is not keeping you any safer or making you feel any better. Get the medical support you might need of course, but once you have your plan and you've DONE all you can do ... its time to practice tolerating that feeling of discomfort, the fear, and the uncertainty.

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"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 spiral. Is it a spiral, or an endless loop? Are you really out of control? What makes it feel that way? How do our old friends shock, attention, and resistance factor in here?

If you find yourself often triggered into "spiraling", this might be the episode for you. Check it out!

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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 attention elsewhere even when that feels risky or unsafe or impossible would logically be a key component in the recovery process.

This episode is a great companion to our Shock Attention and Resistance episode (episode 78) so if you haven't heard that one, check it out first, then come back and have a listen to this one.

Naturally we're also sharing contributions from the community surrounding Disordered and tossing in some silly jokes and a healthy dose of understanding and compassion. Pull up a chair, or a pillow, or whatever, and join us for a while.

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The struggle in an anxiety disorder is seen in two almost automatic responses to anxiety - we either obey it and do what it tells us we must do, or we resist it by trying to fight it, argue with it, and wish it away over and over.

This week on Disordered Dr. Russ Harris - one of the world's leading advocates for Acceptance and Committment Therapy (ACT) - is here to chat about the principles of ACT, how we get hooked by anxiety, fear, and anxious thoughts, and how this can lead to a smaller and smaller life over time.

We're even using some of Josh's personal experiences with anxiety as a mini case-study viewed the the ACT lens. And as usual, the episode is sprinkled with healthy doses of light-hearted humor and kind acknowledgement of what is an almost universal struggle for humans around the world.

Thank you to Russ Harris for making time for us! To find out more about Russ and ACT:

How can you tell if you're getting better? How do you measure or at least see progress when working on recovery from an anxiety disorder? What happens if you're "doing it anyway" but not seeing progress?

This week on Disordered we're looking at the "green flags" of anxiety recovery. What are the signs that tell you that you're making progress even when you might feel like you're not? How much of recovery is found in just doing it anyway? What if you're already doing it anyway and don't feel like you're making progress?

Josh and Drew are answering some of these questions with reminders about the real targets of recovery, shifting attitudes, willingness to come into contact with difficult internal experiences, and steering clear of Craig the Critic when he insists that you're doing it all wrong and never getting better.

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