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

If you recognize the sound of a Velcro rip and your heart starts to pound the minute you hear that familiar hum, we need to talk. You likely bought a home blood pressure monitor to feel safer and healthier, but now you might feel like a slave to a rubber tube and a plastic screen.
In this episode, we are looking at how a responsible health habit turns into a psychological nightmare in the form of fixation and obsessive fear. We discuss why blood pressure anxiety happens, often in the complete absence of an actual medical issue. Let's talk about how you can start living your life again without being tethered to a machine.
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Want to talk about this episode?
I'm hanging out in the Disordered Community space:
https://disordered.fm/community
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What we covered in this episode:
The Paradox of Stress and Vitals: How the act of worrying about your blood pressure is exactly what drives the numbers up.
The Certainty Trap: Why checking for reassurance only leads to more uncertainty and more frequent checking loops.
The ACT Lens: Learning to accept the reality of health uncertainty rather than trying to perform behaviors to make the fear go away.
Metacognitive Beliefs: Examining why you think worrying about your vitals is protective and learning to treat these thoughts as mental events.
Detached Mindfulness: Using tools like the Blue Tiger exercise to recognize when you are being hooked by a scary thought.
Rebound Anxiety: Why it feels reckless and scary to stop checking, and why that feeling is a normal part of the recovery process.
Recovery from blood pressure anxiety is not about reaching a perfect, guaranteed number. It is about changing your relationship with your physiology so you can move your energy back toward the things that actually matter in your life.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/342
Send in a question or comment via text.
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

Want to talk about what you heard today? Interact with me and others that understand your experience on the Disordered Community app.
https://disordered.fm/community
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In this episode, we tackle a common trap: viewing every uncomfortable emotion through the lens of anxiety recovery. When you spend months practicing desensitization, acceptance, tolerance, and exposure, it is easy to mislabel normal human stress as a setback, a relapse, or a recovery problem.
Disordered vs. Non-Disordered Anxiety
Disordered Anxiety: This is defined by a fear of the internal experience itself. You become afraid of your own symptoms, thoughts, and sensations.
Non-Disordered Anxiety: This is a natural response to external stressors like grief, job loss, or relationship conflict. You cannot "float" or "mindfulness" your way out of a legitimate life crisis.
The Recovery Trap
Many people "hijack" normal human emotions and try to apply recovery techniques to them. Trying to use willful tolerance, acceptance, or principles of exposure on a situation that requires practical action or just feeling emotions only keeps you stuck. We often do this because the recovery framework feels more familiar and safe than facing complex life problems.
Moving Forward
Check the Context: Before assuming you are having a "relapse," look at your life. Are you under actual pressure from work, finances, or family?
Validate the Stress: It is expected and healthy to feel stressed by difficult circumstances. This is not a failure of your recovery.
Take Action: If the problem is external, it requires a practical solution, not just a psychological one.
Accept Your Humanity: There are no "hacks" for being human. Recovery means learning to live with a full range of emotions, not eliminating discomfort.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/341
Send in a question or comment via text.
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

Want to talk about what you heard today? I'm hanging out on the Disordered Community space. 
https://disordered.fm/community
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Living with an anxiety disorder or OCD often feels less like a medical condition and more like being trapped in a dysfunctional, predatory relationship. In this episode, we explore the metaphor of the "cult leader in your head" to explain why you keep getting tricked by your thoughts—even when you logically know they aren't true.
We discuss five specific ways anxiety and OCD mirror the tactics used by cults and gangs to maintain control:
Us vs. Them Mentality: Your anxiety insists that the outside world is dangerous and that only it truly understands or can protect you. It will often cast friends, family, and even your medical team as reckless or ignorant for telling you it's safe to ignore the "rules".
Love Bombing and Relief: The cult leader rewards your obedience with brief moments of relief. When you perform a compulsion or safety behavior, the temporary drop in distress feels like "love," making it seem like the anxiety is the only thing providing peace, ignoring the fact that it created the distress in the first place.
High-Stakes Punishment: If you consider disobeying or stopping a ritual, the cult leader ramps up the threats. It tells you that dissent won't just result in feeling anxious; it will result in death or disaster for you or the people you love.
Secret Knowledge: Anxiety claims a special ability to see "real" dangers that "normal" people are too ignorant or brave to notice. It uses this perceived secret insight to keep you hyper-vigilant and dependent on its guidance.
Moving the Goalposts: The cult leader is never satisfied. It promises that "one more" check, "one more" article, or "one more" scan will finally bring certainty. But that certainty never arrives because if you felt safe, you would leave the cult.
Recovery is operationally very similar to leaving a cult. It’s difficult, it feels incredibly risky, and it requires you to rebuild your life outside of a rigid, fear-based framework. Recognizing these tactics can help you lean into your exposures and realize that while the "leader" is loud, it is also lying.
Send in a question or comment via text.
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

Want to discuss what you heard today with Drew, Josh Fletcher, and others that share your struggle and experience?
https://disordered.fm/community
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Overcoming an anxiety disorder comes with a TON of questions, so let's answer some!
Questions Answered in This Episode
03:45 — Why is it so hard to "just let the symptoms be"? I discuss why doing nothing in the face of fear is the biggest hurdle in recovery and why your struggle to do so is completely normal. 
08:15 — Can you exercise your way out of anxiety?  I explain why movement is a great health tool but not a "fix" for an anxiety disorder. We also look at exercise as a form of interoceptive exposure. 
12:50 — The trap of "Compulsive Recovery" and Perfectionism. Many people become paralyzed by the fear of doing recovery "wrong." I explain why there is no such thing as an optimal or perfect recovery process. 
19:05 — Why does anxiety feel like Stockholm Syndrome? We explore the fear of "normal" life and why some people feel protective of their anxiety or OCD, even while wanting to get better. 
24:30 — "Pure O" and ruminative thoughts. I clarify the difference between "shutting the door" on thoughts and simply choosing not to interact with the "noisy room" of your mind. 
28:10 — Should you push yourself on "good days"? I talk about whether you should bask in the comfort of a low-anxiety day or use that window to push your boundaries further. 
Full Show Notes:
https://theanxioustruth.com/339
Resources Mentioned:
Disordered Podcast - https://disordered.fm
Why Does Exercise Make My Anxiety Worse (Past Episodes)
https://theanxioustruth.com/panic-anxiety-and-the-exercise-problem-part-i-tag019/
https://theanxioustruth.com/panic-anxiety-exercise-problem-part-2/
Interoceptive Exposure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sigXTV5QXik
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygAi4MidIhM&t=5s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2byXYrlDkZs

Send in a question or comment via text.
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.

Want to discuss this episode with me and others that share your experience?
https://disordered.fm/community
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In this episode of The Anxious Truth, we look at why the lessons of floating, mindful acceptance, and exposure can feel out of reach. While the principles of recovery are simple, they are difficult to execute because they are counterintuitive and require facing the things you fear most. Beyond the initial fear, deeper obstacles rooted in background, culture, and personal experience often stop people from embracing a mindful approach.
I discuss two primary belief systems that keep people stuck in control-based strategies:
The "Anxiety as Failure" Belief: The idea that being anxious means you have already failed. This leads to a harsh, self-critical view where having an anxiety disorder is seen as a structural or moral defect rather than a challenge to navigate.
The "Managing Others' Emotions" Belief: The fear that fully feeling and showing your anxiety will ruin someone else's day or cause distress to those around you. This belief often stems from childhood environments where you were taught to stay neutral to avoid triggering a parent or caregiver.
If you hold these beliefs, you may be trapped in an endless cycle of trying to control your internal state because you feel that being "impacted" or "impaired" is not allowed. We talk about how to recognize these invisible rules and why recovery requires more than mechanical exposure—it requires challenging these long-held beliefs about your value and your responsibility for others' happiness.
Recovery takes time to work through these layers. If you have been struggling to "get it," this episode explains why.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/338
Listen to Disordered every Friday:
https://disordered.fm

Send in a question or comment via text.
Support The Anxious Truth: If you find the podcast helpful and want to support my work, you can buy me a coffee.   Other ways to support my work like buying a book or signing up for a low cost workshop can be found on my website.  None of this is never required, but always appreciated!

Interested in doing therapy with me? For more information on working with me directly to overcome your anxiety, follow this link.

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.