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* Featured in the New York Times: “6 Podcasts to Soothe An Anxious Mind” (April 27, 2024)
* Featured in Vogue Magazine: “The 15 Best Mental Health Podcasts Recommended by Therapists” (October 2023)
Listen to the podcast, read the books, join the social media community, and get on the path to recovery.
Copyright: © 2025 Drew Linsalata
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So, here’s some great news if you deal with emetophobia. Bet you didn’t think you’d ever hear that, did you? Well, Drew’s guest on this week’s episode is here to spread some great news, and her energy is absolutely infectious! Christia was emetophobic for decades, and she ran from any sort of incidents or fear of incidents so often...until she got tired of it and decided to make a change.
Now, she is sharing her story to spread her hope to other people. As she tells it, she is 100% over it and has no fear of vomiting or being around someone who is. What is even cooler is that she didn’t need to know her triggering event; she could still use EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) and other therapies to overcome the fear that was controlling her life.
If emetophobia is ruining your life and if you see no way out, this episode is for you. You too can overcome emetophobia.
For full show notes on this episode:
https://theanxioustruth.com/132
My books, podcast, social media, and other links:
https://theanxioustruth.com/links
Music credit: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake (https://facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic) with permission
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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
When Faster Than Normal author and podcast host Peter Shankman was officially diagnosed with ADHD, he decided that it wasn't a liability, but rather a bit of a superpower. Peter took action to maximize the things he's really good at, while outsourcing and minimizing the negative impacts of the things he's traditionally not been so good at. This is a lesson on how to find the silver lining in a mental health issue!
For full show notes on this episode visit theanxioustruth.com/131
Find Peter, his podcast, and his book at https://fasterthannormal.com
My books and social media links: theanxioustruth.com/links
Music Credits: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake (facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic) with permission
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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
"I've been seeing my therapist for years and she never explained this the way you do!""How can it be that all the different counselors and doctors I've seen have never talked about my anxiety this way?""I've been through countless therapists over the years. None of them explained this problem the way you do!"These are statements and questions I encounter on a regular basis from podcast listeners and members of my social media community. If you've ever wondered why none of your doctors, therapists or counselors have ever talked about your anxiety problems the way I do, then this podcast episode is for you.For full show notes on this episode visit theanxioustruth.com/130My books and social media links: theanxioustruth.com/linksMusic Credits: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake (facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic) with permissionsSupport 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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
Kyrsty spent 12 years in her house, trapped by agoraphobia and panic. That's all changing now. In this podcast episode Kyrsty shares with us how she's been taking the core concepts of recovery and putting them into practice on a daily basis. Her progress thus far has been faster than she expected, and with a growing number of victories under her belt and an amazing recovery mindset, the sky is the limit!
For full show notes on this episode, visit theanxioustruth.com/129
My social media and other links: theanxioustruth.com/links
Music Credit: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake (facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic) with permission.
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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
Ask yourself a question. Is your anxiety your enemy, or is it your teacher? Most of you are going to immediately tell me that you see anxiety as an enemy. It lurks in the shadows, stalking you day and and day out, always ready to attack. Your anxiety drives you to do things you do not want to do. It drives you to eliminate and avoid parts of your life that desperately want back. Anxiety is clearly your enemy, right?
(For full show notes on this episode visit theanxioustruth.com/128)
It is not. Anxiety - when dealing with the anxiety disorders I am always addressing - has never been your enemy regardless of how much you may hate and fear it.
How do we learn once and for all to “believe” that we are safe even when afraid? By allowing the fear and the anxiety themselves to be your teachers. That’s right. Anxiety and fear MUST be your teachers if you are to achieve true and lasting recovery. We must be willing to face our anxiety and the associated fear, building a new relationship with it based on dropping all the old fight or flight responses. When we face it fully and allow it to do the worst we can imagine, we learn through real experience that it cannot. When we do this, anxiety becomes our teacher. It teaches us clearly that he has no teeth. The lesson we must learn is that the dragon breathes no fire and cannot kill us. We can only learn this lesson by letting the dragon show us. The dragon - your anxiety - must teach you how to recover. You must embrace it as your teacher and stop declaring it your enemy.
Takeaways:
My books, social media, and other links: theanxioustruth.com/links
Music Credit: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake (facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic) with permission
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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
This is common misconception for many, and it's keeping some folks stuck! When we talk about accepting anxiety as the path to recovery, and when we talk about surrendering to anxiety, we are not saying that you have to LIKE or LOVE your anxiety. You do not. If you've been struggling to find a way to like your anxiety because you think accepting and liking are the same thing, then this episode is for you.
Of note is a discussion about people dealing with OCD and intrusive, obsessive, disturbing thoughts. Acceptance in this case does NOT mean accepting that those thoughts are predictive of the future, will come true, or will represent who you are. It can be scary for someone to accept intrusive thoughts for this reason, but accepting just means acknowledging that they are here and that fighting them has been fruitless. Accepting is just a way of giving up the old ways of coping so that you can learn a new way that leads to freedom from the thing you hate - and will continue to hate - so much.
For full show notes on this episode visit https://theanxioustruth.com/127
My books, social media, and other links: https://theanxioustruth.com/links
Music credit: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake with permission (https://facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic)
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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
Is your worst-case scenario being forced to sit quietly with your own thoughts and sensations? Are you one of the many that declares that they are "OK" so long as they are up and about and occupied? Learning to sit quietly with oneself is a challenge for many people, with or without anxiety. For those recovering from an anxiety disorder, this presents a serious challenge, but a challenge that must be met on route to full recovery.(For full show notes on this episode visit https://theanxioustruth.com/126)It is well worth the time to solve this problem just like it is with all of your anxiety related problems. First you learn that being quiet and still is NOT a catastrophe, then you learn how to use quiet/still time positively and productively.This is a hard thing to overcome and a hard thing to learn to do. As always, you can do hard things.My social media or and other links: https://theanxioustruth.com/linksMusic Credit: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake (with permission) - https://facebook.com/BenDrakeMusicSupport 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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
For many, having to undergo a surgical or major medical procedure is "worst nightmare" territory anxiety-wise. There are quite a few fears at play here. Fear of being out of control. Fear of being away from safe places and people. Fear of sedation and anesthesia. Fear of complication or problems cause by the procedure in question. It can add up to an almost tragic level of avoidance in some cases, even when surgery or other medical procedures are critical to one's well being.
Today I was joined by practicing anesthesiologist Dr. Frank Catanzaro. Dr. Catanzaro has been practicing for over 25 years in the Rochester, New York area and has encountered all these fears in his patients. Frank was kind enough to take some time to share his knowledge and experience with us.
Takeaways:
1. EVERYBODY has anxiety or nervousness going into surgery or other major medical procedures. Anesthesiologists and other healthcare providers encounter this situation all the time. They are experienced in dealing with it.
2. If you are worried or anxious because you're not sure how things are going to go, ASK. Rather than playing the "what if" game in your head, speak your concern to your surgeon or other members of your healthcare team. Dr. Catanzaro's team is always happy to answer patient questions to help ease anxiety and worry. Odds are your team will be willing to do the same.
3. Pre-surgical treatment with a benzo is EXTREMELY common. This will likely be made available to you. Take advantage of it. Taking a benzo to lower your pre-surgery anxiety level is NOT avoidance and will not lead to addiction in any way. Dr. Catanzaro explains how refusing that option may mean a more difficult recovery post-surgery, so do your best to trust your medical team to give you good information and use the tools available to you.
4. Your anxiety and panic may change the parameters that your anesthesiologist will work within, but in the end even level 10 panic is no match for the medications used during surgery or other major medical procedures. A common fear is being "stuck" between awake and sedated because of severe panic. This does not happen.
Thanks to Dr. Catanzaro for taking the time to discuss this with us today!
For full show notes on this episode visit https://theanxioustruth.com/125
My social media, books, and other links: https://theanxioustruth.com/links
Intro/Outro Music Credit:
"Afterglow" by Ben Drake (https://facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic) with permission
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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
I often here people saying that recovery becomes harder - or even impossible - if you've suffered too long with your anxiety problems. This is simply not true. In this podcast episode let's take a look at why this is a misconception that you're going to have to leave behind. There are three main reasons why you can recover no matter how long you've suffered.1. Anxiety disorders are not progressive degenerative diseases that take away your physical or mental abilities over time. If you're thinking of it that way, you're wrong and need to drop that notion.2. The past does not predict or govern the future. You are not powerless. If you begin to make new choices and engage in new behaviors and reactions, new things can and will happen. Just because you've done a thing for 20 years does not prevent you from doing a different thing tomorrow.3. You have not been digging an infinitely deep hole all this time. The hole got as deep as it was going to get early on. Now you're just jumping in and out of it. It's always the same hole, so your climb is no longer now than it was 10 years ago. You just have to stop jumping back in.For full show notes on this episode go to https://theanxioustruth.com/124My social media and other links: https://theanxioustruth.com/linksMy books: https://theanxioustruth.com/booksClosing music: "Afterglow" by Ben Drake (https://facebook.com/BenDrakeMusic) with permission.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.
Send in a question or comment via text.
Holly is back in this episode, sharing her long experience using benzos as part of her anxiety management strategy. Holly shares how she started on benzos, what her doctor told her, and how she actually did use them. We talk about "as needed" use, daily use, dependency (addiction), effectiveness, and how the use of benzos interferes with learning recovery lessons. Holly shares her recovery story and how we gradually stopped taking benzos altogether after many years of use.
This is a topic that I know many want me to cover in greater detail. It seemed that this was a good first step in that direction.
Please note that neither Holly nor I are medical professionals. NEVER make changes to your medication without consulting your doctor(s) and NEVER just stop taking benzodiazepines on your own.
For full show notes please visit https://theanxioustruth.com/123
My social media and other links: https://theanxioustruth.com/links
My books: https://theanxioustruth.com/books
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.
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