Disordered: Anxiety Help
Disordered is the podcast that delivers real, evidence-based, actionable talk about anxiety disorders and anxiety recovery in a kind, compassionate, community-oriented environment. Josh Fletcher is a qualified psychotherapist in the UK. Drew Linsalata is a therapist practicing under supervision in the US. They're both bestselling authors in the anxiety and mental health space. Josh and Drew are funny, friendly, and they have a knack for combining lived experience, formal training, and professional experience in an encouraging, inspiring, and compassionate mental health message.
Episodes
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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 mat...
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Once you're better, desensitized, and living your life again, a different feeling can show up: guilt over the years you lost, the plans you canceled, the people you pushed away. This week we talk about the urge to "make it right," and why that instinct deserves a closer look before you act on it.
We get into the difference between amends that actually help and rumination dressed up as respo...
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"I tried CBT and it didn't work" is a lot like saying "I tried food and it didn't work." CBT is a massive umbrella, and what you actually got depends heavily on which version of it you were given.
This week we break down what CBT for anxiety disorders actually looks like, from the older, content-driven approach built around thought challenging and thought replacement, to the third-wave, min...
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"Yeah, but." Two words that show up constantly in anxiety recovery, right after a win. You did the thing, and before it can count, the mind adds a condition: yeah, but I had my water bottle with me, yeah, but I still felt anxious, yeah, but a real doctor might find something the others missed.
This week we break down why "yeah, but" is one of anxiety's most effective tools, using misapplied...
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Not everything is an anxiety disorder, but people pleasing and low self-esteem feed into it constantly. This week we talk about why the two overlap so heavily, and why learning to desensitize almost always requires putting yourself first, which can feel like the least safe thing in the world if pleasing people is how you've kept yourself safe.
We get into what people pleasing actually looks...
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This week we go through the most common mistakes people make while trying to recover from anxiety disorders, the ones that feel intuitive in the moment but end up keeping the cycle going.
We cover minimizing your own wins, thinking a place or situation is the actual exposure instead of the feeling underneath it, overestimating anxiety's importance while underestimating your own ability to h...
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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 ...
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Anxiety recovery attracts an entire industry, and not all of it is safe. This week we talk about popular but dangerous anxiety cures, the methods and trends that get recommended constantly but that our community says actually made things worse.
We cover the trauma narrative that convinces people their panic and OCD are rooted in trauma stored in the body, nervous system regulation and vagus...
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This is our anxiety latest questions and answers episode, where we go straight to the community and tackle real listener questions about panic disorder, OCD, GAD, and health anxiety.
We get into what to do when anxiety symptoms show up all day without fitting a specific diagnosis, why worrying about something you live with, like an aging house, does not count as exposure on its own, and how...
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Anxiety always seems to have a strategy for you, doesn't it?
- Check it, prepare for it, watch it closely so nothing bad happens
- Stay on top of things so you can be the fixer, the predictor, the protector, the engineer of experiences
- Do not take your eyes off the worry because worry is proof of how good you are and how loving you are.
This week we're picking that strategy apart and show...
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Everyone tells you to release tension. But if you live with panic disorder, OCD, or health anxiety, that advice can backfire fast. This week we're digging into why chasing relaxation as a goal often makes tension worse, and what actually helps instead.
We're talking about why physical tension is a normal response to stress and fear, not a problem to fix. Why techniques like jaw stretches, m...
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Anxiety has a favorite move. It doesn't argue that acceptance and exposure don't work. It just convinces you they don't apply to you specifically. This thought, this sensation, this situation, is the one exception to every rule you already understand.
This week we break down what fuels that exception: possibility, intensity, and importance, plus the urgency that makes an unlikely outcome fe...
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It's your heart. Or the dizziness. Or the one thought you can't get to leave you alone. If you could just solve that specific thing, you'd finally be okay. This week we push back on that.
The subject of your fear, the heartbeat, the health scare, the intrusive thought, the situation you're avoiding, is the content. What's actually running underneath it, the same threat response, the same do...
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You want to do the acceptance thing. You've read the books, you've listened to the podcasts, you intellectually get it. And then you get triggered, and suddenly the version of you that's anxious, scared, or doubting gets the door slammed in its face. That version of you is broken. That version shouldn't be here. That version needs to go.
But that's the version of you that actually has to le...
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This week we're talking about attention. Specifically, how where you place your focus directly impacts your anxiety and your recovery.
We discuss how an anxiety disorder naturally hijacks your attention, pulling it inward to scan for threats inside your own body and mind. While checking in on how you feel might seem like the safest thing to do, it actually feeds the sensitization process. W...
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Improving vs. Optimizing in Anxiety Recovery
In this episode of Disordered, Drew and Josh tackle a topic suggested by the community: the hidden trap of the "optimization culture" and how it intersects with anxiety and OCD.
There is a distinct difference between wanting to improve your health and falling into compulsive, perfectionist territory where every metric must be flawlessly managed. F...
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What do you do when your anxiety finally quietens down for a few days? For many of us, a calm day triggers a completely new set of anxious habits. We treat the absence of panic as a fragile victory, freezing in place so we do not ruin it, or constantly checking around the corner to see if the fear is returning.
In this episode, we address why the work of anxiety recovery continues even when...
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Can distraction be a compulsion in anxiety recovery? It is a question that comes up constantly in the anxiety community. Many people are told to simply "distract your mind" when they feel anxious, but if you are doing it specifically to escape a feeling, it can quickly turn into a safety behavior or a compulsion.
In this episode of Disordered, the guys break down the crucial difference betw...
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Asking for help can be difficult, especially when you are struggling with anxiety, panic disorder, OCD, or agoraphobia. In this episode, Drew and Josh break down the nuances of asking for anxiety help. There is a fine line between asking for genuine support and looking for compulsive reassurance or soothing to make the discomfort disappear.
Drew and Josh discuss why so many people feel like...
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OCD is a difficult condition to navigate, but it becomes significantly more challenging when obsessions center on taboo topics. Themes involving harm, pedophilia (pOCD), sexual orientation (HOCD), or moral and religious failure often carry a heavy burden of shame. This shame frequently drives people into silence, preventing them from seeking the help they need.
In this episode, Drew is join...
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