July 17, 2025 • 24 mins
Our guest this week is Dr. Gregory Jantz, author of The Anxiety Reset, we talk about the causes of anxiety, the importance of dealing with it, and how to remove some common stressors from your life.
Follow up with Dr. Jantz at his website aplaceofhope.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Unknown (00:00):
Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of
(00:10):
intelligence for your life. Thepodcast, our guest this week is
Dr Gregory. Chance we are goingto talk to him about anxiety,
about all of the things in ourlives that are causing us
anxiety, about the importance ofanxiety, and also, of course,
how you can deal with it,including some of the resources
that he has on his website. Sostay with us for that, folks, we
(00:32):
are so excited to bring this toyou today. Here's without
further ado, my interview withDr Gregory Jantz. Dr Gregory
Jantz, author of multiple books,but most importantly, you're a
psychologist and the bestselling author of the anxiety
reset. Thank you so much forbeing with us today. We really
appreciate it good tobe with you. And boy, what a
topic that people areexperiencing anxiety. Yeah,
(00:54):
yeah. I mean, I know that I'vebeen feeling it more and more,
and with all of the caffeine andstimulants that we that we take
all the time. I guess that doesthat. Let's let's start there.
Are you seeing as a, as a, Iknow in my life, I'm
experiencing it more, but I'm ananecdote. Are you seeing it at
the statistical and practicallevel that that anxiety actually
is on the rise?
Here's what we know right now.
Anxiety is the number onediagnosis. Number one diagnosis,
(01:18):
we have a country that is filledwith anxiety. Now think about
that that's above many otherdiagnoses. That's above cancer,
heart disease, anxiety takingthe number one place. Now
anxiety means it's beyond worry.
Anxiety has a physicalcomponent. I have physical
(01:39):
symptoms. My sleep is disrupted.
I may have headaches. I feelthis anxiety in my body, and I
can't seem to shake it off.
That's anxiety. So okay,so we have this, you know, it's
beyond, again, like you said,it's beyond just stress. It's
beyond just worry. We have thesephysical symptoms of anxiety.
It's, it's the number one, likeyou just said, it's the number
(02:00):
one diagnosed medical conditionright now. But why are we just
getting better at knowing it? Orare there, are there societal
and maybe chemical changes thathave begun to occur that are
leading us down this path?
Yeah, if we can look here at thelast two and a half, no, nearly
three years of of a pandemicseason where we were put in some
(02:24):
unusual situations and createdsome isolation. There also has
erupted kind of a trend wherepeople are they're weary, and
depression is along the side.
But with this weariness and thisanxiety, there's a great deal of
distrust, who to believe, whatto believe. So we're seeing a
(02:46):
culture of distrust. And we'realso seeing this like, for
example, road rage is all. Majorcities are up on road rage, and
so people are acting out theiremotions, the frustration, the
anger, and a lot of this is dueto the anxiety level we see
people, I call it Doomscrolling. They're just growing
(03:09):
negative. Yeah, sowe're looking at all this
negative information. Do youfeel like, you know you're
bringing up road rage? Do youfeel like because of the amount
of data that the highway, youknow, the highway institutes
collect that this is a goodbarometer to better understand
how anxiety is manifestingitself, because, because you
just have this secondary levellayer of data on that,
(03:33):
you know, yes, now here's what'shappening. Addiction rates are
up. So anytime addiction thelevel of anxiety goes up. The
level of addiction goes up.
Alcohol cells. We've never soldso much alcohol. There was a
period of time of weeks wherealcohol cells reached the all
(03:53):
time highs. So when we'reanxious, we tend to get tired of
that after a while, and we tryto do a little self medication.
So alcohol tends to be the firstchoice. And so we're seeing that
the rates of addiction peoplecoming to us at a place of hope,
seeking help, and they've gotthis CO addiction going on, but
(04:15):
it started with anxiety in theirlife. So
it's so that I see that there's,you know, well, I want to talk
in a minute about theconsequences of anxiety,
especially undiagnosed,untreated anxiety, but I want to
talk more about what you thinkis actually leading to this. So
obviously, big societal changes,Doom scrolling. Do you think
it's as simple as just thealgorithms keep the most the
(04:38):
most fearful news content? Or isreinforced by the algorithm
being sent, sending us the samething over and over and over
again. Well, I think too it'swhat are people allowing in
their minds? Yeah, I just talkedto somebody yesterday, and he
goes, I'm really doing good. Isaid, What's what is? It goes,
(04:58):
well, I. I've cut myself offfrom all news. I'm feeling so
much better. And if we don'thave appropriate guardrails
about what we're letting in, andfor all we're letting in is
negative, right? It getsconfusing also what to believe,
and we're living in a habitualstate of negative information,
right, right? And that negativeinformation, again, is
(05:20):
reinforced by an algorithm,absolutely
and it is such that people areisolating more. They are pulling
away instead of towards people,and we're finding that, you
know, that's why you go back toroad rage, and people are upset
(05:41):
is they're easily triggered.
There's a real hyper sensitivitythat's going on right now,
right?
And so we're seeing that, okay?
So we see in a road rage. We seeit in addiction rates. Those are
some of the consequences of it,aside from the news at this idea
of doom, scrolling this thethese algorithms that loop us in
with more and more reinforcingthat engagement on the negative
(06:02):
emotions, the Doom scrolling,all that stuff. What are you
think there's some othercontributing factors to a
broader sense of anxiety? Or isthat? Is that, is that it like,
is it because we're drinkingmore coffee, or because of
energy drinks or anything likethat? Is it the caffeine
stimulus? Well, it issome of it. We tend to add to
our anxiety symptoms by some ofour coping behaviors. So I
(06:22):
mentioned alcohol. I just talkedto a guy. He goes, You know, I
think I'm averaging about 12cups of coffee a day. Wow. Well,
12 cups of coffee a day, youknow. Go, okay, that's gonna
create a little anxiety, youthink. And so we also know that
we're in the middle of a seasonwhere we're seeing more sleep
disorders. Sure, insomnia peoplewaking up during the night, and
(06:47):
in essence, they're havinganxiety attacks, and they are
hearts racing. They feel wideawake, but they've they've
suddenly woken up from asleepbecause their body is having
what we'll call and a panicattack,
and that's and that's disruptingour sleep, and you think that's,
is that again, is that? What doyou think is the cause of all
(07:09):
this? Does it is in a minute, Iwant to talk about some of the
consequences. I want to talkabout how we can deal with it.
But I really want to understand,like, where you think some of
this is coming from, aside fromjust our our constant attack of
being on our phones, or is thatit like the phones are messing
up our sleep, the constantscreen time, the constant
inundation with news, then do wejust need to make those habit
(07:30):
changes? Or are there, like, arethere some other things that
were that we're doinginadvertently, that you think
are contributing to ourincreased levels of anxiety?
Yes, well, I think we have tolook at social media. Yeah,
okay, yeah, the social socialmedia and kind of that
technology addiction, if youwill. And we see it. We see
(07:52):
folks come to us, and, you know,initially, anything with a
screen, we put in a safe andlock up for them. And by day
three, we are seeing people withanxiety symptoms, sweaty palms,
heart rates up, anxiousness.
Say, I just forgot to return anemail. Can I have my stuff back?
You know? So you see the sweatypalms, I can't focus. And those
(08:16):
are really symptoms ofwithdrawal. Wow.
Well, okay, so do you, I mean,do you recommend that we get
little I know some people havedo this, and they then they
practice this at their ownhouse, where, where they have a
safe in their house, a time locksafe. And everybody, when they
(08:39):
come home from work or school,they put their phones in the
safe and it you can't open ituntil a certain time has gone
by. For Executive you're talkingabout these addict these
addictions, the phones.
Boy, if you can do that, I'mgonna say that's great,
because that that takes someself determination and
discipline just to do that. Mygoodness. So yes, I do believe
(09:03):
that having time and having abuffer zone, for example, really
developing the discipline thatsays, you know, up to about an
hour before bed, I'm putting allmy devices away just having
those routines, there is a detoxfrom just all that stimuli that
can be important, social mediacan be so disruptive, and you
(09:28):
look at somebody's post and youget upset, and then you can't
sleep, or you get, like anyaddiction, by the way, you say,
hey, well, how long were you ononline? Oh, probably 30 minutes.
Well, it was really three hours,right? You lose track of time,
right? I got one of those. I gotthe timer on my on my phone. Now
(09:48):
it tells me how long I've been,and my estimation is wildly low,
wildly low. I'd be like, Oh mygosh, eight hours. I thought. I
thought maybe two hours, but Iwas on, I was on my phone for
eight hours today, or whateverit is, you. It's insane.
So, and I think it's important,let's look at all the influences
on the whole person. Well, what,what is, what are we allowing to
(10:09):
invade our life, invade ourthinking? The longer that you
spend on social media, do youfeel worse or better? Well,
honestly, people feel worse. Sowhat are we doing to amplify our
symptoms, and what are we doingthat's disruptive to our sleep?
And the other thing we need tolook at is, what are we doing
(10:30):
that can be disruptive to ourrelationships? Well, we have a
little rule at our home is whenyou sit around the table and
we're eating, you don't pull outyour device, and we're present.
We have eye contact, wecommunicate with one another.
Oh, you want to show mesomething that was online? Okay?
You know, we ask permission,then we put our device away. So
(10:53):
is it controlling yourrelationships? And that's
something that's sometimespainful to look at.
Now I would is there, is therean upside to any, to the to the
phone and the constantcommunication? So I hear that
it's an anxiety cause, right? Ihear that, and I understand why
social media is a negative butfor a lot of people, you know
technological, technologicalinteraction was their only
(11:16):
interaction during a big part ofthe lockdown. Do you see that
there is a, there's a flip sideto that, where there is a, maybe
a sweet spot where, where theconnection that you can get via
social media and via your phoneor via, you know, via the
screens, is good. Before itstarts to turn to that, that
addiction and anxiety inducingplace that you've been talking
about,there is a sweet spot. It's
called balance. Can I selfregulate? The next question?
(11:38):
It's like a person that'saddicted to perhaps gaming. And
I did use the word addictedbecause I see it, the person
cannot self regulate. Okay, no,I will. I'll get off the game at
one in the morning, I promise.
And it's four in the morning.
You couldn't do it. You couldn'tself regulate. That's a sign
(12:01):
there's a problem,right? So you okay, that makes
sense, yeah. So, so it's thosestandard addiction signs let you
know that perhaps your behavioraround these devices, around
these things, that that is goinga little bit too it's going a
little bit too far on thatThat's right. Let's go back. I
want to talk about some signsfor how to know that you are
are, whether it's from devicesor what have you, that you are
(12:25):
experiencing, not just run ofthe mill worry, not just run of
the mill stress, but the kind ofanxiety that we're talking about
that can lead to some addictionstuff before. So how, what are
some key indicators beyond roadrage, that that let us know that
we're that we've gone too far.
Yeah, I think one of the thingsam I waking up with a lack of of
(12:48):
daily I'm going to use the wordjoy, and I don't mean that to be
fake exuberant, but many timespeople are waking up with a
heaviness. It's it like feelslike a depression you can't
shake off. So just monitoring,what is the predominant emotion
I'm experiencing? Am Iexperiencing predominantly anger
(13:11):
and frustration? Is that themain thing I feel? Do I feel
fear and anxiousness and worryall day? Do I feel guilt, shame,
that something's wrong with me,or do I feel like, No, I'm doing
good. I I'm at peace withmyself. I'm being of help to
(13:32):
others. You know, what's thepredominant emotion you find
that drives you along during aday that's always a good
checkpoint? Great,great. Okay, so that'll give us
a sense of it. And then, youknow, I want to go back to
actually, you know what? Let'stake a quick break. I'm gonna
take a quick break when we comeback. We're going to talk some
more about, actually, what wecan do to begin to unpack the
the anxiety. I want to call itan epidemic, but just how we can
(13:56):
begin the anxiety reset when wecome back with Dr Gregory
chance, Dr Jantz. Before thebreak, we were talking again
about how anxiety is at an alltime high, about the causes of
our phones and our constantconnection, these sort of signs
of addiction to our devices andto news and to connectivity.
Great. Okay, so we, I thinkwe've all experienced some
(14:17):
version of what you're talkingabout. How do we begin to remove
this from our lives, remove theanxiety element from our lives.
Removing anxieties requiresprobably taking some baby steps.
I talk about simplifying one'slife, and this means, first of
all, I've got to get some selfcare in order. And you know, I
(14:40):
can't do the 12 cups of coffee.
I need to eat some protein andbreakfast in the morning. I've
got to have these patterns ofself care if Can I regulate my
sleep? Can I get my sleep cycle?
I used to work in sleepresearch, and I know sleep and
emotional well being are soclosely tied together. Can. Am I
doing simple things like whenI'm anxious, I tend not to drink
(15:03):
water. Am I drinking my water,or am I drinking a whole lot of
other things? Water improvesmood. Water improves
concentration. People forget theimportance of water when they're
anxious, right? Am I able to domy just go through my day
without anxiety paralyzing mydecision making. If I'm at a
(15:26):
place that I wake up in themorning and I can't even make a
decision about what to wear, andI mean, it's extra hard, I can't
make any the simplest decisionsthere at times, reaches a point
where anxiety paralyzes us, andwe need to seek out help. We
need to seek out and find outreally what's going on, because
(15:51):
anxiety will lead us down to apath that could potentially be
self destructive. So is anxietybeen with you for longer than
six months now, we've all gonethrough and we all are going
through some uncertainty andanxious times. It's out there.
Let's not ignore reality, butlet's also look at what am I
(16:17):
doing that could be fueling thisindirectly? What's the quality
of my relationships? Do I havetwo or three people? It's
usually just no more than three,usually that really know me,
that speak life into me, thatare truth tellers, or is
everybody around me an emotionaldrain? For example, what am I
surrounding myself with?
(16:38):
Well, so those are a few kids.
So everybody around me is anemotional drain. Yeah, the Okay.
So, so you start, you begin toevaluate what your
relationships, the qualityrelationships, and are they
actually helping you? Can Do youstart to cut out some of those
emotional draining things? Howdo you begin to form? Because I
feel like it's a vicious cycle.
This is, that's what I want tokind of get to is I feel like we
(16:58):
get anxious because we'redisconnected, and because we're
Doom scrolling, so we then Doomscroll more and disconnect more,
and dissociate more. And we areanxious because our
relationships are adding anxietyand not and not fueling us
positively. And so we we justlean into those negative
relationships more, or wedissociate more. Like, it's a
it's a spiral, it's like apositive feedback loop. Like,
(17:20):
the more stuff happens, the morewe engage in that. So I want to,
I want some, like, somecomprehensive things that we can
do. And I hear you say,professional help and a good
friend to begin to break thatspiral.
Yeah, we do need to break thatspiral. And one of the things I
want you to get outside of yournormal environment. I know it
sounds simple, but the power ofgoing for a walk, a power of
(17:44):
getting outside the you've gotto get movement in when there's
things anxiety and anxiousness,physical movements really
important. I don't mean to sayphysical movement and water
cures everything, no, but it's abeginning, a practice of some
significant self care. Also findout how significant your anxiety
(18:06):
really is. I'll share how totake my free anxiety. It's
pretty extensive, but an anxietytest to see really, where do I
score on this, how big a problemis it? And then an opportunity
to really get some informationabout some steps I can take. We
also need to watch what am Iputting in my mind every day?
(18:29):
And we've got to evaluate thatwe sometimes get really
compelled and compulsed toalways pull the negative in. And
it's like we get used to that,and it's we almost seek it out.
So, but those are just a coupleideas.
Well, you know, going back towhat we're talking about before,
you know, the negative is themost engaging, right? It's the
(18:49):
most engaging thing. The studyafter study has shown that for
news organizations, thenegative, scary things, are the
things that drive the mostengagement. So they, they double
down on that, because that's,that's what the algorithm is
telling them to do, and thenthat feeds us, and it feeds this
sort of creates, again, thisanxiety loop. So I hear you, so
look for the negativity. Findsome positive things to put in
your life. And I love the ideathat, you know, we I'm a big fan
(19:13):
of hydration and exercise,right? Like, so that, that idea
that start, yes, see if thatsolves it, like, get a little
bit, get in the sunshine formaybe 15 minutes every single
day so that you can get yourvitamin D levels up, like all of
that, all those basic things tokind of start the process. Do
the more new, the newer thingslike mindfulness, which I know
(19:34):
mindfulness meditation is notnew, but the mindfulness
meditation apps and backgroundnoise, apps, things like that,
that that are kind of newer. Dothose actually work? Or is that
just morenoise? Well, I love what you're
saying, and you're so right on.
It's these small things thathave a cumulative effect over
time. And so I call them babysteps. And what we need to do is
(19:57):
keep doing these. Give it 30.
Days. But really create, I wantyou to create a 12 week plan.
You can create a fair amount ofchange in a 90 day period. Then
after that, you go, Okay, wheream I? Am I doing? Well, am I
addiction free? How's my sleep?
How am I really doing? But youhave to allow some time you can
(20:22):
see some good change in 30 days.
I just want to encourage keepgoing. Something about hitting
that 90 day mark when we'redealing with anxiety is really
significant. Interesting,interesting. So, so give
yourself that like 90 day ofform, some of these lifestyle
habits, these basic ones thatwe're talking about, and then
evaluate from there absolutelyand one. That's why, that's why
(20:43):
we, we kind of give away this 12week plan, because we know it's
going to take some time. Staywith it. And you will, you'll
find, yes, I can make a lot ofchanges. Am I still suffering to
such a degree on a scale of oneto 10? It's seven, eight, then I
maybe I need to look at, let'ssee what kind of professional
(21:03):
intervention I could benefitfrom, right,
right? And then begin toevaluate your professional needs
at that point. Could you dothose things concurrently? Could
you begin to seek outprofessional help while you do
those things? Because for somepeople, that timeline may be too
long for before they before theysee professional help. Oh,
(21:24):
yes. And one of the things wemay need to do is find a
resource, a professional orthere's times where you need
something a little more intense,there's times that anxiety is so
paralyzing and you just losethat will to live, and the
addictions increase where wereally do need to have some
(21:45):
intervention and receive, youknow, kind of the type of whole
person care that we do, whereit's a little more intensive
because it's, it's reallyparalyzed your life and just
your daily functioning. Well, wewant, we want to get help, you
know, before it gets that thatfar along, and you may say, you
know, I have panic attacks. Andpanic attacks is really your
(22:09):
body's way of saying, I've hadenough, and it wants, yeah,
yeah. You know, we sort of seethose in pop culture, right? We
see that in in movies andtelevisions. People having
having having panic attacks andthe consequences of it. But when
you actually experience it,it's, it's, it's very
disorienting. I mean, you allnothing, nothing can calm you
down. And you're, you're justsort of overtaken by this, this
(22:32):
panicky feeling. Yes, yeah,we're gonna, we're gonna wrap
this up. We've taken a lot ofyour time, and your time is
valuable again. You know, peoplefollow I'm gonna ask you two
last questions about that. Iasked that. I asked everybody,
first and foremost, if peoplewant to follow up with you. Dr
Jantz, where canthey follow up with you? The
best way is a place of hope.com,a place of hope.com. And as much
(22:52):
as I speak about some of thedangers of social media. I am on
social you'll find me. Oh, iron,so, but, and then do, do, be
sure to take the anxiety Icalled it anxiety test. It takes
a little bit of time. It'spretty extensive. Okay? It's
(23:13):
totally private. We don't seethat you're taking it. It's you
do it confidentially, andthere's an opportunity to get
some free information. Wedownload to you to really be of
assistance. It's a good place tostart. So that's that's all on a
place of hope.comlink to a place of hope.com in
(23:34):
the show notes, you guys canjust click that and head over to
Dr Jan's website. One lastthing. And I ask it to
everybody, what is one thing wecan all start doing today that
will make our lives a whole lotbetter?
Yeah, reach out to somebody inneed. Look around, sometimes we
get self absorbed and we go, oh,man, you know, but reach out and
(23:56):
extend a handy of somebody,maybe in need today, do
something with some kindnesstowards somebody else. Awesome.
Dr Jantz, thank you so much. Wereally appreciate your time
today. Good to be with you.
That's it for our show today.
Thank you guys so much forlistening. If you like the show,
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(24:18):
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(24:40):
ultimately they do the shows foryou guys. So thank you so much.
You.
Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of
(00:10):
intelligence for your life. Thepodcast, our guest this week is
Dr Gregory. Chance we are goingto talk to him about anxiety,
about all of the things in ourlives that are causing us
anxiety, about the importance ofanxiety, and also, of course,
how you can deal with it,including some of the resources
that he has on his website. Sostay with us for that, folks, we
(00:32):
are so excited to bring this toyou today. Here's without
further ado, my interview withDr Gregory Jantz. Dr Gregory
Jantz, author of multiple books,but most importantly, you're a
psychologist and the bestselling author of the anxiety
reset. Thank you so much forbeing with us today. We really
appreciate it good tobe with you. And boy, what a
topic that people areexperiencing anxiety. Yeah,
(00:54):
yeah. I mean, I know that I'vebeen feeling it more and more,
and with all of the caffeine andstimulants that we that we take
all the time. I guess that doesthat. Let's let's start there.
Are you seeing as a, as a, Iknow in my life, I'm
experiencing it more, but I'm ananecdote. Are you seeing it at
the statistical and practicallevel that that anxiety actually
is on the rise?
Here's what we know right now.
Anxiety is the number onediagnosis. Number one diagnosis,
(01:18):
we have a country that is filledwith anxiety. Now think about
that that's above many otherdiagnoses. That's above cancer,
heart disease, anxiety takingthe number one place. Now
anxiety means it's beyond worry.
Anxiety has a physicalcomponent. I have physical
(01:39):
symptoms. My sleep is disrupted.
I may have headaches. I feelthis anxiety in my body, and I
can't seem to shake it off.
That's anxiety. So okay,so we have this, you know, it's
beyond, again, like you said,it's beyond just stress. It's
beyond just worry. We have thesephysical symptoms of anxiety.
It's, it's the number one, likeyou just said, it's the number
(02:00):
one diagnosed medical conditionright now. But why are we just
getting better at knowing it? Orare there, are there societal
and maybe chemical changes thathave begun to occur that are
leading us down this path?
Yeah, if we can look here at thelast two and a half, no, nearly
three years of of a pandemicseason where we were put in some
(02:24):
unusual situations and createdsome isolation. There also has
erupted kind of a trend wherepeople are they're weary, and
depression is along the side.
But with this weariness and thisanxiety, there's a great deal of
distrust, who to believe, whatto believe. So we're seeing a
(02:46):
culture of distrust. And we'realso seeing this like, for
example, road rage is all. Majorcities are up on road rage, and
so people are acting out theiremotions, the frustration, the
anger, and a lot of this is dueto the anxiety level we see
people, I call it Doomscrolling. They're just growing
(03:09):
negative. Yeah, sowe're looking at all this
negative information. Do youfeel like, you know you're
bringing up road rage? Do youfeel like because of the amount
of data that the highway, youknow, the highway institutes
collect that this is a goodbarometer to better understand
how anxiety is manifestingitself, because, because you
just have this secondary levellayer of data on that,
(03:33):
you know, yes, now here's what'shappening. Addiction rates are
up. So anytime addiction thelevel of anxiety goes up. The
level of addiction goes up.
Alcohol cells. We've never soldso much alcohol. There was a
period of time of weeks wherealcohol cells reached the all
(03:53):
time highs. So when we'reanxious, we tend to get tired of
that after a while, and we tryto do a little self medication.
So alcohol tends to be the firstchoice. And so we're seeing that
the rates of addiction peoplecoming to us at a place of hope,
seeking help, and they've gotthis CO addiction going on, but
(04:15):
it started with anxiety in theirlife. So
it's so that I see that there's,you know, well, I want to talk
in a minute about theconsequences of anxiety,
especially undiagnosed,untreated anxiety, but I want to
talk more about what you thinkis actually leading to this. So
obviously, big societal changes,Doom scrolling. Do you think
it's as simple as just thealgorithms keep the most the
(04:38):
most fearful news content? Or isreinforced by the algorithm
being sent, sending us the samething over and over and over
again. Well, I think too it'swhat are people allowing in
their minds? Yeah, I just talkedto somebody yesterday, and he
goes, I'm really doing good. Isaid, What's what is? It goes,
(04:58):
well, I. I've cut myself offfrom all news. I'm feeling so
much better. And if we don'thave appropriate guardrails
about what we're letting in, andfor all we're letting in is
negative, right? It getsconfusing also what to believe,
and we're living in a habitualstate of negative information,
right, right? And that negativeinformation, again, is
(05:20):
reinforced by an algorithm,absolutely
and it is such that people areisolating more. They are pulling
away instead of towards people,and we're finding that, you
know, that's why you go back toroad rage, and people are upset
(05:41):
is they're easily triggered.
There's a real hyper sensitivitythat's going on right now,
right?
And so we're seeing that, okay?
So we see in a road rage. We seeit in addiction rates. Those are
some of the consequences of it,aside from the news at this idea
of doom, scrolling this thethese algorithms that loop us in
with more and more reinforcingthat engagement on the negative
(06:02):
emotions, the Doom scrolling,all that stuff. What are you
think there's some othercontributing factors to a
broader sense of anxiety? Or isthat? Is that, is that it like,
is it because we're drinkingmore coffee, or because of
energy drinks or anything likethat? Is it the caffeine
stimulus? Well, it issome of it. We tend to add to
our anxiety symptoms by some ofour coping behaviors. So I
(06:22):
mentioned alcohol. I just talkedto a guy. He goes, You know, I
think I'm averaging about 12cups of coffee a day. Wow. Well,
12 cups of coffee a day, youknow. Go, okay, that's gonna
create a little anxiety, youthink. And so we also know that
we're in the middle of a seasonwhere we're seeing more sleep
disorders. Sure, insomnia peoplewaking up during the night, and
(06:47):
in essence, they're havinganxiety attacks, and they are
hearts racing. They feel wideawake, but they've they've
suddenly woken up from asleepbecause their body is having
what we'll call and a panicattack,
and that's and that's disruptingour sleep, and you think that's,
is that again, is that? What doyou think is the cause of all
(07:09):
this? Does it is in a minute, Iwant to talk about some of the
consequences. I want to talkabout how we can deal with it.
But I really want to understand,like, where you think some of
this is coming from, aside fromjust our our constant attack of
being on our phones, or is thatit like the phones are messing
up our sleep, the constantscreen time, the constant
inundation with news, then do wejust need to make those habit
(07:30):
changes? Or are there, like, arethere some other things that
were that we're doinginadvertently, that you think
are contributing to ourincreased levels of anxiety?
Yes, well, I think we have tolook at social media. Yeah,
okay, yeah, the social socialmedia and kind of that
technology addiction, if youwill. And we see it. We see
(07:52):
folks come to us, and, you know,initially, anything with a
screen, we put in a safe andlock up for them. And by day
three, we are seeing people withanxiety symptoms, sweaty palms,
heart rates up, anxiousness.
Say, I just forgot to return anemail. Can I have my stuff back?
You know? So you see the sweatypalms, I can't focus. And those
(08:16):
are really symptoms ofwithdrawal. Wow.
Well, okay, so do you, I mean,do you recommend that we get
little I know some people havedo this, and they then they
practice this at their ownhouse, where, where they have a
safe in their house, a time locksafe. And everybody, when they
(08:39):
come home from work or school,they put their phones in the
safe and it you can't open ituntil a certain time has gone
by. For Executive you're talkingabout these addict these
addictions, the phones.
Boy, if you can do that, I'mgonna say that's great,
because that that takes someself determination and
discipline just to do that. Mygoodness. So yes, I do believe
(09:03):
that having time and having abuffer zone, for example, really
developing the discipline thatsays, you know, up to about an
hour before bed, I'm putting allmy devices away just having
those routines, there is a detoxfrom just all that stimuli that
can be important, social mediacan be so disruptive, and you
(09:28):
look at somebody's post and youget upset, and then you can't
sleep, or you get, like anyaddiction, by the way, you say,
hey, well, how long were you ononline? Oh, probably 30 minutes.
Well, it was really three hours,right? You lose track of time,
right? I got one of those. I gotthe timer on my on my phone. Now
(09:48):
it tells me how long I've been,and my estimation is wildly low,
wildly low. I'd be like, Oh mygosh, eight hours. I thought. I
thought maybe two hours, but Iwas on, I was on my phone for
eight hours today, or whateverit is, you. It's insane.
So, and I think it's important,let's look at all the influences
on the whole person. Well, what,what is, what are we allowing to
(10:09):
invade our life, invade ourthinking? The longer that you
spend on social media, do youfeel worse or better? Well,
honestly, people feel worse. Sowhat are we doing to amplify our
symptoms, and what are we doingthat's disruptive to our sleep?
And the other thing we need tolook at is, what are we doing
(10:30):
that can be disruptive to ourrelationships? Well, we have a
little rule at our home is whenyou sit around the table and
we're eating, you don't pull outyour device, and we're present.
We have eye contact, wecommunicate with one another.
Oh, you want to show mesomething that was online? Okay?
You know, we ask permission,then we put our device away. So
(10:53):
is it controlling yourrelationships? And that's
something that's sometimespainful to look at.
Now I would is there, is therean upside to any, to the to the
phone and the constantcommunication? So I hear that
it's an anxiety cause, right? Ihear that, and I understand why
social media is a negative butfor a lot of people, you know
technological, technologicalinteraction was their only
(11:16):
interaction during a big part ofthe lockdown. Do you see that
there is a, there's a flip sideto that, where there is a, maybe
a sweet spot where, where theconnection that you can get via
social media and via your phoneor via, you know, via the
screens, is good. Before itstarts to turn to that, that
addiction and anxiety inducingplace that you've been talking
about,there is a sweet spot. It's
called balance. Can I selfregulate? The next question?
(11:38):
It's like a person that'saddicted to perhaps gaming. And
I did use the word addictedbecause I see it, the person
cannot self regulate. Okay, no,I will. I'll get off the game at
one in the morning, I promise.
And it's four in the morning.
You couldn't do it. You couldn'tself regulate. That's a sign
(12:01):
there's a problem,right? So you okay, that makes
sense, yeah. So, so it's thosestandard addiction signs let you
know that perhaps your behavioraround these devices, around
these things, that that is goinga little bit too it's going a
little bit too far on thatThat's right. Let's go back. I
want to talk about some signsfor how to know that you are
are, whether it's from devicesor what have you, that you are
(12:25):
experiencing, not just run ofthe mill worry, not just run of
the mill stress, but the kind ofanxiety that we're talking about
that can lead to some addictionstuff before. So how, what are
some key indicators beyond roadrage, that that let us know that
we're that we've gone too far.
Yeah, I think one of the thingsam I waking up with a lack of of
(12:48):
daily I'm going to use the wordjoy, and I don't mean that to be
fake exuberant, but many timespeople are waking up with a
heaviness. It's it like feelslike a depression you can't
shake off. So just monitoring,what is the predominant emotion
I'm experiencing? Am Iexperiencing predominantly anger
(13:11):
and frustration? Is that themain thing I feel? Do I feel
fear and anxiousness and worryall day? Do I feel guilt, shame,
that something's wrong with me,or do I feel like, No, I'm doing
good. I I'm at peace withmyself. I'm being of help to
(13:32):
others. You know, what's thepredominant emotion you find
that drives you along during aday that's always a good
checkpoint? Great,great. Okay, so that'll give us
a sense of it. And then, youknow, I want to go back to
actually, you know what? Let'stake a quick break. I'm gonna
take a quick break when we comeback. We're going to talk some
more about, actually, what wecan do to begin to unpack the
the anxiety. I want to call itan epidemic, but just how we can
(13:56):
begin the anxiety reset when wecome back with Dr Gregory
chance, Dr Jantz. Before thebreak, we were talking again
about how anxiety is at an alltime high, about the causes of
our phones and our constantconnection, these sort of signs
of addiction to our devices andto news and to connectivity.
Great. Okay, so we, I thinkwe've all experienced some
(14:17):
version of what you're talkingabout. How do we begin to remove
this from our lives, remove theanxiety element from our lives.
Removing anxieties requiresprobably taking some baby steps.
I talk about simplifying one'slife, and this means, first of
all, I've got to get some selfcare in order. And you know, I
(14:40):
can't do the 12 cups of coffee.
I need to eat some protein andbreakfast in the morning. I've
got to have these patterns ofself care if Can I regulate my
sleep? Can I get my sleep cycle?
I used to work in sleepresearch, and I know sleep and
emotional well being are soclosely tied together. Can. Am I
doing simple things like whenI'm anxious, I tend not to drink
(15:03):
water. Am I drinking my water,or am I drinking a whole lot of
other things? Water improvesmood. Water improves
concentration. People forget theimportance of water when they're
anxious, right? Am I able to domy just go through my day
without anxiety paralyzing mydecision making. If I'm at a
(15:26):
place that I wake up in themorning and I can't even make a
decision about what to wear, andI mean, it's extra hard, I can't
make any the simplest decisionsthere at times, reaches a point
where anxiety paralyzes us, andwe need to seek out help. We
need to seek out and find outreally what's going on, because
(15:51):
anxiety will lead us down to apath that could potentially be
self destructive. So is anxietybeen with you for longer than
six months now, we've all gonethrough and we all are going
through some uncertainty andanxious times. It's out there.
Let's not ignore reality, butlet's also look at what am I
(16:17):
doing that could be fueling thisindirectly? What's the quality
of my relationships? Do I havetwo or three people? It's
usually just no more than three,usually that really know me,
that speak life into me, thatare truth tellers, or is
everybody around me an emotionaldrain? For example, what am I
surrounding myself with?
(16:38):
Well, so those are a few kids.
So everybody around me is anemotional drain. Yeah, the Okay.
So, so you start, you begin toevaluate what your
relationships, the qualityrelationships, and are they
actually helping you? Can Do youstart to cut out some of those
emotional draining things? Howdo you begin to form? Because I
feel like it's a vicious cycle.
This is, that's what I want tokind of get to is I feel like we
(16:58):
get anxious because we'redisconnected, and because we're
Doom scrolling, so we then Doomscroll more and disconnect more,
and dissociate more. And we areanxious because our
relationships are adding anxietyand not and not fueling us
positively. And so we we justlean into those negative
relationships more, or wedissociate more. Like, it's a
it's a spiral, it's like apositive feedback loop. Like,
(17:20):
the more stuff happens, the morewe engage in that. So I want to,
I want some, like, somecomprehensive things that we can
do. And I hear you say,professional help and a good
friend to begin to break thatspiral.
Yeah, we do need to break thatspiral. And one of the things I
want you to get outside of yournormal environment. I know it
sounds simple, but the power ofgoing for a walk, a power of
(17:44):
getting outside the you've gotto get movement in when there's
things anxiety and anxiousness,physical movements really
important. I don't mean to sayphysical movement and water
cures everything, no, but it's abeginning, a practice of some
significant self care. Also findout how significant your anxiety
(18:06):
really is. I'll share how totake my free anxiety. It's
pretty extensive, but an anxietytest to see really, where do I
score on this, how big a problemis it? And then an opportunity
to really get some informationabout some steps I can take. We
also need to watch what am Iputting in my mind every day?
(18:29):
And we've got to evaluate thatwe sometimes get really
compelled and compulsed toalways pull the negative in. And
it's like we get used to that,and it's we almost seek it out.
So, but those are just a coupleideas.
Well, you know, going back towhat we're talking about before,
you know, the negative is themost engaging, right? It's the
(18:49):
most engaging thing. The studyafter study has shown that for
news organizations, thenegative, scary things, are the
things that drive the mostengagement. So they, they double
down on that, because that's,that's what the algorithm is
telling them to do, and thenthat feeds us, and it feeds this
sort of creates, again, thisanxiety loop. So I hear you, so
look for the negativity. Findsome positive things to put in
your life. And I love the ideathat, you know, we I'm a big fan
(19:13):
of hydration and exercise,right? Like, so that, that idea
that start, yes, see if thatsolves it, like, get a little
bit, get in the sunshine formaybe 15 minutes every single
day so that you can get yourvitamin D levels up, like all of
that, all those basic things tokind of start the process. Do
the more new, the newer thingslike mindfulness, which I know
(19:34):
mindfulness meditation is notnew, but the mindfulness
meditation apps and backgroundnoise, apps, things like that,
that that are kind of newer. Dothose actually work? Or is that
just morenoise? Well, I love what you're
saying, and you're so right on.
It's these small things thathave a cumulative effect over
time. And so I call them babysteps. And what we need to do is
(19:57):
keep doing these. Give it 30.
Days. But really create, I wantyou to create a 12 week plan.
You can create a fair amount ofchange in a 90 day period. Then
after that, you go, Okay, wheream I? Am I doing? Well, am I
addiction free? How's my sleep?
How am I really doing? But youhave to allow some time you can
(20:22):
see some good change in 30 days.
I just want to encourage keepgoing. Something about hitting
that 90 day mark when we'redealing with anxiety is really
significant. Interesting,interesting. So, so give
yourself that like 90 day ofform, some of these lifestyle
habits, these basic ones thatwe're talking about, and then
evaluate from there absolutelyand one. That's why, that's why
(20:43):
we, we kind of give away this 12week plan, because we know it's
going to take some time. Staywith it. And you will, you'll
find, yes, I can make a lot ofchanges. Am I still suffering to
such a degree on a scale of oneto 10? It's seven, eight, then I
maybe I need to look at, let'ssee what kind of professional
(21:03):
intervention I could benefitfrom, right,
right? And then begin toevaluate your professional needs
at that point. Could you dothose things concurrently? Could
you begin to seek outprofessional help while you do
those things? Because for somepeople, that timeline may be too
long for before they before theysee professional help. Oh,
(21:24):
yes. And one of the things wemay need to do is find a
resource, a professional orthere's times where you need
something a little more intense,there's times that anxiety is so
paralyzing and you just losethat will to live, and the
addictions increase where wereally do need to have some
(21:45):
intervention and receive, youknow, kind of the type of whole
person care that we do, whereit's a little more intensive
because it's, it's reallyparalyzed your life and just
your daily functioning. Well, wewant, we want to get help, you
know, before it gets that thatfar along, and you may say, you
know, I have panic attacks. Andpanic attacks is really your
(22:09):
body's way of saying, I've hadenough, and it wants, yeah,
yeah. You know, we sort of seethose in pop culture, right? We
see that in in movies andtelevisions. People having
having having panic attacks andthe consequences of it. But when
you actually experience it,it's, it's, it's very
disorienting. I mean, you allnothing, nothing can calm you
down. And you're, you're justsort of overtaken by this, this
(22:32):
panicky feeling. Yes, yeah,we're gonna, we're gonna wrap
this up. We've taken a lot ofyour time, and your time is
valuable again. You know, peoplefollow I'm gonna ask you two
last questions about that. Iasked that. I asked everybody,
first and foremost, if peoplewant to follow up with you. Dr
Jantz, where canthey follow up with you? The
best way is a place of hope.com,a place of hope.com. And as much
(22:52):
as I speak about some of thedangers of social media. I am on
social you'll find me. Oh, iron,so, but, and then do, do, be
sure to take the anxiety Icalled it anxiety test. It takes
a little bit of time. It'spretty extensive. Okay? It's
(23:13):
totally private. We don't seethat you're taking it. It's you
do it confidentially, andthere's an opportunity to get
some free information. Wedownload to you to really be of
assistance. It's a good place tostart. So that's that's all on a
place of hope.comlink to a place of hope.com in
(23:34):
the show notes, you guys canjust click that and head over to
Dr Jan's website. One lastthing. And I ask it to
everybody, what is one thing wecan all start doing today that
will make our lives a whole lotbetter?
Yeah, reach out to somebody inneed. Look around, sometimes we
get self absorbed and we go, oh,man, you know, but reach out and
(23:56):
extend a handy of somebody,maybe in need today, do
something with some kindnesstowards somebody else. Awesome.
Dr Jantz, thank you so much. Wereally appreciate your time
today. Good to be with you.
That's it for our show today.
Thank you guys so much forlistening. If you like the show,
please rate, comment, subscribeon Apple podcast, Spotify,
Stitcher, wherever you get yourpodcast, helps us out a lot. So
(24:18):
you know, if you want to followup with us, check out
facebook.com/contest, we go livethere all the time, including a
try weekly. It's three times aweek, workout show that we do,
plus all kinds of other funstuff we got going on. Again,
that's facebook.com/john Tesh.
You can follow John on Instagramat John test underscore, if,
well, I'm Gib Gerard. You canfind me at facebook.com/gib
Gerard, or at Gib Gerard onInstagram and Twitter. Folks try
to respond to every DM, everymention of the show, because
(24:40):
ultimately they do the shows foryou guys. So thank you so much.
You.
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