Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast

Welcome back to Owning It, this time my guest is not an expert but a very wonderful and prolific writer - Scarlett Curtis - who shares her experience of anxiety and depression with me. Scarlett is the Sunday Times Bestselling author of Feminists Don't Wear Pink and Other Lies and It's Not Okay To Feel Blue and Other Lies, and daughter of Richard Curtis, who has made some films you may know, including Love Actually. She says she's always felt like a bit of a sad cloud hanging over her otherwise happy family, due to her chronic illness and bouts of depression and anxiety. Here she shares her story. We also talk about the commodification of self care, how the pressure to have a 'solution' is helping nobody, and lots more. Read more of her work on ScarlettCurtis.com. Follow me on @OwningItPodcast on Instagram for more. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're talking all things insomnia or sleep struggles in relation to anxiety. Which came first, the crappy sleep or the anxiety? Which can we work on to improve the other? For this chat my expert guest is psychotherapist, sleep specialist and author Heather Darwall-Smith who has some really interesting takes on anxiety in general here, but particularly when it comes to sleep. Sleep in itself can be such a source for anxiety - the pressure to get the best sleep. Heather gracefully bulldozes through a lot of what you normally hear about sleep and offers very practical, reasonable advice to help take the edge off your sleep woes. Her book, The Science of Sleep is out now. Read more about Heather here and follow me on @OwningItPodcast here. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to season 8. For my first episode of the season I am joined by associate professor and psychologist at Stanford University Dr Katie Fracalanza. Katie is a world renowned expert in many aspects of anxiety, from people pleasing to OCD and lots in between but for this chat we hone in on social anxiety in particular. Why do we struggle? Why is it so commonly experienced? What's happening when we feel socially anxious? What can we do to make our social encounters easier? We unpack the science and the theory as well as offer practical advice. Follow me on @OwningItPodcast for more. More on Katie here.Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

'I'd never really experienced anxiety like it until after I had my baby.' Jessica Urlichs is an incredible poet, children's book author and person from New Zealand. She became an instant source of comfort to me on Instagram when I was in the throes of postpartum anxiety, making me feel so less alone and batshit for feeling the way I was feeling. She too had a rough postpartum experience, with lots of anxiety. Here she shares her story. Follow her at @jessurlichs_writer on Instagram and follow me at @OwningItPodcast for more. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Follow me on @OwningItPodcast on Instagram for more tips, clips, explainers and helpful resources. This is a solo episode where I explore the concepts of jealousy and envy and fearing that someone else's success might take from yours in relation to anxiety. This is a particularly relevant listen for those navigating these issues in the workplace. This is an excerpt from my third book NAKED, available widely. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a solo episode where I discuss my anxiety around Covid. Before getting it, when I got it and when I was out the other side. Follow me on @OwningItPodcast on Instagram for more. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join me on @OwningItPodcast on Instagram. This week my guest is Nav Sohanpaul, a South Asian mindset coach from Windsor who has grown up in the Sikh community. She shares her experience of crippling anxiety with me and how she had to hit rock bottom to turn it all around. She shares how the expectation to be a certain way and follow a certain path led her to one day, finding herself on all fours in the grips of a panic attack and having no choice but to acknowledge that her body was trying to tell her something. How would she explain this to her family? What's it like to have mental health struggles in a community where it is still hugely stigmatised as weakness? How would she carve out an entirely new life for herself separate to what everyone else had expected of her so as to preserve her wellbeing? Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Follow me @OwningItPodcast on Instagram. Brian Falduto - known as 'that gay kid' from School of Rock with Jack Black. Brian and I recorded for both of our podcasts so here you will hear me talk a bit about my own story too which I know you've heard before. Brian tells me his experience with anxiety which - though it has been building his entire life - really only surfaced quite recently and it is only now something he is confronting. Brian talks in particular about his experience after the movie came out, the bullying he endured for the character he played - which Brian says was just Brian - and the shame and homophobia he turned back on himself as a teenager. Eventually, this coupled with other lifestyle factors, would lead to Brian experiencing some pretty rough anxiety that became quite debilitating. So he went on to Spotify to find some podcasts on the topic, and he came across me. Enjoy and do follow Brian on TheGayLifeCoach as well as his own BrianFalduto page. Support this show http://supporter.acast.c

Join me on @OwningItPodcast for more. This week it's just me and I'm talking through the feelings of overwhelm and anxiety we can get when we are trying our best to support other people. Recently I found that a lot of my nearest and dearest were going through very tough times at once and while trying to be there as much as I could, I ran myself entirely out of gas. What can we do when our empathy leaves us feeling overwhelmed? How do we support ourselves when trying to support others? I also talk a bit about what's going on for your brain when this is happening, as well as touching on the feelings of anxiety you might be dealing with as you consume news from Ukraine. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join me on @OwningItPodcast on Instagram for more tips, clips, explainers and helpful content. This week I am joined by Irish comedian and three time bestselling author Rory O'Connor to talk about the anxiety that goes along with our inner critic. Self doubt, imposter syndrome and riding the waves of doubt that come along no matter what level of success you find yourself at. Rory shares his very personal story of overcoming a gambling addiction and having been perceived as less than capable when he was growing up in school. His new book Rory's Story is out now. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Follow me on @owningitpodcast for more tips, clips, explainers and videos. For this episode I'm joined by the wonderfully articulate Josh Trent, all the way from Austin Texas. Josh is the CEO of Wellness Force Media and the creator of BREATHE a course (for which he offers Owning It listeners a discount towards the end of the episode) and here we talk about the influence of media on our anxiety - conscious versus unconscious content - his own experience of anxiety that led him down this business route and then we get to the power of breath work for managing anxiety moment to moment. Josh shares his expertise on the art and science of breathwork, the physiology and biology of stress reduction, vagal toning, relaxing the default mode network and more. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Follow @owningitpodcast on Instagram for more. This week Dr Clare Kambamettu returns (although apologies again her sound isn't 100%) to discuss a topic that is so important: anger. Sometimes anxiety manifests as anger. Anger is the 'fight' in 'fight or flight' and it's often misunderstood. Anger is something we're taught never to show, but it is a valid emotion. How do we know when anger is really anxiety at work? Here Dr Clare, clinical psychologist, explains. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Follow @owningitpodcast for more anxiety related content and resources. I'm joined here by the wonderful Dr Julie Smith, number 1 bestselling author and clinical psychologist, social media superstar and very lovely person. We talk about her book, she breaks down anxiety, the difference between anxiety and stress and she answers some listener questions too! Check out her book, Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before here. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join me on Instagram for more resources, tips, clips and more: @owningitpodcast.This week I am joined by someone who gives me actual LIFE on social media: @mamastillgotit's Louise Boyce. Louise has amassed a huge audience for normalising life with toddlers, she is a tonic for any parent fed up with the more sanitised portrayal of parenthood that pervades social media. Here she shares her experience of anxiety with me, from her teen years as a model, where it manifested as an eating disorder, right through to becoming a parent of three children and the anxiety that hit many of us like a tonne of bricks: Covid. For Louise, and for all of us watching, humour and her brilliant videos became her release. This episode looks at anxiety from a body image perspective (as we did with Jessica Megan) as well as general stress and overwhelm due to Covid. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here's another psycho-educational episode to help you understand what you're working with. We've heard of the fight or flight response, even the freeze response but what about the fourth response - fawn? Here psychotherapist Katie McKenna breaks down the fawn response, which includes a lot of the behaviours, triggering anxiety, that you'll be familiar with, including people pleasing. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Front man of global music sensation Kodaline - Steve Garrigan. - shares his personal story with me. When you're the lead singer of a band performing in front of thousands of people, and feeling so at ease while doing so, it might sound odd that that same person would be gripped with panic attacks and anxiety behind the scenes. After years of suffering in silence, Steve has shared his experience of anxiety, how it manifested for him and what made him seek help - and also what actually helped - in his new book High Hopes, out now. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Therapist, coach and number 1 bestselling author Jack Williamson joins me to talk about The Shitty Committee, his incredible book which has been given the stamp of approval by Oprah herself and is number 1 book on Amazon throughout the whole of the UK at the moment. The Shitty Committee includes 3 things that impact our anxiety - internals, externals and consumables. Jack explains all here. He also gives a great insight into the changes in mental health within the music industry, a space notoriously tough to be working in. Read his book here. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

One of the main characteristics of anxiety is that when you feel it, you believe that you will always feel it, that it will always be there. You can't accept that a day would come where it wouldn't dominate, when it's become chronic for you. I had these fears and worries too, I thought I would never be okay, and that there's so much in life I'd never get to experience from travel to love to having a child to public speaking, but do you know how many of these things anxiety has held me back from? None. In this short solo episode I talk through the fears I had, the things I thought I would never be able for but, because I owned my anxiety, I was eventually able to achieve. I hope you find this episode uplifting and hopeful if you are struggling with chronic daily anxiety at the moment. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Body positive influencer, model and activist Jessica Megan joins me on Owning It this week to talk through the anxiety that so many of us grapple with - women in particular - that centres around our image. What we see in the mirror, how we talk to ourselves about how we look, what we think we 'should' look like. Jessica shares her story, detailing her turbulent teenage years where she was surrounded by diet culture and slimming world meetings, some tools and mindset swaps that she finds helpful as well as us talking through my own difficulty with being kind to my body after having a baby and feeling anxious to 'bounce back'. Given the timing of our discussion, we also talk through how she's handling Covid related anxiety. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode I am joined by a friend, Simone Gannon (also known as Simone Scribes on Instagram). She's big on social media for her skincare expertise and has amassed a huge following. Simone recently took to Instagram to share something she wouldn't normally: chats about her experience of crippling anxiety that saw her in and out of hospital with symptoms of a suspected stroke. Here she shares her story with me, as she is passionate too about normalising anxiety and also talking about it while we are still in the thick of it. Her experience of anxiety follows a traumatic experience she had involving her son. As is very common, when we experience something really tough, we are filled with adrenaline and our bodies have our backs while we 'get through' what needs to be done. When the dust settles, the anxiety can swoop in and force us to process things we hadn't yet addressed. This is Simone's story and I hope it's of some comfort to you those of you listening who have been in similar situations. Support th