Joshua Fletcher (@anxietyjosh on Instagram) is a best-selling author, psychotherapist and host of The Panic Pod podcast. Over the years he has spoken in detail on the every-day challenges that anxiety sufferers face, from agoraphobia to catastrophic thinking.
Looking back through his library, Fletcher lists five of his favourite conversations:
- Anxiety with/without a root cause – Root causes of anxiety can be traumatic events that cause us to change our behaviour in response to triggers. A root cause may also be something very minor but calcified over time to seem much worse than the first ‘event’ that set things off. However, the idea that anxiety always has a narrative such as this is overused and doesn’t often help people who just want to untangle and understand their anxiety disorder.
- Driving anxiety – Driving is a responsibility that should be taken seriously, but what happens when the heightened sense of alertness for driving becomes a tense white-knuckle ride while battling one’s own fear?
- Is it trauma? – Speaking with special guest, psychotherapist and Lord of the Rings nerd, Seerut K. Chawla, Josh takes a deep dive into the modern-day ‘trauma trend’ that has taken social media by storm. Is the term being misused and quickly becoming diluted? Josh and Seerut sit down to discuss this important question.
- Adrenaline vs Cortisol – When you have a panic episode, adrenaline floods the system in a way that was biologically developed to help with survival. As chronic anxiety sufferers know, this adrenal flood happens when there is no tangible threat around, so it feels like a biological response that is ‘out of control’. Cortisol is another hormone that makes us feel stressed, but it operates differently. Josh and co-host Ella Jean discuss go into the purposes of each, giving you the tools to identify them and put them to use. Take back control with the help of this episode.
- The three D’s: Derealisation, depersonalisation and disassociation – One of the most shared episodes of The Panic Pod, this episode delves into the physical effects that an out-of-body experience can have on your body.
You can find out more about Joshua Fletcher and his tools to help live with anxiety at www.schoolofanxiety.com.
