409. How to manage your anxiety about the future
The Psychology of your 20s
iHeartPodcasts
4.8 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2026
⏱️ 41 minutes
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Summary
It can feel like the world - and our future - has never been more precarious or frightening. It’s a very normal response to feel anxious about it - and in many ways, being concerned is just a sign that you’re alive, switched on, and care about the what’s going on around you. But what happens when this anxiety becomes overwhelming, and we’re consumed by worry about the future? In this episode, we unpack:
• Why we’re prone to anticipatory anxiety in our 20s
• The evolutionary reasons for catastrophic thinking
• Why long-term anxiety rewires our brain
• When it’s healthy - and not healthy - to worry
• How to rebrand anxiety as excitement
Happy listening!
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Or favourite sources:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3086262/#:~:text=For%20some%20individuals%2C%20uncertainty%20about,%2C%20&%20Camerer%2C%202005
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24364682/
The Psychology of your 20s is not a substitute for professional mental health help. If you are struggling, distressed or require personalised advice, please reach out to your doctor or a licensed psychologist.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. |
| 0:09.6 | Hello everybody. I'm Jemma Spike and welcome back to the psychology of your 20s, the podcast where we talk through the biggest changes, moments and transitions of our 20s and what they mean for our psychology. |
| 0:29.6 | Hello everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast. It is so great to have you |
| 0:34.6 | here. I literally landed in London back from Australia like five hours ago. |
| 0:39.5 | And the jet lag is really setting in right now. |
| 0:43.0 | So bear with me. |
| 0:44.9 | But I feel like this episode can't wait. |
| 0:47.8 | I feel like this is the most pressing feeling of our generation, of our time |
| 0:51.3 | that needs to be discussed before like the next world disaster hits |
| 0:57.2 | in probably the next few days. And the topic for today, that is our anxiety about the future. |
| 1:05.6 | Our anxiety about the future of the world, the future of our lives and how to manage it. |
| 1:10.2 | I don't think that I've had a |
| 1:13.1 | conversation, a single conversation in the past six months that hasn't included some |
| 1:20.6 | mention of an ever-present existential threat kind of lingering over our lives. That combined with all of our personal |
| 1:30.8 | worries and anxieties about the future as 20-somethings meant that it kind of felt like the |
| 1:37.1 | right time to do an episode on catastrophizing and how to stay grounded right now when our |
| 1:42.4 | thoughts are probably going a thousand miles a minute. |
| 1:45.5 | I'm a major catastropher. And if you are like me, the thought spirals, the negativity spirals |
| 1:52.0 | are probably non-stop at the moment. And it's annoying. It's annoying. It's frustrating. It leaves |
| 1:58.4 | little room to really think about anything else. It leaves little room to |
| 2:01.8 | get stuff done, little room to enjoy the present for what it is. So today I want to give an explanation |
| 2:09.5 | as to what is happening in your brain as these spirals are taking place. Why your anxiety about the |
... |
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