Anxiety Disorders .. The "Default Thought" (Episode 92)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 665 Ratings
🗓️ 27 December 2024
⏱️ 36 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
There is a default thought that stands as thread that weaves itself throughout the life of a person struggling with disordered or chronic anxiety.
"How do I feel?"
This week Josh and Drew are looking at this default thought and the impact it has on an anxious person. All living humans will ask this question probably every day in some form, but anxious humans ask it as their default appraisal and monitoring strategy. It becomes inflated and twisted and takes over life at a level that is not in alignment with actual safety. An anxious person has no room to act in accordance with their true selves or what they value because the default thought keeps bringing everything back to anxiety and discomfort all day long.
If you're struggling with anxiety and find yourself on a default thought hamster wheel that you can't seem to get off, if you spend all day long checking in on how you feel, and if every situation you find yourself in always comes back to how you feel or might feel ... you're not alone in that and this episode is for you.
---
Disordered Roundtables are here. Think of it as "Disordered Live", a way for members of our audience to spend time with us in an intimate virtual setting (attendance is limited) to engage in real time sharing and discussion on specific anxiety disorder and recovery topics. To be notified when new Disordered Roundtable sessions are scheduled, visit our homepage and get on our mailing list.
---
Struggling with worry and rumination that you feel you can't stop or control? Check out Worry and Rumination Explained, a two hour pre-recorded workshop produced by Josh and Drew. The workshop takes a deep dive into the mechanics of worrying and ruminating, offering some helpful ways to approach the seemingly unsolvable problem of trying to solve seemingly unsolveable problems.
https://bit.ly/worryrumination
-----
Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast?
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | But for people with anxiety disorders, the default thought is, how do I feel? |
| 0:06.6 | Is the anxiety there? |
| 0:07.6 | Is it not? |
| 0:08.6 | I got like three seconds of, ah, and then bam, that default thought would instantly kick |
| 0:15.0 | in, then downhill from there. |
| 0:17.0 | I'm awake, but I'm automatically having that thought and now digging into it to see how I feel, |
| 0:22.6 | to start the day. Really high anxiety is frightening. So actually a safety behavior is to monitor for it. |
| 0:29.0 | And what comes part and parcel with that is the default thought. How do I feel has variations, |
| 0:34.7 | too, because then when you notice that like like I'm not feeling anxious right now. |
| 0:37.8 | I'm not like inwardly focused. |
| 0:38.9 | I'm not doing the inward compulsions. |
| 0:40.2 | Then the default thought becomes, but how am I going to feel? |
| 0:44.2 | And you know you're recovered when your default thought is not how you feel. |
| 0:53.3 | Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 92 entitled, Anxiety Changing the Default Thought. |
| 1:01.6 | My name is Joshua Fletcher, also known as Anxiety Josh, and I'm a psychotherapist who specializes in anxiety and anxiety disorders. |
| 1:09.4 | I'm a previous sufferer, an author on the topic, |
| 1:13.0 | and the co-host of this wonderful podcast. And I am Drew Lin Salata coming to you from New York, |
| 1:19.4 | Long Island, New York, where I'm also a therapist practicing in the specialization of anxiety |
| 1:24.1 | and anxiety disorders, often also a former sufferer for many years also an author and a |
| 1:29.0 | podcaster i just whatever what that guy said just i'm the same as that guy except better looking |
| 1:33.2 | anyway welcome back you're me if you ordered me off wish i'm wish dot com i'm the tv |
| 1:43.2 | like on the photos. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.