Hello, dear listener and welcome back to Owning at the Anxiety Podcast. I'm Caroline Forrin, author of

everything I wish I'd known about anxiety, which is my brand new book, Out Now, wherever you

get your books, and the audiobook is coming soon. Today's episode is a really important one because

I'm joined by Dr. David Clark, one of the world's leading experts in anxiety disorders and cognitive

behavioural therapy.

A lot of what we talk about in this conversation centers around intrusive thoughts, help anxiety,

and the reassurance seeking trap that so many anxious people find themselves caught in,

whether that's googling symptoms, repeatedly checking, asking people for certainty,

or mentally trying to solve anxiety. We explore why

those behaviours make sense, why they can become so compulsive and paradoxically how they often keep

anxiety going. Dr. Clark's work has helped shape modern evidence-based treatments for anxiety disorders

and what I love about this conversation is how practical and compassionate it is. If you've

ever felt tormented by intrusive thoughts or stuck in loops of overthinking and reassurance seeking,

I think this episode will really help you feel understood. As always, if you enjoy the podcast,

don't forget to follow, rate and share it with somebody who might need it. And as always,

your support with the book means the world to me. Here is my conversation with Dr. David Clark. David, I'm so glad to have

you on owning it the Anxiety podcast. Thank you for being here. Well, thank you for the invitation.

It's great to be here. What I appreciate so much about your work and your expertise is that it

gives people language for experiences

that often feel they feel confused by or maybe even ashamed of so like intrusive thoughts

mental checking reassurance seeking from those were closest to or those were not and it reframes

them as understandable responses and like signals from our body as opposed

...