Dating With an Anxiety Disorder (Episode 80)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 665 Ratings
🗓️ 4 October 2024
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"I want to get back into dating but I'm still struggling with anxiety. What should I do?"
"It's been going well with this new person and I'm afraid to tell them about my anxiety problem. Any tips?"
"Do I need to recover fully before I start dating again?"
"What if I start to like this person then then drop me because of my anxiety?"
This week on Disordered we're examining the topic of dating ... with an anxiety disorder. Life doesn't stop because you are struggling with panic disorder or OCD or some other form of chronic or disordered anxiety. Anxious people also value connection, companionship, and intimacy. So how can you approach dating and building new intimate relationships while you're still in the thick of an anxiety problem and/or working on recovery?
Two guys that know very little about dating ... but a whole lot about anxiety disorders ... are here to provide some insight on what it might look like when dating and anxiety disorders collide. The usual "rules" will still apply in this context, but we're also looking at sources of shame or negative self-image outside of anxiety, cognitive distortions and catastrophic thinking that can sabotage dating and new relationships, and why even non-anxious people struggle when looking for romantic partners.
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Disordered Roundtable is coming! 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.
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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
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Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast?
Visit us on the web at https://disordered.fm
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I've just started listening to the podcast and it's really helped me. I have panic disorder |
| 0:10.6 | and I get quite intense panic attacks that kind of knocked me out for a couple of days. I end up |
| 0:17.1 | taking a lot of time out of work. I had three years with, I want to say, no anxiety, |
| 0:24.2 | and then it kind of reared its ugly head in the last couple of months, |
| 0:30.6 | which has actually fallen into me getting to know someone new. |
| 0:35.9 | So I haven't been dating um with anxiety and now like I'm at quite a good |
| 0:43.0 | place with this person and like he's really lovely and during this quote unquote getting to know each other |
| 0:50.1 | dating the anxiety has got a bit worse and I'm not sure how to approach it because it's things |
| 0:57.7 | like he wants me to meet his friends and his family, but that's like territory I've not crossed |
| 1:04.2 | with anxiety and I'm putting it off because I don't want to embarrass myself. I want to make a good impression. |
| 1:12.0 | And I don't know. |
| 1:14.2 | Any tips would be fantastic on dating with anxiety or with panic disorder. |
| 1:22.4 | Yeah. |
| 1:30.8 | Dateline with Drew and Josh. |
| 1:36.7 | All of your dating advice from two people who know nothing about the subject. |
| 1:39.4 | Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 80 entitled Dating with an Anxiety Disorder. I'm Joshua Fletcher, also known as |
| 1:47.0 | Anxiety Josh, and I'm a psychotherapist who specializes in anxiety and anxiety disorders. |
| 1:53.0 | I'm a previous sufferer, author, podcast host, and Instagram Prancer Arounder, |
| 1:59.6 | providing all sorts of information on the topic. |
| 2:03.4 | And I am Drew Lin Salata. I am a therapist practicing under supervision in New York in the |
| 2:08.4 | USA, also specializing the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders. Also a former sufferer of these |
| 2:14.2 | problems for many years of my life on and off, better now, three-time author, |
... |
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