Existential Anxiety! (Episode 99)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 663 Ratings
🗓️ 14 February 2025
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What is existence? What is the point of all this? Do I even really exist? The universe is so insanely huge! What even is time? What happens when we die?
These are questions all humans ask - and have been asking since we developed language. They are normal. They can even be fun questions to ask. An entire section of the human race dedicates itself to studying and pondering these questions.
But for people struggling with OCD and other anxiety disorders ... these questions can be huge triggers that create an intense state of anxiety and dread.
This week Drew and Josh are examining existential anxiety and dread within the context of anxiety and anxiety disorders. So if you are afraid to look at the sky because it makes you worry about your place in the universe, or if you ever worry about the nature of time or existence, pop in and have a listen.
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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 unsolvable problems.
https://bit.ly/worryrumination
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we're talking about existential anxiety. |
| 0:04.5 | Interesting questions and things I reflect on now and then, but I have done it in the midst of an anxiety disorder and in the midst of an OCD cycle. |
| 0:13.3 | That's when it's not fun. |
| 0:15.3 | What does OCD and anxiety disorder want you to do? |
| 0:17.9 | Solve, fix, get 100% certainty. |
| 0:20.6 | We have an entire department of people. What's the meaning of life? Philosophers, theologians, who've been at this thousands of years since we developed language. What is consciousness? Who are we? Who am I as a person? And we do not know the answers. We're never going to know the answers. What is time? But no, Drew's anxious mind was going to figure it out by reading another book nothing wrong with those thoughts if you're thinking and going down that rabbit |
| 0:42.6 | hole whilst triggered you will end up nowhere welcome to disorder this is episode 99 of the podcast. Today we're talking about |
| 0:57.1 | existential anxiety, which is always fun. And it's episode 99, which means we got 99 problems, |
| 1:03.2 | but existential dread isn't one of them, just saying. Yay. Josh, all excited. I am Drew |
| 1:09.8 | Insalada. I am a therapist practicing under supervision in the state of New York, specializing |
| 1:13.9 | the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders. |
| 1:16.2 | Also a three-time author on this topic, social media dude, podcast co-host, advocate, former |
| 1:21.4 | sufferer, but doing better now, and always happy to be back on the mic every Friday with |
| 1:26.1 | my buddy from the UK, and that would be. |
| 1:28.7 | I'm Joshua Fletcher, also known as Anxiety Josh, a previous sufferer of lots of existential thoughts |
| 1:35.3 | and DPDR and all that stuff. |
| 1:38.1 | I'm an anxiety therapist, author, and Instagram,ance are around her |
| 1:44.9 | and also TikTok now |
| 1:47.0 | one of my TikTok videos |
| 1:48.3 | went a bit mad |
| 1:50.3 | which is kind of cool |
| 1:51.3 | I write for psychology |
... |
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