Is Anxiety Recovery About Healing ... Or Learning? (Episode 42)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 665 Ratings
🗓️ 29 December 2023
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Healing" is a VERY popular word in self-help, mental health, and wellness circles. For many, this word resonates. For our friends struggling to overcome chronic and disordered anxiety, it can sure feel like there's healing to do.
But what if recovery wasn't all about healing? What if there was as much learning as there is healing in the process? Or what if the healing part doesn't always look the way you think healing looks and feels?
This week Josh and Drew are deconstructing the idea of "healing" in anxiety recovery. Are we saying that healing isn't a thing? Of course not! Everyone gets to pick the syntax and the words that resonate most for them. Surely there is some healing happening in some way. But when healing fuels and drives compulsive or ritualized recovery, or drives one into an endless loop of demanding to feel "properly healed", things can go off the rails quickly. This episode is designed to make you think a bit about the roles of healing and learning in recovery, and how you might be glued to words that aren't always serving you well.
As always, a healthy dose of flexibility and patience is required as part of this discussion and as part of the recovery process as a whole. Never forget that these questions can be confusing, there isn't always a definite answer to be had, and in the absence of patience and self-compassion this kind of thing can accidentally make you feel like you're doing it wrong or that you have to work harder to achieve "perfect" recovery. Beware of that trap at all times!
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Disclaimer: Disordered is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to Disordered does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the hosts of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, when you have questions about your well-being, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi guys, I have a question for you regarding healing. I really want, like, from your experience |
| 0:07.6 | with the clients that you worked with and other people, and maybe from your own experience |
| 0:11.9 | with anxiety disorders as well, what does healing look like? How does it look like? |
| 0:17.5 | Lately, I have been feeling like there is this, like like two versions of me in my head. |
| 0:22.7 | There's like the old version of me who's afraid of everything, who's always in the comfort zone, |
| 0:27.0 | that tells me to not do things and to stay at home and not go out and not go to the gym and everything. |
| 0:34.1 | There's this new version that is not like the old version, the new version that is |
| 0:38.7 | motivated, the new version that I have been kind of like building for the past few months. And I was |
| 0:45.9 | just wondering if this is what healing looks like? Is this like the new version of me, the new neural |
| 0:50.9 | pathways that I have been creating with a new behavior in my head for the past few |
| 0:56.7 | months. And it's like a transitional state. Is this what healing looks like? Or are there other forms |
| 1:03.6 | of healing? Or what do you guys think? Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 42 entitled Healing or Learning. My name is Joshua |
| 1:18.6 | Fletcher and I'm a psychotherapist based in Manchester in the UK, a previous suffer of several |
| 1:25.5 | anxiety disorders and I'm an author and podcast host. |
| 1:30.9 | And I am Drew Lin-Salada. I am an end stage graduate student. Finally, a therapist in training, |
| 1:36.2 | specializing of anxiety disorders in the U.S. Same gig as Josh, an author, a podcaster, |
| 1:41.2 | and a former sufferer of anxiety and depression for many years in my life. |
| 1:45.3 | Today we're on episode 42, healing or learning. |
| 1:47.4 | What are we going to talk about today? |
| 1:48.8 | Great question. |
| 1:50.6 | Submitted by one of our listeners on disordered.fm, if you would like to leave us some voice note or send us an email, you can do so at disorder.com. |
| 2:00.2 | Or if you want to share some Did It Anyway wins, |
... |
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