Let's talk about anxiety, anxiety disorders, anxiety treatment, science, pseudoscience,

misapplied science, overreaching science, overpromising science, and how when we put all of those

things together, we have a recipe, if not for disaster, at least for possible disappointment

that nobody really wants.

So this week on the anxious truth podcast, we're going to be talking about how to be a little bit more of a critical consumer or a skeptical consumer of what is being portrayed to you as science-based or proved evidence-based treatments or hacks or neurohacks that will take away your anxiety and make you feel better instantly.

Let's get to that right now.

Hello, everybody.

Welcome back to The Anxious Truth. This is episode 334 of the podcast. We are recording in December of 2025, for those of you who are watching or listening from the future. This week we are going to talk about the intersection of anxiety, anxiety disorders, anxiety treatment, and science, and I say that in air quotes, pseudoscience, overreaching, or over-promising science, that we find every day on the internet in an environment where people who are struggling with anxiety can go online all day

long and search for ways to feel better or ways to quickly feel better or cures.

There is just an avalanche of information that all claims to be science or cloaks itself in the word science or we'll say is evidence-based or science-based. And that isn't always true. In fact, it's quite often not true, or at least partially not true, and that matters. So, yeah, we're going to talk about this week. I am Drew Linzalata. I am creator and host of the Anxious Truth podcast. I'm also a therapist that specializes in the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders, practicing in New York. I am a former sufferer of the very problems that we talk about here on the anxious truth, although that is the least important of my qualifications. I am also a four-time author on the topic of anxiety and anxiety recovery, social media guy, a psychoeducator, advocate,

you know the story. This week, we are going to talk with a friend of mine, somebody who I got

connected with via Instagram this year, and I have come to know and trust that is Dr. Bearton

McDonald. Dr. McDonald is a research psychologist and a cognitive neuroscientist. So she spends her time in these topics. And

she's a really great science communicator, science educator. She is really spending most of her time

these days, helping people decipher evidence-based or science-based or science claims online,

especially in the area of mental health, since that's sort of her bellywick. I asked Berta to come on. I trust her, by the way. She's a great ally. She's a very trustworthy source. She's not going to overreach. She's not going to give you garbage. So I asked her to come on and talk about this with us, and she was gracious enough to accept that offer. So we're going to spend about 30 minutes, just chatting about a few different things. We're going to touch on polyvagal theory. We're going to touch on spec scans. We're going to touch on genetic testing for

antidepressants. A few other topics, but just generally the idea is like, hey, be aware that not everything that you see is actually science. So, yeah, let's get to that. But before we do, just a very fast reminder that there are way more resources than just this podcast episode or this YouTube video depending on how you're consuming it. All of the other goodies, and I urge you to take advantage of those, are on my website at theanxioustruth.com. So take a minute, go check out what's there. There are books and workshops. Everything is very low cost or free. Most of it is, in fact, free. All the previous podcast episodes, links to my social

media. So yeah, go check it out at the Anxious Treat.com. People seem to find the stuff helpful. Hopefully you will too. Let us get Berta on. We're going to talk about 30 minutes about this, and I'll come back at the end and wrap it up. Here we go. All righty. As promised, I am joined from, Where are you in the UK right now?

Somewhere in Europe.

Oh, you're in Germany right now.

Okay.

Well, we can say Germany.

...