Owen O'Kane
The Mid•Point with Gabby Logan
The Midpoint
4.3 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2026
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on The Midpoint, we’re joined by psychotherapist, former NHS clinical lead, and bestselling author Owen O’Kane for a powerful conversation about what it really means to take care of your mental health in midlife.
Owen has spent decades helping people navigate anxiety, burnout, grief and the relentless pressure many of us place on ourselves. In this episode, he shares the lessons he’s learned from both the therapy room and his own life — from growing up during the Troubles in Northern Ireland to working in palliative care, where he witnessed firsthand what people value most at the end of life.
Together we explore why midlife can be such a psychologically intense period, how perfectionism and people-pleasing keep us stuck, and why learning to tolerate uncertainty might be the most important skill we can build. Owen also offers practical tools to quiet an overactive mind, manage anxiety, and create a healthier relationship with our thoughts.
It’s an honest, reassuring conversation about letting go of the pressure to have everything figured out — and focusing instead on what actually matters. If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by your own mind, this episode is for you.
For 40% off Owen's course, when it is fully released on 19th March use code: MIDPOINT40 valid until 31st August 2026.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the midpoint. Today we're honing in on anxiety. That's the area my guest |
| 0:10.2 | Owen O'Kane has focused on in his latest book, Addicted to Anxiety. He's a practicing psychotherapist. |
| 0:16.6 | Lewis Capaldi credits him with helping him through a period of crippling anxiety and was a former |
| 0:21.4 | NHS clinical lead. He's a Sunday Times best-selling author and has recently become one of the |
| 0:26.2 | experts on the BBC Maestro platform, which has a series of courses on a range of topics |
| 0:31.3 | taught by world-class experts, and Owen is definitely one of those. So if you do like what he says |
| 0:36.9 | today, you can jump on there |
| 0:38.0 | and maybe dive a little bit deeper into his expertise. Let's go chat to Owen. |
| 0:46.1 | Owen, welcome to the midpoint. Thank you. Lovely to be here. I want to talk specifically |
| 0:51.2 | if it's okay with you about anxiety. That is the topic of your latest bestselling book. |
| 0:56.3 | And what does it mean and how does it feel? |
| 0:59.4 | And do you think it's a term that has become misappropriated at times? |
| 1:04.2 | It's a good place to start because, I mean, look, anxiety's been around as long as we can remember. |
| 1:10.1 | And as long as we've been having conversations around mental well-being. |
| 1:12.6 | Anxiety's always been a conversation that's kind of up there. |
| 1:16.6 | It's something that most people know about. |
| 1:18.6 | However, over the last 10 years, a lot more people are talking about anxiety. |
| 1:23.6 | I think there is a little bit of a danger that we over pathologize it. |
| 1:30.3 | And I think sometimes it's used out of context. |
| 1:34.9 | However, there are times when people do genuinely have a diagnostic. |
| 1:38.0 | Now, I'm going to use the word disorder, which I don't like. |
| 1:40.0 | And I don't think we should use. |
... |
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