Same Time Next Week - Anxiety Recovery in the "Gaps" (Episode 150)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 665 Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Want to talk about what you heard today? Check out the Disordered Community space:
https://disordered.fm/community
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In this milestone episode of Disordered, we discuss the concepts in Josh's upcoming book. The conversation focuses on the gaps in anxiety recovery and the modern hurdles that prevent people from effectively practicing desensitization.
They break down how the obsession with "optimization" and the "wellness brosphere" often becomes a distraction from the actual work of recovery. Using case studies from the book, they examine the different ways people try to avoid vulnerability by using hacks or curated identities.
CASE STUDIES:
Magnus: A young man with agoraphobia who tries to "alpha" his way out of his annex. He relies on supplements and wellness protocols rather than facing the fear directly.
Lia Su: A wellness influencer who hides severe OCD behind a perfect online persona. Her story explores how making mental health an identity can lead to more avoidance.
Ruben Kane: A retired boxer dealing with gambling issues and the shame of no longer feeling like the tough guy. His story looks at how anxiety can infiltrate a singular identity.
Miriam: A student therapist learning to navigate imposter syndrome. Josh and Drew discuss why self doubt is actually a valuable tool for growth and curiosity.
CORE CONCEPTS
Delayed Gratification: This explores the struggle to be patient in a world where everything else is instant.
Vulnerability: Recovery involves moving away from fixing or regulating and moving toward being okay with being afraid.
The Gaps: This involves identifying the subtle things we do that keep us stuck in the anxiety cycle.
Real Fear vs Real Danger: This episode emphasizes that while the fear you feel is real, you are not in actual danger.
Psychological Flexibility: You benefit more from learning to be with difficult internal experiences like anxiety and fear rather than trying to control or prevent them.
Gradual Progress: Recovery is about taking small, practical steps rather than looking for a magic solution.
BOOK INFORMATION
Josh’s new book, Same Time Next Week, is available for pre order. If you pre order before May 14th, you can receive an exclusive ebook on intrusive thoughts and a morning anxiety audio guide.
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The Disordered Guide to Health Anxiety is now available. If you're struggling with health anxiety, this book is for you.
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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.
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Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast? Send us an email or leave a voicemail on our website.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Magnus has been locked in his annex for two years. He discovers the wellness optimization |
| 0:08.6 | brosphere. So he's trying to get out of his annex by maxing his way out of it. He refuses |
| 0:15.4 | to see vulnerability is okay. Magnus would try to do the things that his new therapist Josh |
| 0:20.7 | asks him to do without actually |
| 0:22.5 | being afraid. |
| 0:23.6 | And Leosu is someone who hides their anxiety. |
| 0:27.4 | The use of social media, AI chatbots, has become her go-to compulsion thing. |
| 0:33.1 | Built her identity on being the person who will find the correct wellness and holistic protocol to |
| 0:38.5 | fix how you feel. Now she has to learn to not fix how she feels. |
| 0:42.3 | When you're bombarded with algorithmic sloth, that's kind of what constructs your identity, |
| 0:47.2 | and that's why a lot of youngsters have got to deal with now as well. |
| 0:53.5 | Welcome to Disorder. This is episode 150 entitled Same Time Next Week for Anxious Case Studies. |
| 1:01.2 | My name is Joshua Fletcher, also known as Anxiety Josh, and I'm a psychotherapist, author who specializes in anxiety and anxiety disorders. |
| 1:09.9 | I write books on the topic, one of which I'll be talking about today. |
| 1:13.2 | And my favorite time of the week is often recording this podcast with my wonderful co-host, |
| 1:18.3 | who is Drew Lin Salata in New York, also a therapist that specializes in treating anxiety |
| 1:23.8 | and anxiety disorders, also a former sufferer of these things, an author myself, someone sometimes co-author with this other guy with the other microphone. And what else? Psychoeducator, advocate, you know, podcaster, all that stuff. And yeah, this is always so fun. Like lately we've been doing them live in our little community app and like we got a nice little audience watching us record today. So it's going to be be good what are we talking about today uh we're |
| 1:45.8 | going to talk about same time next week this is one of my projects that i've been working on for several |
| 1:50.3 | years now before i do talk about that actually someone who i know and work with has um been reading 7 |
| 1:56.0 | percent slower and it's really helping them and for someone who you know in a, in a day and age, didn't like compassion. I thought 7% slower out was actually a very compassionate book. So, yeah, thank you. It is. It's like indirect compassion. Kind of go easy. I appreciate how you, like, slid in a plug from one of my books before we talk about your book? Well, no, it was just something that |
| 2:17.5 | happened that happened. It was just something that happened. I'm like, screw you. But there |
| 2:22.3 | we go. All right. So same time next week. Yeah, same time next week. Really excited for it. But I wanted |
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