The Truth About Crazy Anxiety Cures (Episode 141)
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata
4.9 • 665 Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2026
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Drew and Josh discuss the world of anxiety cures and the "miracle" solutions often marketed to those struggling with panic, OCD, and health anxiety. They share personal stories of the various methods they tried during their own recoveries and explain why many popular trends fail to provide long-term relief.
The Magnetism of the Miracle Cure: Why we are drawn to supplements like magnesium or specialized "breathing devices" when we are desperate to feel better.
Control vs. Acceptance: How many anxiety cures are actually just hidden control strategies that prevent true psychological flexibility.
The Reality of "Natural" Supplements: A look at the laxative effects of magnesium and the empty promises of "science-based" miracle powders.
The "Secret" Rituals: Why techniques like EFT tapping or specialized humming might feel helpful in the moment but often reinforce the idea that anxiety is a danger to be managed.
The Risks of "Gurus" and Online Cults: How to identify predatory marketing and why a "lived experience" qualification does not replace professional, evidence-based training.
The guys break down why the search for an external fix often leads to more discouragement. They discuss how true recovery is found in learning to tolerate and be with difficult internal experiences rather than trying to engineer them away with bracelets, essential oils, or "secret" techniques.
If a solution is marketed as a "miracle" or "what nobody tells you," be cautious.
Recovery is an internal process of building distress tolerance, not an external process of finding the right product.
Support people are there to cheer you on through the fear, not to keep you "safe" from a feeling.
About Disordered: Drew Linsalata and Joshua Fletcher are therapists and authors who have both recovered from severe anxiety disorders. They use evidence-based principles from ACT, CBT, and mindfulness to help you navigate your recovery journey without the empty promises of "magic" cures.
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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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Want a way to ask questions about this episode or interact with other Disordered listeners? The Disordered app is nearing release! Visit our home page and get on our mailing list for more information..
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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.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today we're going to talk about crazy anxiety cures, all the stuff that people have tried to fix their anxiety. What we believe to be the silly things in the wellness sphere. People being led down a path where they are promised that something is going to fix them. And then it doesn't because it was never going to fix them. And then they get more and more discouraged. Like nothing works for me. I'm screwed. I'm never going to get better. You just want anything to feel better, whether it's for yourself, for loved ones, for your family, stuff |
| 0:24.9 | like that. The miracle of magnesium. Then I would put the magnesium powder in it, and I would |
| 0:29.6 | force myself to choke down this god-awful hot beverage every day, and I would panic all day anyway. |
| 0:36.5 | I reduced my compulsion to one compulsion, |
| 0:38.9 | my tapping ritual. I'm in the middle of Anandos looking like someone from karate kid three. |
| 0:44.1 | Like what? You know, doing all this stuff. I'm like, dude, just just willfully tolerate it, man. |
| 0:48.7 | I'll just talk to your friends. Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 141. Today we're going to talk about crazy anxiety cures. And when we say crazy, we mean crazy. All the stuff that people have tried to fix their anxiety. And some of the stories are pretty funny. So we're going to go through that. I am Drew Linzalata, one half of Disordered. I am a therapist that specializes in the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders, practicing in New York. I'm also a former sufferer of the things we talk about in this podcast, the three, four-time author. Sorry, we get a new book out. And a psychoeducator, advocate, guy with microphones, social media dude. And yeah, about to have one of my favorite hours of the week recording with i'm joshio fletcher |
| 1:30.2 | also known as anxiety josh i'm a psychotherapist who specializes in the world of anxiety and anxiety |
| 1:35.8 | disorders and based in Manchester in the UK and a previous sufferer um full disclaimer we've actually |
| 1:42.7 | been talking nonsense for like a whole hour before we even |
| 1:46.3 | press record. So yeah, I'm looking forward to doing this today because I think it's an important |
| 1:50.4 | subject and we're going to do it professionally. Yep. And with some integrity. Yeah. Before we get |
| 1:56.3 | into it, here is a, we'll do it anyway before we get into it. But one of our, that we share as a therapist, ethical practice is autonomy is so important |
| 2:06.6 | to us, your autonomy. |
| 2:08.2 | So we may touch on things that we will call crazy anxiety cures. |
| 2:12.0 | If you think it's not crazy and you have gotten some benefit from something we talk about |
| 2:15.4 | today, I'm a fan. |
| 2:16.8 | Then go with it, |
| 2:22.3 | right? So we're not here to like, you know, poo poo on anybody's beliefs, but if you feel like something is helping you, okay. That's very diplomatic of you. I'm more of the, |
| 2:30.4 | you need to get the credit for anxiety passing. I'm with you and that 100%. |
| 2:35.0 | And if anything other than you, which you deserve, you deserve that credit. |
| 2:39.0 | You deserve it all. You are the coping technique. |
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