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The Anxious Achiever

The Twisted Comfort of Overthinking with Meredith Arthur

The Anxious Achiever

Morra Aarons-Mele

Business, Careers, Management, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.7 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 16 April 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Is your overthinking actually helping you or draining your energy? In this episode, I talk with Meredith Arthur, Chief of Staff of the Pinterest Innovation Lab, about what it means to live with anxiety you don’t even recognize. Meredith shares how anxiety shows up in unexpected ways, from physical symptoms like migraines to subtle patterns like overworking and lack of boundaries. We talk about what happens when you push through without understanding your internal signals, how overthinking can disguise itself as productivity, and MORE. Tune in to learn how to step out of overthinking loops and build a healthier relationship with your mind. Check out our sponsors: Shopify - Sign up for a $1 per month trial, just go to shopify.com/anxiousachiever Notion - Notion is an AI powered, connected workspace for teams. Try custom agents now at notion.com/achiever In this Episode, You Will Learn 00:00 What does a “recovering overthinker” mean? 03:30 The gap between anxiety that signals something vs. anxiety that doesn’t. 06:40 How communicating about anxiety builds a deeper connection. 10:30 Why saying what people want to hear can pull you away from who you are. 12:30 What rapid career feedback can teach you about your strengths. 16:00 How medication and environment can shape your sense of identity. 20:00 How anxiety showed up as “problem solving” instead of worry. 22:30 What does “energy debt” look like in high achievers? 24:45 Why language around anxiety can make it harder to recognize. 29:00 What would it look like to design better systems for mental health? 30:30 Why your body often knows before your mind does. Resources + Links Learn more about Meredith Arthur HERE! Get a copy of my book - The Anxious Achiever Watch the podcast on YouTube  Find more resources on our website morraam.com Follow Follow me: on LinkedIn @morraaronsmele + Instagram @morraam

Transcript

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0:00.0

Just sign up for your $1.1 a month trial today at Shopify.com slash anxious achiever.

0:05.3

That's Shopify.com slash anxious achiever.

0:12.8

Hi, I'm Maura Aaron's Millie, host of the Anxious Achiever.

0:17.2

Today I'm going to bring you one of our most downloaded and one of my most favorite episodes from our archives.

0:23.6

It's a classic.

0:24.6

The Anxious Achiever has been at it for a long time. We have over 300 episodes.

0:30.6

And honestly, they're all still more relevant than ever.

0:36.6

You may hear details in this episode that remind you it's from

0:42.2

another time, but I guarantee that the advice you get will be as crisp and meaningful and the

0:49.0

stories as resonant as before. If you have a favorite episode of the show, let me know. I'd love to air it again,

0:57.9

or even re-record it for you fresh. Enjoy this classic Anxious Achiever episode.

1:06.7

I would say actually that I'm in recovery. I'm a recovering overthinker.

1:12.6

Before I knew that I actually had generalized anxiety disorder, I was diagnosed at age 40, which is now seven years ago, in the middle of a very intense slew of startups.

1:25.2

But before that, I would proudly describe myself as an overthinker on social

1:30.8

media. Was it because I thought it made me smart? I don't know. I just know that I spent a lot of

1:37.4

time thinking about things and rehashing. And I didn't understand that that was something

1:42.6

that I should work on.

1:46.3

How do you know you're recovering?

1:48.7

I, well, I think it is one of those things like all recovery where you're sort of always in

1:53.9

the state of recovering.

1:55.3

So for me, it's more about noticing now that I'm tuned in, now that I've been given this

2:00.0

knowledge that I've been told this knowledge that I've been

...

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