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Disordered: Anxiety Help

When Anxious People Try to Perfectly Fix ... EVERYTHING (Episode 74)

Disordered: Anxiety Help

Josh Fletcher and Drew Linsalata

Mental Health, Health & Fitness

4.9663 Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2024

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Humans will often make the mistake of trying to apply our analytical and problem solving skills in areas where they do not belong. Anxious people - people struggling with anxiety disorders - do this all the time.


  • Are you trying to fix how you feel?
  • Are you trying to solve your anxiety and figure it out?
  • Are you in the habit of trying to control how you feel, engineering away bad feelings and trying to manufacture only good feelings?
  • Are you always on the lookout for more tools, tips, techniques, and instructions on what's good "for anxiety?"


These are hints that you might be a fixer or a perfectionist or both, and that you might be trying to fix or solve your anxiety .... perfectly. If this is you, tune in to this episode of Disordered for more on the fixing trap and how what seems like a good idea can often backfire and make things worse.

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Disordered Roundtable is coming! Think of it as "Disordered Live", a way for members of our audience to spend time with us in an intimate virtual setting (attendance is limited) to engage in real time sharing and discussion on specific anxiety disorder and recovery topics. To be notified when new Disordered Roundtable sessions are scheduled, ⁠visit our homepage and get on our mailing list⁠.


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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 unsolveable problems.


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/worryrumination⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Want to ask us questions, share your wins, or get more information about Josh, Drew, and the Disordered podcast?


Visit us on the web at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://disordered.fm⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

How do I fix this?

0:02.7

I'm a perfect fixer.

0:04.0

And so I definitely had that mindset when I became really unwell with anxiety.

0:08.4

Well, I fixed everything that's ever been thrown at me.

0:10.8

Why can't I fix this?

0:12.6

My anxiety would make me want to fix things that non-anxious me probably wouldn't like,

0:18.0

but would never think needed to be fixed. But I think it's this mindset and this belief that we are fixers, which, well, is a trap I certainly fell into.

0:27.6

The first step in fixing is finding out why, but why? Why does that happen?

0:31.6

But then you can't figure out why, because you feel this way because you feel this way, generally, in anxiety disorders.

0:43.9

There's a core belief there that we think we're broken. And what's the antithesis of broken or the opposite of broken? It's fixed. What a crazy merry-grad thing you can't get off after a while.

0:49.4

It was exhausting.

0:53.3

Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 74 entitled Perfectly Fixing Everything.

1:00.9

In this episode, Drew and I tell you how to perfectly fix everything because we know as anxious people, that's what you want.

1:09.6

My name's Joshua Fletcher, also known as Anxiety Josh, and I'm a psychotherapist who specializes

1:14.4

in the world of anxiety and in anxiety disorders.

1:18.2

I'm a previous sufferer, podcast co-host, social media prance arounder, an author of the book,

1:26.0

and how does that make you feel?

1:28.0

And I am Drew Linsalada, the other co-host of Disordered, also a social media

1:32.9

prancer arounder.

1:34.1

That's the best title ever.

1:35.7

But I'm a practicing therapist under supervision specializing in anxiety and anxiety disorders

1:41.2

in the U.S. and all the other stuff that Josh had to.

...

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