Changing Your Reaction To Anxiety, Panic and Fear - LIVE Reading and Discussion

Let's do a live reading and discussion of chapter 3.6 of my upcoming book. Learning to change your reaction to anxiety, panic, and fear is the lynchpin of successful recovery. Join us on Facebook or KZbin and join the discussion.

[@dragonfly1126]

Outstanding. I just booked a 3 day trip to see my children and grandchildren in a month. I have not been to see them in 10 years. I turned 60 today. Enough is enough. I want to see my family. This practice will be helpful, great timing. I bought your book some time ago, but forgot. I will be re listening to it on my kindle. Thanks Drew.

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

Go get it! :-)

[@angelamartin7885]

I started today, not to argue with my thoughts and every time I had a false alarm, I didn't react to my symptoms. Fear is imaginary. Nothing ever happens during a attack. Our reactions to these false alarms are keeping them around. The more we react, the more the amygdala sends us more adrenaline to run. Instead of getting up and doing compulsions to try and get it to go away, just continue in what you're doing. This is how to retrain the brain. The amygdala only knows emotions and images. The frontal cortex sends signals to your amygdala. They wired together. The more you relax and let the false alarms pass, in time the cortex will stop sending signals the amygdala that it doesn't need to fire and your nervous system will heal.

[@BernerVRshow]

👍👍👍

[@kevinbuff4684]

How are you doing now

[@paulwangler]

Something thats helpful for me is viewing the anxious thoughts as just more energy thats trying to escape my body. Let them pass!

[@arel0883]

Two weeks ago, I had to drive on the highway LIE for 1:20 minutes. I was already anxious about the anxiety. True enough, I had several panic attacks. My throat was tight, mouth dry and whole body felt like my blood just drained and I felt Ice cold. I wanted so much to stop on the road side but I didn’t want to, thinking that it would just make the attacks worst as Id be giving myself the chance to focus on it.. so I drove.. and I did it!!! It was scary but in the end, it felt like a victory! However, I didn’t see it that way until I watched this video. Thanks Drew!! #Theanxioustruth

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

You did it!!! I'm sorry it took me so long to see this comment but I'm glad I did. Great job!!! :-)

[@pjprevite3021]

How's it going

[@manchester8143]

Wow thats great

[@pattyboucetta1897]

Found this exactly when I needed it! Thank you. I had a few skipped heartbeats and those made me feel so weird and uncomfortable and I immediately reacted: Asked my daughter to take over driving, kept sipping cold water, took an HTP....then I looked up your videoes and found this one. I realized my reaction was 100% wrong! Now I know..... Thank you! 🙏🏼🙏🏼❤️❤️

[@hodig3286]

Amazing explanation. No one ever done as clear and as informative as you! Thank you. I'm gonna get both audio and paper version ❤

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

I hope you find it helpful, and thank you for the kind words. :-)

[@BernerVRshow]

I so mutch agree. No one does explain this as clear and informative as Drew😀 Yes it is amazing🙏😀 I had almost lost hope and then I found Drew. I am slowly doing more and more. I did not know what to do when exposing. Now I do. And I feel normal. I am so thankful. I have a long way still mabe - but now I know how to do this.

[@minnesota7010]

Great info from the book great detail. I hope your book does well. Ordered the book🤠

[@cloudterrace1927]

This is gold. I've pre-ordered your book. You channel should be bigger. There's really nothing like this on KZbin.

[@pattyboucetta1897]

There is another channel that has helped me tremendously. I hope Drew doesn’t see this as competition!! Dennis Simsek, The Anxiety Guy, is also awesome. Always good to see different teachings and perspectives!

[@BlakeDrivesIndiana]

This is pure genius.

[@BernerVRshow]

Yes it is😂👏👏👏 I so mutch agree😍

[@BernerVRshow]

Yes it is❤

[@BernerVRshow]

This video is really great👏👏👏

[@kerryevans5892]

Hello glad I stumbled across you

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

Welcome Kerry! :-)

[@Moneypenny1960]

Thank you 😊

[@knightwizaed6921]

Ordered the book..

[@Moneypenny1960]

What if your event is happening all day was an excellent question. Like at work...just ‘don’t engage’ all day long. Right? Right. I hadn’t picked up on that 🤦‍♀️

[@lukeclaydon6670]

Great 👍

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

Thank you 👍

[@sherry8541]

Awesome

[@pennymarsh1794]

I have the kindle version. Are you going to do an audible book? I tend to do better with audible books now that I'm older. I have trouble daydreaming when I read books now!

[@lukeclaydon6670]

Great what about performance anxiety and ideas. Like anxiety before sleep

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

If you search my channel for "sleep" you'll see quite a few episodes about sleep related anxiety. You might find that helpful. :-)

[@TheBelle46]

Drew c@n I get the book on Audible?

[@nicolecorbin8216]

By putting your attention on the present and not on what scares you isn't suppressing the thought? Is there something we should do with the thought/fear first? And then focus on the present?

[@christianpayaalonso1264]

Good question. No, it's not supressing the thought. You have to allow the thought to be there without engaging with it. The thought is just an imaginary idea (usually if you're anxious it's about a catastrophic outcome). It's not based in reality. You put your attention on the present to bring your nervous system back to reality instead of making it freak out about something that isn't going to happen.

[@nicolecorbin8216]

@@christianpayaalonso1264 thank you!

[@austintone]

Regarding the amygdala not hearing words…Doesn’t the amygdala react to anxious thoughts, which are words? When I have anxious, fearful thoughts about not sleeping on a given night, isn’t that what triggers the amygdala to go into fight or flight mode, which in turn prevents any chance of sleeping that night?

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

Where do you think those "anxious thoughts" come from? People without a fear center in overdrive have thoughts too but they do not classify them as fearful or they just don't regularly have thoughts of that nature at all. It can be a chicken and egg argument but no, thoughts are not words in this context. And even if they were, consider the one-way street scenario. The words can trigger, but not eradicate. In your point of view you're seeing that in action.

[@austintone]

@@TheAnxiousTruth So, if I understand correctly, it's the fear center in overdrive that causes anxious thoughts (in my case, about not sleeping)? And anxious thoughts can also trigger the fear center, but cannot "eradicate"--do you mean can't eradicate the fear? How did my fear center get into overdrive? I really want to understand because apparently my dread and fear of not sleeping, at least according to those who define chronic insomnia, is causing extreme sleeplessness and making me to feel totally trapped (the more I want and need sleep, the less I sleep) and despairing. Thank you so much for your reply above.

[@amberg4775]

@@austintoneI saw anxietyjosh talk about this exact issue with someone else and he said if you have this fear of not being able to sleep, make yourself stay up. Tell yourself you don’t want to go to sleep and that you want to stay up all night. Pretty soon your body will do the opposite. Just like when all you want to do is sleep and you can’t fall asleep… body does the opposite!

[@austintone]

@@amberg4775 If I tell myself, "I want to stay up all night" , it will be a total lie. The truth is I DO want to sleep, especially after months of very little sleep. The truth of wanting to sleep, like the truth of wanting to eat only gets stronger after extreme deprivation. Does your brain believe lies that you tell yourself? I don't thinks so. I've tried many times what they call "paradoxical intention", which is the same idea. You keep your eyes open and say "I just want to stay awake for another minute", and then another, and so on, and on and on... What happens when I do that is eventually I lose the focus. I've never even come close to falling asleep using that method, even after doing it for a long periods. It just becomes frustrating and annoying--not sleep-inducing. Believe me, I wish telling myself the opposite of what is true would help.

[@pattyboucetta1897]

How can we just do nothing if we get skipped heartbeats on and off. It’s impossible to ignore.

[@angelamartin7885]

You will feel the heartbeats, but you don't react to it. Don't get hyped up. Just let it do its thing. I'm doing now. You will have attacks for a while because the brain is wired to react. We tend to open up fear pathways in our brain, so the brain interrupts everything as a danger. Worry is also a fear. Stop worrying about your condition. Overtime, the brain will stop firing and you won't have those skipped heartbeats.

[@pattyboucetta1897]

@@angelamartin7885 Thank you 🙏🏼

[@austintone]

Since fear and dread of not sleeping is categorically different from other fears, I wonder if you would do a podcast devoted to that fear specifically? Unlike other fears, the fear and anxiety around sleep is itself the CAUSE of the feared condition, namely sleeplessness. The inability to sleep leads to more fear and dread of the next day, leading to more hyper-arousal at bedtime, leading to more sleeplessness, and the next night and the next, more fear--an endless vicious circle . If you have fearful thoughts and emotions about flying, that does not cause a plane to crash. If you fear clowns, that does cause a horde of clowns to show up ready to attack you. If you fear heights, that does not cause you to go to the top of a mountain and jump off. In all those cases, the fears may cause you to avoid those situations, and that may be bad, but the fear itself does not cause your worst fear to come true. ...Very different with fear of not sleeping. What we fear almost always manifests (unless we have not slept for days). It's also important to note that facing what we fear, which we have no choice but to do (we have to go through another day on no sleep whether we want to or not) does not cause our fears to diminish. It causes them to increase. Even if a particular day goes OK, over time chronic insomnia is miserable and debilitating. Over time our dread remains as strong as it would if facing slow starvation -- yet another day on little or no food would only cause more fear of not eating.

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

Go to my website and search "sleep". I've done a few episodes on sleep anxiety. Check the episode with Daniel Erichsen that addresses your exact fear. Which, BTW, is not "categorically different" from other fears. Its just the thing you think is most important. Everyone thinks their scariest thing is special and different. You're not alone in that!

[@austintone]

@@TheAnxiousTruth OK, thanks. However, I’m not at all saying my fear is more important than someone else’s fear. Sorry you interpreted that way. I’m saying that the fear of a sleepless night and the malaise that follows the next day CAUSES the sleepless night itself to manifest, and, as a result of that, more fear arises, causing a vicious circle. Quicksand is a good analogy. In that way, it’s different from other fears. That’s all I said. Sorry you can’t see that.

[@danabare7061]

​@@austintoneit's not different. Our fears CAUSE the condition. We aren't really afraid of a plane crash.....we are afraid of panicking on the plane and our brain tells us the plane is going to crash in order to CAUSE the panic. Your brain will 100% try to cause whatever it is you fear because it thinks that's how you will be protected. You have to do what we do and just let the no sleep happen and relax into it.

[@paulwangler]

I advise you stop calling it fear and call it worry. You are worrying about not sleeping. Notice that you're worrying, stomp it out. Rinse and repeat

[@austintone]

@@danabare7061 Nope. I really dread not sleeping because the next day is debilitating. This is especially true after many months of very poor and limited sleep (if any at all). Others may fear their own fear (of flying, or germs, or whatever), but they don’t need to worry that their fear will actually cause the adverse event (such as a plane crash) to happen. That is the difference. I’m sorry you can’t see that, but you are clearly not understanding the dynamics of insomnia, in which the fear or dread of not sleeping actually causes sleeplessness. It’s categorically different from most other fears.

[@GodlessPhilosopher]

I disagree with you, Drew. I think the driving pun was, in fact, intended.

[@TheAnxiousTruth]

OK this make me LOL for real. :-)