Home Podcasts The Anxious Truth - A Panic, Anxiety, and Mental Health Podcast
The Anxious Truth - A Panic, Anxiety, and Mental Health Podcast

The Anxious Truth - A Panic, Anxiety, and Mental Health Podcast

Drew Linsalata 340 Episodes Oct 7, 2026

The Anxious Truth is a podcast dedicated to helping people overcome panic attacks, agoraphobia, and other anxiety disorders. Hosted by Drew Linsalata, it provides education, encouragement, and practical advice for recovery. The podcast has been featured in the New York Times and Vogue Magazine. Listeners can also access books and a social media community for additional support.

Episodes

How To Turn Off Anxious Self-Scanning and Checking | EP 354
How To Turn Off Anxious Self-Scanning and Checking | EP 354 Oct 7, 2026 1756 Send in a question or comment via text."How do I stop scanning and checking myself all the time?" If you struggle with anxiety or OCD, you've probably asked some version of that question. Scanning your body for sensations. Scanning for bad thoughts. Checking whether a thought or emotion is the right one. I get asked how to make it stop almost every day.In this episode I tell you the
Anxiety And The "Almost" Story | Ep 353
Anxiety And The "Almost" Story | Ep 353 Sep 23, 2026 1759 Send in a question or comment via text."I almost passed out.""I almost made a scene.""I almost ruined everything."If you have an anxiety disorder or OCD, you probably recognize that sentence. The word almost shows up constantly, and treating it like a fact is one of the things that keeps the cycle going.In this episode I want to talk about what I call the almost story
Anxiety, OCD and the Cost of Negotiated Avoidance | EP 352
Anxiety, OCD and the Cost of Negotiated Avoidance | EP 352 Sep 9, 2026 1439 Send in a question or comment via text.Every time you give in to an avoidance or a ritual, it seems reasonable. Skip one social event, spend a few extra minutes on a compulsion, take one "me day" instead of pushing through. In isolation, none of it feels like a big deal. What's the harm?That's the trap. Not the individual behaviors themselves, but what happens when you add them
Anxiety and OCD: The Strategy Mismatch Issue | EP 351
Anxiety and OCD: The Strategy Mismatch Issue | EP 351 Aug 26, 2026 1745 Send in a question or comment via text.Anxiety disorders and OCD are what you get when a perfectly functioning brain applies its usual problem-solving strategies to the wrong problem. Your brain is good at solving things. The trouble is it keeps trying to solve something that isn't actually the problem, and that's what keeps you stuck in the loop: trigger, fix, feel better for a while, r
Anxiety and Avoidance Explained | EP 350
Anxiety and Avoidance Explained | EP 350 Aug 12, 2026 1354 Send in a question or comment via text.Anxiety and avoidance go hand in hand, and most people struggling with an anxiety disorder have been told that avoidance makes things worse. But there's a lot of confusion in this community about what avoidance actually means. What are you avoiding? What aren't you avoiding? And why does it feel like letting go of the scary thought is the same as ig
Anxiety Recovery Relapse Prevention  - The Morning Routine | EP 349
Anxiety Recovery Relapse Prevention - The Morning Routine | EP 349 Jul 29, 2026 1989 Send in a question or comment via text.One of the more common mistakes people make as they progress in anxiety disorder recovery is treating recovery as something separate from the rest of their lives. You do the therapy work in one box, and everything else goes in another. That tends to backfire.In this episode I want to introduce the concept of relapse prevention, and I want to do it in the cont
How Do I Stop Obsessing Over ...? | EP 348
How Do I Stop Obsessing Over ...? | EP 348 Jul 15, 2026 1370 Send in a question or comment via text.Everybody wants to know how to stop obsessing over whatever has them scared right now. In this episode I explain why that's the wrong question, and what to ask instead.In OCD and anxiety disorders, an obsession isn't just a strong thought or a passing worry. It functions like a threat. That's why you can't just decide to turn it off. You c
The Truth In Anxiety Recovery. There Are No "Game Changing" Moments | EP 347
The Truth In Anxiety Recovery. There Are No "Game Changing" Moments | EP 347 Jul 1, 2026 1140 Send in a question or comment via text.In my anxiety recovery journey, there were no game-changing moments. No mic drops, no epiphanies, no single concept or technique that suddenly moved me forward. And when I look at the people I've worked with in my therapy practice and the community I've built around this podcast, that's pretty much how it goes for everyone.You're probably
Core Principles of OCD Recovery w/Kimberley Quinlan | EP 346
Core Principles of OCD Recovery w/Kimberley Quinlan | EP 346 Jun 17, 2026 1973 Send in a question or comment via text.In this episode, we are breaking down five core principles of OCD recovery. To help explore this topic, I am joined by Kimberley Quinlan, an anxiety and OCD specialist practicing in Los Angeles and host of the Your Anxiety Toolkit podcast.OCD recovery is often viewed as a rigid list of steps, but it is better understood through specific attributes and ingredi
How Does an Anxiety Therapist NOT Get Triggered? | Ep 345
How Does an Anxiety Therapist NOT Get Triggered? | Ep 345 Jun 3, 2026 1446 Send in a question or comment via text.How Does an Anxiety Therapist Talk About Anxiety All Day Without Getting Triggered?People ask me this constantly. I'm a former sufferer of panic disorder, agoraphobia, OCD, and depression — and now I spend my days immersed in all of it. Therapy clients, podcasts, books, social media. Anxiety is basically my entire professional life. So how does a person
OCD and Acceptance - How Does That Work? | Ep 344
OCD and Acceptance - How Does That Work? | Ep 344 May 20, 2026 2353 Send in a question or comment via text.Many people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) struggle to understand how the concept of acceptance applies to their recovery. While it seems straightforward in the context of panic disorder or health anxiety, where sufferers learn to accept temporary physical sensations, applying acceptance to distressing intrusive thoughts and images can feel confusin
Neuroscience and Therapy w/Ana Lund | Ep 343
Neuroscience and Therapy w/Ana Lund | Ep 343 May 6, 2026 3259 Send in a question or comment via text.This episode of The Anxious Truth dives into the messy intersection of neuroscience and psychotherapy. I’m joined by Ana Lund, a UK-based psychotherapist specializing in the link between brain science and clinical practice, to discuss how we actually use research to help you recover.--Want to discuss what you heard today? I'm hanging out on the Disordere

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