The Anxiety Toolkit: How to Tolerate Uncertainty with Joshua Fletcher

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2024

⏱️ 72 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anxiety is something we all experience from time to time, and because it’s so common it can be easy to take it lightly. But anxiety dominates the lives of many people, and in this episode psychotherapist Joshua Fletcher joins Forrest for an in-depth exploration of anxiety. They talk about the anxiety cycle, moving away from thinking in terms of a “cure,” and the key target of the “willful tolerance of uncertainty.” Josh also shares insights on exposure therapy, managing self-criticism, and developing greater self-awareness. About our Guest: Joshua Fletcher, also known as Anxiety Josh, is a psychotherapist based in Manchester, UK, and the author of several books, including his newest, "and how does that make you feel?" Joshua also co-hosts the podcast "Disordered," and you may have bumped into his content on Tiktok or Instagram, where he has over a quarter million followers. You can watch this episode on YouTube. Key Topics: 0:00: Introduction 3:30: Josh’s first panic attack 10:15: The vicious cycle of threat monitoring 14:00: The three magic words: “just in case” 20:00: The “willful tolerance of uncertainty” 27:00: Exposure therapy 31:55: Working with self-criticism 41:20: Reward, punishment, and trauma 48:05: Identifying our varied inner voices 52:10: Worried voice, false comfort, and wise mind 54:00: Approaching anxiety as a neurodivergent person 58:10: Healthy disenchantment 1:00:15: Recap I am now writing on Substack, check out my work there. Support the Podcast: We're now on Patreon! If you'd like to support the podcast, follow this link. Sponsors Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at shopify.com/beingwell. Transform your health with the ZOE Science & Nutrition podcast. Find it wherever you listen to podcasts. Trust your gut with Seed’s DS-01 Daily Synbiotic. Go to Seed.com/BEINGWELL and use code 25BEINGWELL to get 25% off your first month. Get 15% off OneSkin with the code BEINGWELL at https://www.oneskin.co/ #oneskinpod Join over a million people using BetterHelp, the world’s largest online counseling platform. Visit betterhelp.com/beingwell for 10% off your first month! Connect with the show: Subscribe on iTunes Follow Forrest on YouTube Follow us on Instagram Follow Forrest on Instagram Follow Rick on Facebook Follow Forrest on Facebook Visit Forrest's website Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to being well. I'm Forrest Tansen. If you're new to the show, thanks for listening today, and if you've listened before,
0:13.4	welcome back. Anxiety is something that we all experience from time to time, and because it's so common,
0:19.0	it can be easy to take it a bit lightly. But the truth is that almost a third of adults will have an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.
0:27.6	And we recently had an episode on social anxiety and today I'm going to be exploring anxiety with a true expert on the subject Joshua Fletcher,
0:34.6	also known online as Anxiety Josh. Josh is a psychotherapist based in Manchester, UK,
0:40.5	and the author of several books including his newest and how does that make you feel.
0:44.6	Joshua also co-hosts the podcast disordered and you may have bumped into his content on
0:49.2	Tik-Toc or Instagram where he has over a quarter million followers.
0:53.6	So Josh, thanks for coming on the show.
0:55.0	How are you doing?
0:55.8	Hey Forrest, yeah, thanks for having me on.
0:57.8	It's been looking forward to this.
1:00.3	I would love to start by just introducing you to people who might be a little bit less familiar with your work and I'm wondering why did you choose to focus on anxiety?
1:08.0	Yes, as a therapist who specializes in anxiety and anxiety disorders I was drawn to it because in my young
1:14.8	20s I was diagnosed with how many is it now four or five anxiety different types of
1:20.7	anxiety. Originally it was generalised anxiety and then it was panic disorder and then it was
1:28.8	obsessive compulsive disorder then a bit of social anxiety.
1:33.0	And basically I was trying to play bingo
1:35.3	with my doctor, and I was trying to go through each diagnosis.
1:39.1	But I think it stopped at four, maybe for,
1:41.7	a bit of depression actually I threw in as well just the top it up.
1:45.2	So you could fill out the whole row you were good to go. Yeah and I got when I was initially quite
	...

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