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This episode with sustainability expert Jo Linehan explores overconsumption as a quiet anxiety loop. We're examining the way constant wanting, trend cycles, and ‘buy it now’ urgency can keep our nervous systems on edge and what to do about it in a realistic way. This is a vulnerability factor that contributes to anxiety that most of us are unaware of. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join me for a quick solo episode that asks the questions you may be overlooking that help you map out exactly why you might be suffering from anxiety. Not because you need to answer everything perfectly, but so that you can become curious about the layering of vulnerability factors that may be at play for you personally. Here we are exploring the factors not in your nature but in your immediate environment that give rise to anxiety. This is to help you understand how anxiety may make more sense for you than you've given yourself credit for. Extract from my new book Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety, out now on audiobook and in book shops. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Here I’m joined by Dr David Clark, one of the world’s leading experts in anxiety disorders and cognitive behavioural therapy. This episode centres around intrusive thoughts, health anxiety, and the reassurance-seeking trap that so many anxious people find themselves caught in. We explore why those behaviours make sense and why they can become so compulsive. Dr Clark’s work has helped shape modern evidence-based treatments for anxiety disorders. If you’ve ever felt tormented by intrusive thoughts or stuck in loops of overthinking and reassurance-seeking, this episode is for you. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For the longest time we were told our 5 year old son was suffering with severe anxiety. Turns out he fits the PDA profile which is a nervous system disability and a neurotype of its own within autism. Treating it as just anxiety never helped, but anxiety is absolutely part of it when a sensitive nervous system is set to be more reactive, requiring more control and autonomy in order to feel safe. How can we recognise PDA? What is the difference between anxiety and PDA? What is it like for the parent of a PDA child to navigate that? I'm joined by the wonderful Dr Casey Ehrlichs of @AtPeaceParents, a resource without which I would be totally lost on my parenting journey, who helps us better understand PDA, how it's characterised and precisely what a PDA nervous system needs. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode I am joined by GQ Jordan to talk about nutrition. Not just the foods we should ease off when we are anxious, or eat more of to support our mental health and nervous system but the cultural noise around nutrition, all or nothing extreme advice and label-related anxiety. Is our health anxiety worsening because we have too much information? Is the information we are receiving blown out of proportion for clickbait reasons? Are we becoming more worried about our nutrition than we need to be? It's all in this episode and GQ calmly takes us right back to basics. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Solo episode this week to take pause as the book launches. In this reflective episode I revisit the anxiety that punctuated my life since childhood, compare how it was when it was all consuming to how it can appear these days, what it really means to overcome anxiety and why having a hard time now in this chapter of parenting does not mean I undo any of how far I have come with myself. Please please please treat either yourself or someone you love to the new book, out now, linked below. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another excellent expert episode this week with neuroscientist and psychiatrist Dr Chad Sylvester who specialises in anxiety and comes with a wealth of information as a practitioner but also as a researcher. Here we look deep into the brain state that shapes anxiety, the patterns and sequences that make it harder to move away from and the surprising insights learned from babies as young as a few hours old and what we can learn about anxiety throughout life. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr Brennan Spiegel, a physician, researcher and author whose work sits at the intersection of the brain, the body and lived experience. Together, we explore why anxiety so often shows up physically, why being told “it’s just anxiety” can feel dismissive rather than reassuring, and how the mind and body are far more interconnected than we’ve been taught. Brennan introduces ideas like mental gravity, interoception and the brain–gut connection, and explains how approaches like virtual reality are being used to treat anxiety, pain and chronic symptoms. This is a validating, perspective-shifting conversation for anyone who has ever felt unheard in a doctor’s office or confused by physical anxiety symptoms.  Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This one's for the parents. In this episode, I’m joined by Dr Naomi Fisher, a clinical psychologist and author known for her work on anxiety, trauma, demand avoidance and nervous-system-led parenting. I adored her books 'When the naughty step makes things worse' and 'A different way to learn'. We talk about why so many traditional parenting approaches — rewards, consequences, charts and pressure — can backfire for anxious and demand-avoidant children, and what it actually means when a child can’t do something, rather than won’t. Naomi explains how anxiety shows up as resistance, shutdown or control, why reducing demands can be regulating rather than permissive, and how parents can shift from power struggles to partnership. This is a deeply validating conversation for anyone parenting a child who experiences everyday life as overwhelming — and for parents who are tired of being told to try harder when things already feel hard enough. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this particularly helpful episode, I’m joined by Louise Thompson, a career coach who specialises in helping people navigate confidence, leadership and anxiety in the workplace. It's one of the most practical episodes I've done. It's not about when work is causing anxiety, but what to do when you still have to go to work but your anxiety or mental health is getting in the way. Together, we talk about why work is such a pressure point for anxiety, and how to bring more of your human self to work without feeling like you’re compromising your professionalism. We get into the very real fear of being vulnerable at work, how to judge who feels safe to talk to, and how to frame conversations around anxiety, capacity and flexibility in a way that actually supports you. Louise shares practical scripts, questions to ask yourself, and guidance on managing up, down and across — making this a genuinely useful episode for anyone struggling to navigate anxiety at work. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For this episode I’m speaking to clinical psychologist and author Dr Alexandra Shaker about her book The Narrowing and about how prolonged stress and trauma can constrict not just our nervous systems, but how we experience our lives and how we can identify when our narrowing might need to open up. When we’re anxious, especially chronically anxious, our worlds can begin to shrink. We say no more often. We avoid certain places. We reduce risk. We make life smaller so it feels manageable. I often describe it myself, when I’ve felt anxiety close in on me that I’m “making my world smaller so I could cope with it,” and at the time that felt protective, even necessary. But what happens when that narrowing becomes the default? Use code FORAN10 when pre-ordering my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety, with Easons. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this first episode of my new season it's just me, welcoming you back and filling you in on everything that's been going on for me since I've last shared an episode plus I include an exclusive excerpt from my new book which offers readers and listeners reassurance from the other side: the very words I so desperately wanted to hear when I was in the depths of despair with crippling anxiety. Welcome back! New book discount for podcast listeners: Foran10 when checking out at Eason online. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast. This fifteenth season of the series will begin on March 2nd with weekly episodes each Monday. The series coincides with the launch of my latest book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap Back To Yourself which you can order here on Eason or here on Amazon. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week my guest is a psychologist and psychotherapist Dr Natalie Cawley who has just released a book called Just About Coping. It reads like a drama but it's her story, her own experience of anxiety while becoming a qualified mental health professional, and what she's learned from both sides of the therapy room. It's peppered with really helpful anxiety advice and Natalie makes it so easy for you to grasp the concepts. If you've ever been curious about the person behind the qualifications and the expertise, this is a great place to start. We talk about so many things from her story, to the impact of breakups and why these in particular can result in so much anxiety, experiences like dissociation, cognitive distortions, attachment and more. We also talk about how one type of therapy worked for me but didn't yield any results for her. You can support this podcast by sharing it with a friend or signing up to my Substack. Read my personal essays on Substack here with a 20% (lifetime) listener discount. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome back to a brand new season of Owning It. Join me and author/scientist/lawyer Anu Gupta to talk about the role and relationship between bias and anxiety, the impact bias on us and others and how it's at the root of almost every social and cultural issue we experience. His book, Breaking Bias, is out now. You can support this podcast by sharing it with a friend or signing up to my Substack. Read my personal essays on Substack here with a 20% (lifetime) listener discount. Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcast, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/owningittheanxietypodcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.