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Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast
Owning Mental Illness with Sophie White
Season 12, Ep. 14
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Buy Sophie White's book My Hot Friend here. Sign up to my Substack with 20% off for more Owning It related content and to connect personally HERE.
I am joined here by award winning bestselling author and columnist Sophie White. Sophie shares her story with me, the pivotal moment at the age of 22 that changed everything, the diagnosis of bipolar II she would later receive, the anxiety of needing psychiatric care versus what it was really like and how she eventually began to own her mental illness. I want to include a trigger warning (TW) here as Sophie does discuss a particularly tough point of suicidal ideation that she reached in her mid 20s. Now a mother of three and an incredibly successful writer, I hope that Sophie's story gives reassurance to those struggling with mental illness, whether or not it is bipolar or just more chronic anxiety as was the case for me, that it won't always define you or be all that you do. There's so much to discuss with Sophie, we decided towards the end to make this a two parter. So this first episode is Sophie's story right up until she got a handle on things and we will follow up in a few short weeks with how her story continued when she became a parent, an experience which for many of us can be fraught with anxiety in itself. Thank you for listening and please, if you like the series, hop on over to my substack where we can connect on a more personal level and get more useful content delivered to your inbox. you'll find me at carolineforan.substack.com and the newsletter is called Own It.
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5. The full picture of your anxiety + focus on the gut
44:33||Season 14, Ep. 5For this episode, I want to bring it back to the body. How anxiety shows up in your body, particularly in your gut. Here with the help of Dr Sally Bramley, functional health doctor and founder of Tru Health, we get a sense of how she as a practitioner would get to the bottom of YOU. How she would help you get the fullest picture of your anxiety, looking at everything from a holistic perspective, so that you may begin to address it in a way that will actually yield results. She talks through the various testing she sees as relevant to anxiety and why the gut is so synonymous with mental health. This is a must listen for those suffering with IBS symtpoms.https://www.truhealth.co/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.4. How helpful is an anxiety disorder diagnosis? + more
46:07||Season 14, Ep. 4For this episode I chat with psychotherapist Duygu Balan who regularly appears on CNN and Psychology Today among others. She's also the lead author of Confidentially Chill: An Anxiety Workbook for New Adults. We cover everything from the impact that covid had on our collective experience of anxiety - do we know yet what living through a pandemic did to our minds? We also talk about breaking generational cycles around the acceptance of mental health issues as well as how helpful or unhelpful it is to focus so much on an anxiety disorder diagnosis. 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.3. 'All anxiety is separation anxiety' with Dr Russell Kennedy
01:08:38||Season 14, Ep. 3You 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. Join Dr Russell Kennedy and I to talk about anxiety as alarm in the body, the root causes of it, why he believes all anxiety is separation anxiety, how much anxiety is driven by nature or nurture and so much more. His book The Anxiety Prescription is out now.2. Why your therapist needs therapy
41:54||Season 14, Ep. 2This 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.1. Is bias driving your anxiety?
44:11||Season 14, Ep. 1Welcome 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.8. Solo Episode: Overcoming Anxiety Roadmap
44:20||Season 13, Ep. 8This is a solo episode. I struggled to fully explain it in the title but it's dedicated to a close friend currently in the trenches of health anxiety with plenty of additional anxiety on top. It's everything I want her to know. Everything that might help her ride this wave including a step by step roadmap for overcoming anxiety. If you would like to support this podcast you can do so by subscribing to my Substack (with 20% off for all pod listeners) at this link.7. Overcoming Health Anxiety with an Expert
46:58||Season 13, Ep. 7This is one of the hardest areas of anxiety to get on top of: health anxiety. Whether it's general health anxiety where you're prone to spiralling about what could or might go wrong with your health, or you suffer with OCD or body related conditions such as Trichotillomania, this episode is probably the most helpful thing you could listen to. With anxiety expert and CBT therapist Kimberley Quinlan (she's huge on Instagram here), we go through it all, if it can be overcome and how to manage something that feels so all consuming. We also talk about self compassion and how to get it right. Sign up to my Substack Substack, with 20% off forever at this link.6. Solving social anxiety and becoming a Supercommunicator
28:40||Season 13, Ep. 6On this episode of the series I am joined by international bestselling author and reporter with The New Yorker Charles Duhigg who wrote The Power of Habit. Here we talk about his new book Supercommunicators and how to crack social anxiety with some really practical tools and insights.5. Laura's story: 'Checking myself into a psychiatric hospital was the bravest thing I could do as a new mother'
51:06||Season 13, Ep. 5Join me with guest Laura Guckian, life coach, host of 'Momfessions' and creator of Mind Mommy Coaching as we talk about postpartum anxiety, which, for her, was so significant she decided to check herself into a psychiatric hospital. How did the anxiety show up for her? What does a hospital level of mental health support look like? We talk about whether the problem for new mothers is the lack of support or the skewed perception of early motherhood that pervades social media. Read more of my essays on motherhood over on my Substack, with 20% off forever at this link.