Typically when people think of anxiety or anxiety disorder they don’t think about paranoia at the same time. But if your anxiety has been severe enough for a prolonged period of time you can certainly develop mild to moderate forms of paranoid thinking. Today’s podcast is about telling you what that means and how to stop it.

On today’s podcast I explore whether or not herbs can make you better and how anxiety is always mind screwing you.

In this podcast I survey herbs like Valerian, St. John’s Wort, Lavender tea, and Marijuana. There are of course tons more herbs we could talk about, but I picked these because they are easy to find and easy to find information on. The whole idea behind this podcast was to give you a cursory introduction to these herbs – including their benefits and drawbacks.

Today’s podcast is strictly meant to provide you with a bit of a motivational kick in the pants. See, anxiety and depression can so easily – and understandably – bring you down and cause hopelessness and despair. But, despite this, you can certainly counter all the negative feelings and thoughts that anxiety conjures up, as long as your head is in the right place.  I hope this podcast will help you get in the right frame of mind, so that you can begin the process of freeing yourself from all of your anxiety issues.

Today’s podcast is a direct result of two questions I received from Anxiety Guru readers. The questions were related to panic attacks and the acceptance of anxiety. I think both of these issues are important and understanding them can help you cope with your anxiety more effectively.

An assumption is a mental leap you take without looking around first.  They’re also taken for granted, and it’s this easy-going acceptance of them that contributes to much of your anxiety.

I would never trash assumption itself because it serves a critical role.  It can help you make decisions when you don’t have all the facts, and also helps to remove mental hurdles that could otherwise complicate decision making.  For example, when you’re driving down the highway you have to assume, to some extent, that other drivers aren’t going to run you off the road.  By assuming this you can clear your mind a bit and not drive like a nervous wreck.

Now you may or may not be a selfish person at heart but the fact of the matter is that anxiety and depression can make you selfish or at the very least make you seem selfish to others.  Do you spend a lot of time wrapped in your own thoughts?  Are you consumed by the next possible anxiety related disaster?  Then chances are that you’re struggling to get outside of yourself and maybe even having  trouble in your personal relationships.  However, even if this is the case you can make a change and not only preserve your relationships, but also improve your anxiety symptoms in the process.

An essential component of anxiety disorder is rumination .  That is the constant and intense brooding about problems or perceived problems.  It is the extreme version of simple worry and there is a name for it – Pure Obsessional  OCD or “Pure O”.

Now, there are several levels of worry.  And I want to make clear that this is a very intense type of worry and anxiety tied to disturbing thoughts.  In other words, if you ruminate about household chores this is not the same as having Pure O.

I have long touted the benefits of diaphragmatic breathing (belly breathing) but I felt like more than promoting it this time, I want to give you the basics of this very effective relaxation technique in audio.

I decided to do this in audio format so it is easier to follow along with.  It is kinda of hard to relax and concentrate on deep breathing while your scrolling up and down on your computer.  Here is a brief recap of my version of this breathing excercise.

On today’s podcast I spoke with an Anxietyguru.net reader named Peter. Peter is from Sudbury, Massachusetts and has lived with bipolar disorder and anxiety for the better part of his life.

I think this episode is particularly interesting given that Peter has taken medication for his condition for the past thirty plus years. There is something to be said about experience, and Peter has a great deal of insights to provide as a result.

On today’s podcast I discussed the finer points of driving while anxious. I recruited my younger brother to share with you his phobia – driving. I recently received a request from an Anxiety Guru reader who wanted this topic reviewed so we beat this issue to near death on our quest for driving nirvana.