This week I’ve decided to re-release an episode all about anxiety. My guest is Dr Russell Kennedy, he’s a medical doctor, neuroscientist and importantly someone who previously suffered with crippling anxiety for over 30 years.
I’m re-releasing this episode for two main reasons. Firstly I’m noticing that a lot of people are struggling with anxiety at the moment, especially in a world that often feels out of control. And secondly, on the back of that initial episode coming out, Penguin Random House in London was so impacted by the conversation that they contacted my guest and have been working with him to create a brand new revised edition of his book, which has just come out all over the world. It's called The Anxiety Prescription: Calm Your Mind, Soothe Your Nervous System and Learn To Thrive. I really wanted to support the release of this book because I think that Russell’s rather unique approach is proving transformative for so many people.
If you ever feel anxious, whether that’s a low-level worry, a sudden fear, or full-on panic, can you sense where it’s coming from in your body? Perhaps your chest feels tight, or your gut feels uneasy. Or, perhaps, you have no idea. Russell believes that understanding where this feeling lives inside your body is the key to treating anxiety – for good.
Russell insists anxiety isn’t a disorder of the mind. Our worries are merely a symptom – and one that keeps us in our heads and away from the real problem. He favours the term ‘alarm’ and says we need to find where the alarm is in our bodies. This alarm is a physiological pattern that’s been left by events in our past, usually in early childhood. It signals to our brain that we aren’t safe – and so our mind gets to work trying to think us out of danger.
Russell shares his own journey through anxiety. He talks about how growing up with a father who was schizophrenic and bipolar, left alarm signals, imprinted in his body. And, for over 30 years he searched for relief from his anxiety. But nothing worked.
In Russell’s view, most treatments for anxiety, including medication and CBT, fail in the long term. And, he thinks this is because they don’t address the root cause.
For Russell, healing starts by finding out where anxiety lives inside your body and during our conversation, Russell walks you through how exactly you can start doing that.
We also discuss the simple things that parents can do to help their kids grow up feeling ‘seen, heard, loved and protected’. And, we also discuss the value of activities like breathwork, meditation and yoga, and also some promising therapies such as Internal Family Systems and Somatic Experiencing.
Russell’s core message has the potential to be transformative - that it’s more effective to use the body to calm the mind, than the mind to calm the body. Given how prevalent anxiety is now across society, I think this is a profoundly important conversation. I hope you enjoy listening.
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