Disordered: Anxiety Help
Disordered: Anxiety Help
Did It Anyway - Volume 5 - Global Edition! (Episode 147)
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In this episode of Disordered, we celebrate the "Global Edition" of Did It Anyway.
We're sharing inspiring stories from our community members around the world who chose to face their fears and take action despite experiencing intense anxiety.
From navigating health anxiety at a drum and bass gig in London to managing emetophobia while being physically ill, these stories highlight the power of psychological flexibility. We discuss how recovery isn't about the absence of anxiety, but rather the shortening of the time between "oh my god" and "oh well".
- The "Did It Anyway" Mindset: How listeners applied this approach to return to work, travel, and social situations despite panic and agoraphobia.
- Desensitization in Real-Time: Using exposure therapy principles to stay present with uncomfortable physical sensations rather than retreating.
- Challenging Safety Behaviors: Stories of individuals staying home alone for the first time in weeks or eating "fear foods" to reclaim their lives.
- Overcoming the Inner Critic: Learning to move into productive problem-solving mode instead of self-berating when anxiety spikes and thinking isn't perfectly clear.
- Recovery as a Journey: Emphasizing that while these principles are simple, implementing them is a gradual process that requires patience and persistence.
We also touch on the importance of self-compassion and acknowledging that even when life is genuinely difficult—such as dealing with family health struggles—you can still apply these principles to your recovery and desensitization work.
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Want to talk about this episode, interact with us, and communicate with others that are sharing your experience? We're hanging out in the Disordered Community Space
https://disordered.fm/community
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The Disordered Guide to Health Anxiety is available now:
https://www.disordered.fm/the-disordered-guide-to-health-anxiety/
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Struggling with worry and rumination that you feel you can't stop or control? Check out Worry and Rumination Explained, a two hour pre-recorded workshop produced by Josh and Drew.
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Got questions or did it anyways to share? Send us an email or voicemail on our website.
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Disclaimer: Disordered is not therapy or a replacement for therapy. Listening to Disordered does not create a therapeutic relationship between you and the hosts or guests of the podcast. Information here is provided for psychoeducational purposes. As always, please consult your mental health and/or medical care providers. If you are having a mental health crisis, always reach out immediately for in-person help.
Welcome to Disordered. This is episode 147 of the podcast. This one is entitled Did It Anyway Round 5 Global Edition, because we have Did It Anyways from all over the damn world. It's really going to be great. So I'm Drew Linsolata, one half of Disordered. I am a therapist uh specializing in the treatment of anxiety and anxiety disorders, practicing in New York in the U.S., former sufferer of the things we talk about here on this podcast, an author, psychoeducator, social media guy, guy with way too many cameras and microphones. And I'm joined by my co-host.
SPEAKER_05Hi, I'm Joshua Fletcher, also known as Anxiety Josh. I'm a therapist over this side of the pond in the UK. Specialize in anxiety and anxiety disorders after going through a lot of it myself. I love these types of episodes. Um, Did It Anyways, uh, where we just celebrate it. Drew and I turn into some of those football analysts, and we're like, they had us in the first half, um, kind of things. Um, we're gonna look forward, we're gonna go through them. It is a global edition. Let's see where you know the Did It Anyways take us uh today.
SPEAKER_04I always feel like when we do these, I should be holding a pen. Because if you watch American football, everybody around that desk analyzing the highlights has a pen in their hand, and the Super Bowl winners are wearing their ridiculous, monstrous Super Bowl rings, so you can't miss them. We need those. We need disordered Super Bowl rings somehow.
SPEAKER_05There was a guy actually, one of my favorite pundits um on football, actual football, not your football. And um he was called Alan Hanson, and he was a great football player and he was a great pundit. And he actually quit being a pundit. He was quite a strict pundit, and no one knew, but he actually quit being a pundit because of anxiety and anxiety disorder. And it was it was a shock to everyone. It's like, why did you quit? He's like, Because I had really bad anxiety, and if Alan Hansen, one of the most filthiest football players ever, brutal on the pitch, stand in front of thousands of people, do all that, and come on national TV, start taking down people, do that. If he didn't he can get an anxiety disorder, then anyone can. Um, but yeah, it was um it was really interesting. He had this phrase called strength and depth every time. Just like, this squad's got strength and depth. So we'll let's analyze the strength and depth of these did it anyways.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, let's do it. We got a bunch of audios to listen to. We have some writtens from our community and by email. So let's start with an audio. What do you say? Let's do it.
SPEAKER_06Hey, True and Josh. Um, my name is Kate. You can use my name if you want. I'm a longtime listener, first-time caller, and just kind of wanted to share a bit about my story and my did it anyways when it comes to panic. Um, I have always dealt with generalized anxiety. And back in 2024, I had my first onset of panic in a way that left me completely debilitated. It was nonstop for a couple weeks there, ended up at the doctor's. I was convinced something was wrong. Turns out nothing was wrong, you know, just anxiety. Um, they ended up being right about that one. And it left me completely agoraphobic. I was scared to shower, scared to eat. Any bodily sensation absolutely terrified me. And I'm a self-employed hairstylist. Um, and I knew that my business was on the line if I couldn't get a grasp on it. So I applied the did it anyway mindset. And I went to work every day. I did it scared. I pushed myself through all the exposures. Um, and after about three, four months, I ended up having a year and a half completely panic attack free, just absolute bliss. And recently it's picked back up out of nowhere, which has left me a little shocked. But I've done it before. I can do it now. Even today, I had a client that when I looked in the mirror while talking to her, I thought to myself, oh shit, I'm having a panic attack. And instead of telling her or trying to reschedule, I pushed through the appointment. And by the end of her appointment, I felt completely fine and she loved her hair. And I continued to go to the grocery store after, socialize with friends, and now I'm home. Even calling this, calling you guys gives me a little bit of anxiety, but I'm trying to push myself out of my comfort zone because I know that's what I need to keep on keeping on. So I appreciate you guys and everything you do, and it seriously works, and it's been the best thing to ever happen to me. Thanks, guys.
SPEAKER_04Okay, killing it. Love it. I didn't hear any applause. You didn't hear the applause? Did you guys in the studio? We actually have a studio audience, ready? No, no applause. That's weird. What's going on? You can hear my mic, but you can't hear the applause. Oh, it's in there. It's in the recording, so we're all good.
SPEAKER_05Okay, I'll just assume it's there. All right. So when you start pressing magic buttons, I don't know. Anyway. Oh, well done. That was that was superb. Um what we're joined on the on the sofa today by Billy Mays. I wonder what he would have thought of that. There's lots of not done yet.
SPEAKER_02But I'm not done yet.
SPEAKER_04Did you hear that?
SPEAKER_05Oh, I heard I heard him, I heard Billy. All right, good. Yeah, there we go.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, 100%. Love all this. Kate did it scared. I did it scared, went to work scared. Well done.
SPEAKER_05I love it. And even that, like, don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with celebrating going a certain long amount of time, you know, not having panic attacks or whatever. But what I liked about that was that recovery desensitization, whatever you want to call it, is what you do in the moment when it does come up. And Kate did what non-anxious her would do, continue with the client, and didn't make the panic the most important thing in the room, continue with the client. And look what happens. You've taught the brain, look, whatever. And you could tell how proud she was, and then just carried on and brought that confidence, carried on going, even to the point of sending something into disordered.fm. I think that's really cool. Well done, Kate.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. How do we define you know desensitization or recovery? The shortening of the time from uh-oh to oh well, or oh my god, to OL. So back in the day, that episode would have pinned Kate down for quite a long time. Don't leave the house, go back to bed. This time was over by the end, she was done doing the person's hair. It was all done in her rearview mirror. So very shortening of that duration, that's desensitized right there.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and then went out afterwards as well, which is really cool. Oh, love it. You know, I just yeah, I think that's really good. All right, let's go on to the next one. What else have we got? Um, I've got I'll I'll read one out. Why not? Why not? Sounds good. Okay, here's a written Did It Anyway from Ben in London. Um hey guys, wanted to share a did it anyway. My name is Ben from London, and you can use my name. I've been suffering from fairly intense health anxiety for the past several months. Looking back, it was an issue I must have had bubbling under the surface for a long time. But for the last three months, I've been in a particularly sensitized state and trying to manage that situation. I've been obsessing over sensations about my eyes, everything from neurological conditions to going blind. One of my best friends has recently started DJing at drum and bass gigs. Before, I would have never thought twice about going and supporting. He had a major gig coming up, and I was particularly anxious about obsessing over my physical anxiety symptoms at the gig while surrounded with a S load of noise and flashing lights. But I wanted to continue to be the kind of friend that turns up. So I went anyway. It ended up being easier than I thought it would be. The intrusive thoughts are still there, but I didn't let them become the focus. I love this. Gave me some hope that I really needed. Thanks for your podcast and everything else that you do. It has genuinely been a help in some really dark times for me.
SPEAKER_04There is applause, I promise. Go, Ben.
SPEAKER_05That was superb. I love that. Love that. Remember, focus is always in your agency. It was a focus did it anyway, wasn't it, true?
SPEAKER_04Sure, 100%. And I think the um, you know, I was super focused on my physical sensations, which is very common in this community, right? Like the physical sensations tell are so scary and so disturbing that I can't possibly do this gig, but I really, really want to go to the gig. So, you know, in the end, about the physical sensations, that that's what the physical sensations are all about. They're uncomfortable, but Ben put worked through them and happy that he did it, right? You know I'm gonna push that button at some point.
SPEAKER_05We can't hear the applause, and it's quite but we can hear the rub.
SPEAKER_04I can hear it, it just it doesn't matter. I don't know where the applause button is, but that's all right.
SPEAKER_05Uh like Drew said, we do have a live um studio audience uh in our community app. There's a couple ones here. Had my hair cut, drove myself, anxiety through the roof, and a whole hour. Craig, the critic, was telling me I can't drive home, but I did it anyway.
SPEAKER_04Well done. Hang on.
SPEAKER_05Oh, we've got a bit of a bit of applause there. Well applause, okay. Um and someone else said, I went into my town center today. Craig told me I couldn't. And there you go.
SPEAKER_04More applause for that, too. People listening at home are like, all right, enough with the button already. Um, yeah, well done.
SPEAKER_05Stop it with your buttons. Cool. What we got next in the in the in the pile.
SPEAKER_04Well, we got an audio one. Now, I am particularly fond of this one because I do a lot of emetophobia work in my practice. Tuesday is vomit day, injury's practice, and all my emetophobes are lined up. And they're great. They're working hard and they're doing great. So if you guys are listening, I'm proud of you. So we have an emetophobia did it anyway. Let's hear it.
SPEAKER_00Hi, Josh and Drew. My name is Caroline, and you can use my name. So I have extreme emetophobia. I recently just learned what it's called by your podcast. And I'm sick today. So I woke up just feeling nauseous and just everything. I I really feel sick, uh, but I figured that I would use this chance, if you can call it that, to just try to do things anyway, even though I kind of piss myself off a little bit by saying let's that right now, as I'm about to throw up for the fifth time this morning. Um, but I'm not gonna die, I'm gonna be okay. My boyfriend is currently getting me some stuff and some snacks, and I'm gonna be fine. I just wanted to thank you for your podcast. It's really been helping me. I don't think I could use my experience as exposure therapy ever. So thank you so much. And now I'm going back to my business. Sounding totally sarcastic, but I literally am. So have a nice day. Bye.
SPEAKER_04Oh, thank you for sharing that, Caroline. That's gonna mean a lot to a lot of people, even though it might have been triggering.
SPEAKER_05I love that. I love that. I like the little laughter in the voice as well. Just like it's it's really, you know, as someone, you know, I've had emetophobia in the past, and it's just like a lot of this is experiential exposure stuff like that. And um, no, I think that's wonderful.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, that's really hard to do. Uh so Caroline is facing what an emetophobe will say is the most impossible, must never ever be allowed to happen thing. And here she is, like sitting in and did it anyway. Like, I'm gonna go back to throw up again, you know, trying to treat it as casually as possible. Very uncomfortable, but well done. Somebody in our studio audience here on the community app says, only here would we applaud vomit? 100% right. That comment is dead on correct. No one would understand this except you guys listening right now. So thanks for hanging in there.
SPEAKER_05Superb. Uh good. Let's hear your dulcet tones, Drew. What have we got on the written front?
SPEAKER_04Yep, let's do a written one. So I'm gonna go into our little community app here and let's see. How about this one? This one is about this monophobia, did it anyway? Uh, been home overnight for the first time in three weeks, spent most of the time alone. Wasn't easy at all, but I did not call my safe person or go back to the clinic, even though it's just a 15-minute walk there. I made an apple cake while having quite high anxiety, almost stopped but went on. And after the cake being in the oven for about 10 minutes, I realized I forgot the baking powder. Interestingly, I didn't panic or berate myself, but went into actual problem solving mode. Turns out I caught it early enough to fix it, and it tasted great. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_05I love that. I love that. Uh I like that. My favorite part of that was the not listening to Craig the Critic. You know, because some people, when they're in that and then they're in that kind of sensitized stress state, a lot of the time they can default to criticizing themselves. Oh, I can't think straight, I'm anxious, but and it was just like, no, hold on. I'm not gonna criticize myself here. I'm gonna go into actual problem-solving mode. No, and alas you solve the problem. And the reward was a delicious cake. I love that. That guy'll show up everywhere.
SPEAKER_04It's Craig the critic. Even with like a cake. I mean, come on, man. Like, but you know, that like, oh, anxiety ruins everything for me. I'm not, I'm not, I used to bake all the time, now I can't do it. Good job for recognizing it. Like, nope, ain't going there. But that home alone thing, I can I can relate to that. Like a lot, I had I developed severe monophobia. I was terrified to be home alone, and this was great. An overnight alone home, home alone, sorry, would be very challenging. Alone home. So very good.
SPEAKER_05This reminded me of one of my old O C D themes. It was like, what if I forget words and can't say them properly? Like, I just what if words lose all meaning? Like, yeah, that was one of my OCD themes.
SPEAKER_04Isn't it amazing?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I I'd be at home compulsive and going like how much wood would the wood chopper chop if the wood chop had uh my my mom must have thought I was insane.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, just to make sure that you recognized the words and they did have meaning and you knew how to speak.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I was testing they were testing compulsions, like yeah, if this feels right to say, then it's okay. And rational brains like if you say a word over and over again, it does kind of lose all meaning. You ever done that?
SPEAKER_04We just like uh yeah, that has a name. I wrote about that on my Substack when I was writing on Substack. It actually has a name when you repeat a word over and over and then boom, it loses its meaning. But you know, that's how imaginable exposures work. It's kind of how imaginal exposures work. Keep telling the story again and again and again in your head, suddenly it loses its bike.
SPEAKER_05So anyway, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep, that's really that's really interesting. Yeah. Um cool. Well, what have we got? Have we got anything in the audio bank?
SPEAKER_04We have another did it anyway that's audio, and we are just traveling the world.
SPEAKER_05Where in the world? Where in the world?
SPEAKER_04To be honest with you, I'm not sure where this one is. We had Bulgaria and we've had we have South Africa, but I'm not sure where this one is from. Let's just listen.
SPEAKER_07Hey Josh and Drew, it's Shannon from Kansas City, Missouri. There you go. And yes, you can use my name. So my biggest trigger has been food and the belief of what symptoms and sensations I think are coming from food, to the point that I, for quite some time, have only been eating maybe 10 to 15 foods. My huge did it anyway after listening to your guys' podcast for less than two weeks is that I have now eaten and added, and I know it seems so simple, but I've added eggs and blueberries and sweet potatoes and rice and tortilla chips, and I've had some sensations come along the way, but I continually tell myself, what would non-anxious me do? I eat it and I just move along my day. So for me, it is huge, huge wins for I did it anyway. I have taken so much in literally two weeks of listening to your podcast that there are moments of my day now that I'm like, I'm getting some of my life back already. So thank you for your podcast. Thank you for your knowledge and information that you're sharing. I am giving myself the wins because I know that I'm the one doing it. But had I not heard some of the information that you are providing, I don't know that I would have been understanding of all of this. So thank you.
SPEAKER_05Wow. I love that one. You can relate, I can relate to that one as well. New foods are dangerous.
SPEAKER_04Uh, I know. What if this, how will this one make me feel? Will this trigger bad things, you know?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, or foods that you've already had before, and then you're like suddenly, you know, the doubt response latches on to just foods that like, oh what if I'm suddenly intolerant of it, or what if it makes me panic, or yeah, something like that.
SPEAKER_04A food that you literally ate yesterday, like three hours ago. I had that a couple of times. What if I've developed an I I've never had a peanut allergy, but I still don't, but I remember legitimately eating some walnuts because I was told that walnuts helped to calm you down. And like four hours later, I went for more walnuts, and the thought just sort of popped into my head. Like, you know, people do have tree nut allergies. Wait, and walnut to tree nuts. I'm like, what if I have that? And I I had the walnut, like I could still taste it in my tomba. Right. And it was like, nope. Like I remember really having to no no eat these, damn it. Uh so that was really great. Shannon would just food after food adding in. You know what that was?
SPEAKER_02But I'm not done yet!
SPEAKER_04Like, I'm just gonna add this food and that food and this food and that food. So really great.
SPEAKER_05I I just love this image of Shannon making this bowl of horrendous foods that don't mix, and just like her loved ones watching on by she's adding blueberries to to to potato chips to potato carbon. I don't think they go, Shannon.
SPEAKER_04I'm doing an exposure. Shut up, leave me alone. But it's really great. I mean, really, really great. Um, yeah, I love it. But you know, when you eat those things, the only thing I might add to that when people do this, because I mean, I know you've worked with people like this. I have people in my practice right now that are like that, they narrow themselves down to this tiny number. I can eat four things, and that's it. And the first time they go and eat a thing that they really want to eat but are afraid to eat, they will often panic. Or once they eat it, you can't uneat it, and there's that big wave of discomfort and panic, and like, but they write it out, and that's what teaches them like, uh, can't will this kill me was never the right question to ask. So really it's a brilliant thing to do.
SPEAKER_05Like for those who want to go on holiday or vacation, and where the palate is different, the culture is different, the food is different, you know, you particularly find it different. Like, yeah, strange that's uh, but uh well done. I think that's really cool.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_05Um, someone in the studio audience said, I went to a fair and rode rides with my son while whilst having anxiety, due to it being hot and there being a lot of people. Love it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, no small wins, no small wins here, all big wins.
SPEAKER_05I love it. Yeah, also you get to ride rides, that's cool, and spend time with your son. It's really excellent.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Uh, this is uh we had another person in the studio audience on the app that said that she gets that way with medicine, like Shannon was afraid to eat foods, you know. She uh had to take Celebrex for after uh a surgery or for some joint pain and really anxious about taking it, but then it's like, oh, I'm gonna have to take it anyway. So that was a brave thing to do for sure. But sometimes restrictions come in, like, oh, I have a sinus infection and I I got antibiotics, but I'm afraid to take them. Because how will it make me feel? You know, so I wouldn't take aspirin. Yeah, Tylenol. I wouldn't do it. Yeah. It's okay.
SPEAKER_05Okay, let's go to yeah. Should we take a trip to Poland for the next one?
SPEAKER_04We should. I've never been, so let's go.
SPEAKER_05Jane Dobry. Hi, Drew and Josh. It's Joanna from Poland. First, please forgive me. My spoken English isn't perfect, so I'm sending this as a message. I'm so grateful for your podcast, your written content, and your books. Cheers. They kept me afloat when I felt like I was drowning and nothing could help me. I found your work a year ago, a year and a half ago, during a severe relapse of my anxiety disorder, which I've battled for a long time. Thanks to your content and lots of other kind things. I want to share my doing this anyway. My brother is an alcoholic and has been terrorizing our lives for over five years. I live far away, but my mom is still deeply involved. His addiction worsened over time, and schizophrenia emerged, which amplified my own fears of going insane. For weeks I've been carrying the weight of his struggles and my mom's hope that he'll change, all whilst managing my job, home, happy marriage, and small children. It's exhausting. Thoughts race, anxiety screams, but I'm still standing. I give myself a pat on the back. I allow myself to feel fear, anger, and guilt without letting them control me. I remind myself, what would non-anxious me do? And I do it. I'm finishing my driving lessons, something I never would have attempted without your motivation. Caring for my children, enjoying our time together, achieving my goals. I know that when this situation ends, and it will, I'll be stronger and more resilient. Perhaps others in our anxious community face similar family struggles. I send them warmth and hope. Listening to this podcast reminds me that we're not alone. Thank you both and talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_04Wow. That was a powerful did it anyway.
SPEAKER_05It's very powerful, it's very real life as well. You know, sometimes we can extrapolate did it anyways and make them, you know, I need to go to the shops, I need to do this. And there's no small did it anyway, but it's an example of actually, you know, anxiety disorders can exist, and then life outside the anxiety disorder isn't always plain sailing. But the fact is you've drawn on some compassion there, Joanna, and applying it. And I really, really, really enjoyed that that one. It's very powerful. You you can still apply the principles even when life is a bit rocky and there's actual, you know, like real things going on. Anxiety disorders are real, but I mean other things outside of the anxiety disorders going on. Yeah. And yeah, I f I found that very inspirational. So well done.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, me too. Thank you so much. For sharing that very personal thing. I appreciate you sharing it with everybody so they can learn from that. Uh really good. Should we do we have another audio? Should we move on to an audio one?
unknownThis time.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, where are we going? Where's where's the next coming?
SPEAKER_04Where are we going? Josh is all excited to travel. We are going to South Africa, so let's go there now.
SPEAKER_01Hi guys. Um, did it anyway or doing it anyway from Jania from South Africa. About a year ago, I started having um panic attacks and uh hectic debilitating anxiety. I couldn't uh do my work or help kids or even go for a walk uh around my house mixed with depression. But um doing the resting and um doing exposures little bit by little bit, starting with a smaller drive, talking to people, going for longer walks, actually finally spending time for myself helped me just to progress. And then doing the therapy helped me realize that that inner critic is just that's what feeds my jug of stress, because it's just no matter what you do, you constantly judge yourself and say that it's not good enough, it should be better, and then you create extra stress. And my jug was already full of stress, work, kids, family. A year later, I have quite a big bag of did it anyway. Um driving on my own with kids and performing over family duties. Um I did um video uh hip hop concert, I went overseas, yeah, and I did it all of that while feeling anxious. It didn't went anyway, and a massive part of the recovery was actually realizing that I need to accept that this is it, and stop resenting it and fighting it because that's what feeds the jug.
SPEAKER_04Wow. That's another one that like speaks to other things that confound the situation, right? The criticism.
SPEAKER_05I love that. Well done, Jennifer. I love that one. It's all the principles, self-compassion. I've noticed one of the drivers behind this is my inner critic. You know, and it is so powerful. I we we always bang on about compassion and correct the critic, but look at that. It's like, no, no, it's okay. I can live outside. I mean, that's such a good well done, Jenya. That's that's an encapsulating dinner anyway of your attitude shift, of your willingness. It's it's it's a big one. You know, they're all big, but that's a big one. You that's a whole bag of did it anyways. I uh I um yeah, congratulations on that. Superb.
SPEAKER_04I love that phrase. I have a big bag of did it anyway after a year. And the cool thing about it is Jenya started filling that bag with very small exposures. That's why we call it graduated exposure. There's no small win there. She started with little tiny stuff. Let me have a little conversation with somebody, let me just go out a little bit. And here she is down the road.
SPEAKER_05It leads to I just had this intrusive, intrusive, funny thought of imagining turning up to my mom's house with a big bag of did it anyways. But mom, this is a big bag of did it anyways, of just seeing her horrified face. And what's in the bag?
SPEAKER_04What's in the box? What's in the bag? Yeah, I don't know if I'd want you showing up with a big bag of anything because I'd be a little nervous about what's in there. But no, very well done. Thank you for sharing that, Jenny. I really appreciate it. You know, we sit in our we did a compassion, a self-compassion episode only a couple of weeks ago. And you know, one of the things we touched on is if you cannot accept the version of you are today, anxious and afraid, then that version of you that needs to learn the lesson of the exposure never gets let into the classroom. So this was I cannot love this one any more than I do. I I gotta stop fighting it and like be okay with who I am today so I can learn to be different tomorrow. Really great, really great.
unknownWhat else?
SPEAKER_05That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_04We can we got any more? Uh I have no more audios. I mean, we can do them on the fly if we really wanted to. If we want to hit another one.
SPEAKER_05I've done I've done two written ones. Did you have two written ones? You've done one. Have you got any other written ones left?
SPEAKER_04Oh, we got plenty of written it written ones. I will tell you right now, we have uh pictures too. So, like in our community app, we have somebody who sent a doing it anywhere, anywhere, and she said, doing it anyway mid-flight, which I know is one of those like top tier things, a dentist chair and an aircraft, two of the top tier things for people in our community. Doing it anyway, mid-flight, heading to Disney World with a little son emoji, in spite of jitters, jelly arms, and DPDR this morning. I'm allowing it all. And this person shared a picture of her in the plane, like she's probably up at 35,000 feet going to Disney World. Love it.
SPEAKER_05Oh, I love that. I love that. Have you done a did it anyway recently, Drew?
SPEAKER_04You know, it's been a long time since I had to do a did it anyway. But like this morning, I got I was thinking about it as I was coming back here. I had to get my hair cut, and I was just being really shaggy, so I went to get my haircut.
SPEAKER_05And that was brave. You turned up. That's really brave, man.
SPEAKER_04I know.
SPEAKER_05Looking like this, I walk you walking around with that haircut is a did it anyway.
SPEAKER_04Well, it reminded me though of the days when a haircut was a did it anyway. That's another one of those dentist aircraft, like sitting and getting your haircut. I was it was so hard to go get my haircut. I would hem and hon, make an appointment and cancel it and make it get really, really, really shaggy, and I hated it. But the thought of like going 10-minute drive to get my hair cut and sitting there for 15 minutes or whatever it was to get it haircut, no, uh, couldn't do it, man. So today today was just like, Oh, yeah, I made three stops, checked the mail, went to the supermarket, like picked up a bag of espresso beans, caffeinated espresso beans, went and got my hair cut, made one stop, came home regarding this podcast, like just a regular day. And I was I was kind of had a moment of gratefulness, like, oh yeah, I remember when I couldn't do this.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, yeah, I had it in the barber shop, and there's always like and you're there and you're getting really hot and sweaty, and then you're having these thoughts of your clock watching, white knuckling, looking at the clock, how long is it gonna be, trying to distract yourself?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_05Uh, do I need to run out of the shop? All these kind of things. It's just like, nah.
SPEAKER_04What if I lose it in the middle of it? You know, if I what if I lose and then you have to run out with half a haircut? That's what people think at the dentist, also. Well, what if I lose it in the middle of it? Uh I had one person who was afraid that she was legitimately going to like left hook the dentist to get out of the chair. I'm gonna I'm gonna knock this dude out if I have to to get up. Like, and it never happened, of course. Uh yeah.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. Someone in the comments said, just got back from one myself. It's haircut day, apparently. Mine's uh on Thursday. Um, just got back from myself. I've struggled with that a lot in the last few months, but today was as calm as I've been in several months. Brilliant. Well done. It's really cool.
SPEAKER_04Love it. Um, we have another one. Here's another thing that's coming out in the app a lot, in the community app, is people talking about coffee. When I started doing this, talking into microphones about anxiety disorders, I never expected to talk about coffee as much as I do. But this person said, You guys have inspired me to try caffeine. Haven't touched it in so long because I hate the way it makes me feel. Well, today I decided to face the sensations it will create and practice focusing my attention on the show I am watching instead. My brain is screaming all kinds of warnings and catastrophes that would make you think I'm about to take street drugs and uh street drugs instead of drink a latte. And this person posted a picture of herself holding her latte, getting ready to drink it. So well done on that too. And somebody responded with a cup of yeah, another in the comments was another picture of coffee. Everybody was getting involved in the coffee thing.
SPEAKER_05So really great. Yeah, there's a lot of coffee, isn't there? No, I like that. Where can people send in their did it anyways and their audio did it anyways and stuff?
SPEAKER_04I'm gonna suggest going to disorder.fm. There's a little blue button on the website that lets you record a voicemail, or you could send us an email. You know, we try to read them all. We can't put them all in the air, but we try and read them all and listen to them all if we can.
SPEAKER_05So always nice to hear from people. Yeah, it's really cool. And uh yeah, well done for inspiring each other as well. There's only a certain amount of Drew, Drew, and I can pontificate and wax lyrical, but actually, you know, what we found is that a lot of people inspire each other in this because there's lived experience, but also sitting alongside each other metaphorically and uh and doing the tricky things, knowing though that like you know, we know how how how difficult it is to do that. To a lot of people that don't know what it's like in the sensitized state, it might seem a bit silly, and Craig the critic might jump on and be like, you're just doing something silly, like you could you used to do this, all your loved ones can do this, but why do you find it hard? But in the disordered community, we don't we don't think like that. We know you're going literally toe-to-toe with fear. It doesn't matter the time or place or situation, you're going against fear and you're coming out and doing it anyway and rewiring your brain, and that deserves celebrating and being acknowledged.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, 100%. You keep in mind if you're listening and you feel like I could never do any of these, every single person that we have heard from today, whether we read a thing or heard their voices, at one point thought that the thing that they did anyway was impossible. You know, everybody that said they did it anyway thought that doing it anyway was that was not in the cards, they were never gonna be able to do it, and here they are sharing a story of being able to do it. So if you feel like you're not there yet, it's okay, take inspiration from this. Everybody thought they weren't gonna be able to do it, including the two of us. I think there were times when you know, no, I'm never gonna be able to do that. And here we are.
SPEAKER_05So I didn't think I'd leave the house at one point. Yeah, I'm utterly convinced I couldn't leave the house again. No, we wouldn't. Or if I did, I would die.
SPEAKER_04Just explode and need an army of Icelandic strongmen to hold you down, right? Spontaneous. Like the drummer from Spinal Tap, just leaving a little globule. Yeah. So anyway, what else we got? Is that good? 33 minutes of did it anyway.
SPEAKER_05We'll keep collecting them, keep sending them in, disorder.fm. We love it. Uh, if you want to come be part of the community, it's optional. You can join if you want. Um it's completely up to you. Yeah. But we'll be here every Friday doing what we do.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, thanks for listening. We'll be back next week with some other topic that we'll make up on the fly. See you later.
