Podcasts about body's fear response

In this episode: fear, anxiety, FOMO, talking about money, endings, self development, exposure, and the fear of loneliness. This week we are joined by Farnoosh Tarabi where we will be discussing the topic of fear and anxiety, reinterpreting FOMO, and how to recognize and use your fears and anxieties to work with you in order to reach your financial goals. While we can sometimes interpret our own fear as a weakness, many times these fears and anxieties can be a secret weapon, ones that motivate us and usher in necessary change that can make a difference in the path that we are on. In some cases, it can be a fear of missing out on opportunities. Other times it can be a fear of endings. But no matter the fears, learning to recognize the underlying feelings and meanings can ultimately help you on the path to FI! Remember, an important part of this journey requires introspection, and while it may be uncomfortable to sit with your fears and anxieties, working with them, rather than against them may just be the superpower you didn't know you had.  Farnoosh Torabi: Check out Farnoosh's new book "A Healthy State of Panic! Follow Your Fears to Build Wealth, Crush Your Career, and Win at Life" Timestamps: 2:12 - Introduction 3:24 - The Other Side of Anxiety's Coin 8:23 - Fear and Finance/Talking About Money 16:41 - The Fear of Rejection 25:22 - The Fear of Missing Out/The Fear of Loneliness 39:33 - The Fear of Exposure 45:29 - The Fear of Endings 50:03 - Conclusion Resources Mentioned In Today's Episode: So Money Podcast "The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response" by Ellen Vora "When She Makes More" by Farnoosh Torabi Subscribe to The FI Weekly! More Helpful Links and FI Resources: Earn $1,050 or More With These 3 Cash Back Cards Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence Find a new side hustle with one of our Educational Courses Commission-Free Investing with M1 Finance

Did you know that there are real and false types of anxiety?  Before you shoot the messenger, our guest this week explains the distinctions.  Dr. Ellen Vora is a graduate of Yale and Columbia Universities and she is a board certified psychiatrist.  Dr. Vora is also author of the book, THE ANATOMY OF ANXIETY: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. On this episode, we talk about the roles that physical reactions to hunger and sleep deprivation may play on anxiety.  We also discuss holistic research that is improving mental health.  Show Notes/Links: www.hotflashescooltopics.com Tickets to our CONVERSATIONS WITH PRIME WOMEN EVENT on October 8th in Nashville: www.conversationswithprimewomen.com FOLLOW US ON: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotflashesandcooltopics/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6ssWfO0qeZYEIs6TzrKBHQ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/657557054765087   Want to Leave a Review for Hot Flashes and Cool Topics? Here's How: For Apple Podcasts on an iPhone or iOS device: Open the Apple Podcast App on your device. Click on the “search” icon Type into the search bar “Hot Flashes and Cool Topics” and click on the show Towards the bottom, look for “Ratings and Reviews” Click on “Write a Review” and leave us your thoughts and comments! For Apple Podcasts on a computer: On the Apple Podcasts website, go to the search bar and type “Hot Flashes and Cool Topics” After clicking on the show, find the “Listen on Apple Podcasts” button and click on it The “Hot Flashes and Cool Topics” podcast should open on the Apple Podcasts application Keep scrolling on the page until you see “Ratings and Reviews” Click on “See All” If you want to give us a five-star rating, hover over the empty stars! If you want to leave your thoughts and comments, click on “Write a Review”!

We have another interview this week, this time it's with Dr. Ellen Vora, author of The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response.  I read this about Ellen's work: "This is a paradigm shift in how we view anxiety and the mind-body connection... Anxiety truly is our teacher, and this book is a must-have for anyone looking to heal." ~ Dr. Nicole LePera I. Couldn't. Agree. MORE. Ellen's whole-body approach to anxiety, her work on healing, and her deeply kind presence is a balm in our stress-fueled world. And her book gives solid, practical ways to take care of ourselves in a real way. If you'd like to see the video version of our conversation, visit www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/211  You can find out more about Dr. Ellen Vora and her work by visiting www.ellenvora.com  Full show notes located at: www.kellyhanlinmccormick.com/podcast/211 

Do you ever feel like fear is controlling your life? We've all been there. But in this episode, Dr. Ellen Vora gives us insight into how to regain control with her expertise on the body's natural fear response and the tools we need to manage it effectively. Join us to learn more about understanding and overcoming anxiety so you can live a life that feels right for you!   Ellen Vora, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher, and she is the author of the bestselling book The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health, considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root.    In this episode, you'll learn: • What the body's fear response is and how to recognize it • The importance of addressing anxiety holistically • Tools for managing anxiety in the long-term • Dr. Vora's personal story and journey with healing from anxiety   Tune in to gain greater insight into your own fear response and learn practical tips for regaining control. This episode will help you reclaim your power over fear and live a life full of joy, peace, and resilience. Let's jump right in!   Don't forget to share, subscribe and leave a review if you like what you heard! We look forward to hearing from you! Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you next time!   (00:00): Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way. Alan Watts. In this episode we talk about if you're suffering from anxiety and or on medications for anxiety, what you might be doing wrong in your approach, and how to recognize and solve the underlying problem. Stay tuned.   (00:29): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.   (01:22): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyirin. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today we are talking all about the anatomy of anxiety with a true expert who's written an amazing book and has incredible insight. She has a similar journey to mine in that she was trained as a medical doctor. She went into psychiatry and really realized that we weren't helping people with giving drugs and doing surgery, and she found a better way. And now she has dedicated her life to educating others about the anatomy of anxiety and what's really going on behind the scenes. She is an incredible person. She offered this quote to me that I love from Alan Watts, who's an amazing philosopher. And this is what it says, problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.   (02:20): So what does this mean? It means if you have a problem that hasn't been solved, you're asking the wrong question. And I once was in a coaching program with Mary Morrisey, who's amazing coach and spiritual leader, and she was talking about the importance of the right question and that if given an hour to formulate the answer to a problem, you should spend 55 minutes on formulating the right question that will give you the answer. And I have found that so much to be true. I always tell people with your health that if you, you have persistent health symptoms, diagnoses, medications, problems, whatever you wanna call it, something's not right with your health, then you haven't asked the right question. It's asking the right questions that is invaluable to fixing your health. And unfortunately, as a mainstream doctor, I didn't know the right questions to ask.   (03:20): Now I know the questions to ask, so I'm gonna help you ask the right question. And if you're dealing with anxiety, which millions of us do at some point in our life, many of us chronically, or we've got a loved one who's dealing with it, and it can be debilitating, prevent you from having relationships or working and all kinds of things. And if that's you or someone you know, you wanna listen up because you need to know about the anatomy of anxiety. And Dr. Vora is an expert at this. She's really taken a deep dive in her book. She's a beautiful way of looking at it. I'll tell you a little bit more about her and then we'll get started. So Ellen Vora is a medical doctor. She's a board certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist and yoga teacher, and she's the author of the bestselling book, the Anatomy of Anxiety, understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health, considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Welcome, Dr. Ellen Vora to the show.   (04:18): Thank you so much for having me.   (04:20): I am so excited to dive into this topic with you. A lot of my listeners know that anxiety was a huge part of my story. I didn't really suffer from anxiety at a young age. It wasn't a problem and it really started in my forties and it got so severe that everybody knows this for that and depression. I was on five psychoactive medications at one point and the doctor told me, you will never get off of these. I couldn't even hardly function even with those five medications, I was so anxious my body would tremble, but I had nothing to be anxious about. And I know that you talk about this , so I kind of wanna dive in there. And this is for the people who have maybe been dealing with their anxiety their whole lives. Maybe they just deal with anxiety most recently. Maybe they have a loved one who has anxiety. It's so problematic and it's so debilitating. So I don't even know where to start. So I'm gonna just say, Ellen, start . Start where you think, why is this such a problem that affects so many people?   (05:30): Yeah. So the way you and I were both taught to think about anxiety, you know, we were taught in medical school to evaluate it according to the D S M, our Bible of mental health, a diagnostic statistical manual. And we're really most of all indoctrinated with the idea that our mental health issues are the results of a genetic chemical imbalance. This is our monoamine theory of depression, where we say it's your serotonin. You were born with jeans that meant that you had low serotonin, but that's okay cuz you're alive in 2023 and we have a pill that can fix that. So here, take this pill and it will fill up your empty serotonin tank and everything will be honky dory. Again. It's a nice story. I think it came primarily from well-meaning scientists using deductive reasoning when they saw that certain tuberculosis medications that manipulated serotonin seem to raise some people's moods.   (06:23): But it turns out it's not a true story. And it, you know, that the idea there, the implication is if you take these pills, it's gonna fix your depression. I think many people listening who have had an one or another experience with psychiatric medications, even if they're net on the whole helpful, this story's not quite so clean and simple. And so I also think what's important is that when we focus on the genetic chemical imbalance, that is our least hopeful narrative when it comes to mental health. It tells us it's a fixed trait, it's our destiny. We're broken, we're stuck. And I have observed through 10 years of practice that this is patently false. This is not true of mental health. And while genes do play a role, it is only ever a predisposition in functional medicine. As you know, we say genes loads the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger.   (07:18): So when we only focus on genes, that keeps us feeling like this is our destiny. I will always be depressed, I will always be anxious when we shift our focus to the environmental influences that also have an enormous impact on our mental health. Well, there's something we can do about that. Sleep and nutrition, inflammation, hormones, gut health, and then more psycho-spiritual aspects of mental health, community nature, feeling of a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives being of service. All of this also impacts our mental health, and there's a lot more we can do about that. So I prefer to shift our focus to what we can control. And I want people to know they're not stuck even if they've felt depressed or anxious. You asked, why are so many people anxious right now? I think that there's two big reasons. When I think about anxiety, I, I divide it into two categories.   (08:09): False anxiety and true anxiety. Where false anxiety is physical anxiety, it's based in the physical body and it's avoidable, it's related to inflammation or sleep deprivation or a blood sugar crash or a hangover. And we are these days swimming through a cesspool of causes of false anxiety. We are all inundated with environmental influences that are making us more anxious than people were even 30 years ago. But then the other piece of this is our true anxiety, which is purposeful anxiety. It's not something to pathologize, it's not something to suppress. And we don't get to fix it by simply going gluten free or switching to decaf coffee. This is our inner compass. It's nudging us, asking us to slow down and pay attention to what's not not right in the world. And these days we are also inundated with quite a lot that's not right around us.   (09:01): So we come by our true anxiety, honestly. And the good news is, whether it's our false anxiety or our true anxiety, there's a lot that we can do to support ourselves. And so I think that we are all so anxious these days, but we've been trained to think about mental health incorrectly, letting us feel stuck and thinking that the menu of possibilities to support our mental health is just medication and therapy. And I want people to know, first of all, there's always reason for hope, never a reason to despair. And that there's so many other strategies we can take to support our mental health.   (09:36): I think that is so important. And I love this, the concept you have of false anxiety and true anxiety. Is that what you called it? Yeah.   (09:45): Yeah. I think that's brilliant. Because , the body can cause anxiety and most people think, oh, it's a mental process, it's a mental problem. And like I said, I didn't have any reason to be anxious. There was no mental issue. Well, I was kind of on off my path and I think that , that was the problem. , I was so off my path, but also I had so much inflammation and hormone imbalance and toxicity and my body was, I didn't realize that that vibrating tremoring shaking was my body screaming that it needed help. You know, because we were both trained the same traditional medical doctor program and what would we do? Pill for every ill surgery for every symptom. So that's what I went to a doctor like that, a psychiatrist, and he just kept prescribing and kept adding. And you know, thank God, fast forward, I am off all psychoactive medications. I don't need any, once I fixed all the underlying problems and got on my path, ,   (10:52): That's exactly it. The false and s true dichotomy. And I think, you know, not to project, but I was in the same situation where to be a medical resident, I was in so many false moods because I was inflamed, chronically sleep deprived, absolutely malnourished, you know, overfed, but undernourished and my hormones were all whack, which is a consequence of everything else. Yeah. Out of balance. And so I had a lot of false moods. But there's also that true mood that is if you went into medicine because you actually wanted to make a difference and support people, for many of us, we wake up to the the deep crisis and disenchantment of what is the system I'm a part of? I'm not convinced that I'm helping people. I'm not convinced that I'm not harming people. And so that's true Anxiety right there for you, a textbook example, and it's beautiful that you were aware of both of these things.   (11:44): It's unfortunate that our system these days is such that if you go in and you say, I'm really not feeling okay, all we know to offer people is medication. And there's a path there that is concerning to me. And it's, it's difficult to convey this without, I don't mean this as an non-pharmacologic path. I'm a psychiatrist, I prescribe medication. I've seen them benefit people. Absolutely. But what I see so often is someone says to their primary care doctor or their psychiatrist, I'm not feeling great. And they say, you know, in the 15 minutes they have with you, well, okay, like take Lexapro. And then you start Lexapro, and then you get sexual side effects, then you add Wellbutrin, and then maybe you're not really sleeping and you add Ambien and then you can't really focus during the day. You add Adderall and then you're anxious and then they add Xanax.   (12:30): And before you know it, you have a cocktail of medication. And the piece of this that's most damning is that it's delicate to talk about this without, I recognize some people really need their medication. Sometimes we need more informed consent. But I think what also happens is that the medications themselves can make us more fragile. The medications beget the need for themselves. Take Xanax for example. It's very effective in the short term, in the medium and long term. It exacerbates the very problem it's set out to treat in the first place. It makes us more anxious. And we can talk about the biochemistry of that. So once somebody's on a cocktail of medication, not only are they deeply plugged into the system, but they're very neurochemically fragile at that point. And it's hard to be well on your own. And you start to think of yourself as very sick and needing a lot of medication, needing a lot of support, you're spending a lot of time standing online at the Walgreens. And it just, it leads people down a path that I, it makes me from some days sad and other days outraged to think about how many people we've plugged into this life without first asking, how are you sleeping? Do you have community in your life? What's your diet look like? Are you pooping every day? Simple diet and lifestyle strategies that we can do to address mental health At the   (13:47): Root, I think, oh gosh, everything you're saying is just giving me chills because ev people need to hear this. So if you're listening , maybe if you need this information, yayu, please share it. It is so vital because we have a mental health crisis and it needs to be addressed and people aren't going to get this information in their doctor's office. So please share this with all the women in your life. So I wanna dive in because you said ha, if you, that we don't ask about how are you sleeping? We don't ask, do you have community? We don't ask, are you pooping every day? And there's some people listening who are going, if I have anxiety, why would someone care if I'm pooping every day? If I'm anxious? Why do people care? Why should the doctor care if I have community? So can you start to help people understand what, what's going on? Why, why is this important? Right? We've established that the gene hypothesis is not a thing, but help them understand why, how this is, what's the manifestation of how does anxiety come about through the body?   (14:49): Yes. Great question. And so fundamentally, first we just have to acknowledge that we are taught to think of mental health from the neck up to say, here's where mental health happens and only here. And that's of course a very modern and very western view of the body as discrete organ systems that aren't talking to each other. There's a line in my book, which is, your brain and your gut are talking to each other, even if you're a psychiatrist or your gastroenterologist are not. And eastern modalities have always appreciated this, right? Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, they know about the richly interconnected web of communication and interrelationships between all of our organs and our organ systems. And so it's crazy to the way, I mean, at some point we're all gonna see it. We're gonna be like, wait, that is bananas. That we think that mental health is just the brain.   (15:35): The brain is a piece of flesh. It is impacted by everything else going on in the body. If you are inflamed, if you are micronutrient deficient, if your blood sugar is crashing, you better believe that impacts your brain health. And good mental health is in many ways a reflection of two main things. It's good physical health, it's a reflection of good, healthy brain health. And it's a reflection of us getting our fundamental human psychospiritual needs met. And so when those two things are in place, we tend to feel pretty good. Trauma is its own consideration, which we can go a bit more into. So if you take the gut, for example, when someone's thinking, well, I'm anxious, why are they asking me about my pooping? That seems crazy. , that's, that's my, that's my digestive tract. Well, three main pathways for how our gut is impacting our brain health.   (16:20): I'll first just open with the fact that we are now at a point where publicly we have a conversation about the fact that our brain impacts our gut. We know now that if we're anxious, if we're chronically stressed, this will impact our digestion. Someone with IBS or irritable bowel syndrome might say, I know that stress is impacting my ibs. So we appreciate top-down communication, but where we're headed is that we also have to appreciate it is a two-way street. It is a bidirectional relationship between the gut and the brain. So just as there's top down communication, there is also bottom up communication. The health of the gut is impacting the state of our brain. And it's happening along a number of different pathways. One very simple one is that there are bacteria in our gut that are involved in the synthesis of certain neurotransmitters. We talk a lot about serotonin, but my pet favorite neurotransmitter is gaba. (17:15): We don't talk enough about gaba. It's critical to anxiety and it's manufactured by certain B species that we're supposed to have in our gut. But if we're taking multiple courses of antibiotics and we're not consuming fermented foods and we're not around soil or animal feces, which sounds gross, but this is part of how we maintain a diverse ecosystem of beneficial bacteria in our digestive tract. If we're missing critical microbes, we might be missing critical neurotransmitters like gaba. And then there's the fact that our gut is involved with inflammation, which itself directly, directly impacts brain health and anxiety levels. But the one that I find most interesting is the communication along the vagus nerve that's basically reporting on the state of affairs of our gut up to our brain all the time. And if it's saying everything is copacetic down here, go have a great day.   (18:05): Well that's great, but if your gut is in rough shape, if you've taken antibiotics, if you've consumed pro processed foods, if you're inflamed, then it's sending a memo constantly up to the brain saying things are rough down here, feel uneasy. It's designed to motivate us to rest, to make different choices so that we can heal. But instead, I think a lot of us go through our lives in a state of chronic low-grade anxiety just because we're in a state of chronic poor health of our digestive tract, which we come by honestly, because modern life makes a broad assault against the health of our guts, from our chlorinated tap water, antibiotics, processed food, alcohol, NSAIDs, lack of exposure to fermented foods and and microbes. And so here we are, all of us with really unhealthy guts and it's directly impacting our mental health.   (18:55): So important, the information that you just shared. And I was listening to, I'm listening to Peter Levine's new book about trauma and memory, and he was talking about the ratio of the ENT nerves. So the nerves in the VA that bring information from the gut, the ratio of those to the efferent that innovate the motor is five to one. Yeah,   (19:15):   (19:16): , and I had forgotten that from med school, but wow. So your body really prioritizes what is going on in the gut, which I believe in Chinese medicine they call the second brain. And so I think most people just don't get it. And you know, we're downing, and I can be guilty of this too, sometimes eating proc over highly processed foods. Oh you know, those chips are so good and , things like that. And then, and then I might wonder the next day why, and I'm not feeling great. I mean, at this point I kind of know, so I'm not willing to pay the price. But every now and then I do. But your gut is so key. So everybody listening, this is why what your poop habits matter and pooping once a week is not okay. If you're listening, I, so many people come to me and they say, well, I only poop once a week. I've been that way my whole life. That's my normal. And I'm like, yeah, but that's not okay. All right. So this false anxiety that's coming from the gut, everybody, if you're having, so some people are listening and they're thinking, oh, okay, I identify with some of these things, Dr. Ellen I'm gonna go to my doctor and ask to be referred to a gastroenterologist. So what's gonna happen is that idea,   (20:27): This is a big problem. Broadly, this happens with mental health too. We think like we just need better access. We need better access to mental health care. Like, oh, now you just gave me a light bulb aha moment that my gut is impacting my mental health. So let me go see a gastroenterologist. We know how this story ends. If you see that psychiatrist, if you had better access to mental health, you walk out with a prescription and it leads to more prescriptions if you go to see a gastroenterologist. All due respect, I, some of my family friends, I, I love my gastroenterologist buddies and colleagues. I think they're brilliant and wonderful healers. But the training in medicine, we always have this saying garbage in, garbage out. They are not trained to do any kind of root cause resolution or to approach the chronic degenerative, chronic low-grade inflammation issues in a supportive way.   (21:14): We are taught to react in, in a quite a heroic way to problems. So we have lots of great suppressive medications that can squash your immune system, that can basically say, well you're inflamed in your gut, let's just shut down the immune system. And then inflammation is gone and you feel better symptomatically temporarily. But we've done nothing to address it at the root actually we've done something, we've exacerbated the original problem. So I think that the problem is our training and if you are having an aha moment, which is that you have unhealthy gut health and then that's impacting your mental health, you're probably better served going to see a naturopath or a functional medicine doc. I think that they actually are virtuosic at understanding how the gut gets out of balance and how to support that. That will make an enormous difference in your mental health but also in your physical health more broadly. And even just improving your gut health is a direct impact on our quality of life. Going from pooping once a week to pooping every day is, it changes everything. And how we feel. I've got, I've gone on that journey myself   (22:15): And . Yeah.   (22:17): To actually have that working every day is victorious. I never, I still don't take it for granted at this point, probably like 20 years into that. So I think that you'd wanna get your care in a more holistic setting so that you're not just suppressing functions in the body. Symptoms suppressing it turns out is it's a beautiful thing that western medicine can do when the problem is really big. If you have already had a car accident or a heart attack or you already have cancer, I think our ability to do heroics and suppress symptoms and really fundamentally change the body is a beautiful thing about Western medicine. But so much of what ails us are these subtler, chronic degenerative diseases, chronic inflammatory conditions that are as resulting from modern life. And when we go in with heroics, we actually make the original problem worse. So you wanna go into a holistic treatment where they're thinking, oh, here are the inputs that are irritating the system. Here are the inputs that you're missing. Let's give the body what it needs and then trust that the body knows what to do with that. And it can heal itself.   (23:17): Does body super intelligent like , we couldn't create a human body and it knows what to do. So sometimes you just get out of the way, get the things out of the way, blocking it, give it the things it needs and then watch it heal. And you know, I had this vision when you were talking about the pooping, cuz I went through that phase two now it's like when you make a beautiful poop in the toilet every time you eat, cuz that's how nature created you. You literally should jump up. Like you gotta field goal and be like, yay , yay me. Right? Not just for little kids anymore that yay you pooped in the potty, but yay pooped in the pot.   (23:58): A hundred percent .   (24:00): I do wanna talk about trauma. You mentioned it earlier. It ended up being a huge part of my story, which I actually didn't know. I didn't, I knew I had a crappy childhood. My mom used to have this tote bag that was of this, this cartoon woman and and it said let's put the fun back in dysfunctional. We had dysfunction in my family for sure, but I didn't know that I had trauma. And then that was part of this, the latter part of my journey. After I healed my gut and got off all the medications, well then my body was like, well now we gotta deal with this residual trauma. And so that was another part of my journey. So I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that and how it relates to anxiety and what do you do about that?   (24:45): Yeah, I mean trauma is such a big and heavy topic and I think that the tricky thing about it is that the brain learns that's what brains do. And when you are in an unsafe environment, a chaotic environment, a dysfunctional environment, when there is a real risk to your bodily safety or to somebody near to you, very understandably, the brain adapts and it learns to be hyper-vigilant, to be on high alert. And that's an adaptation in an unsafe setting. If you're living in a war zone, if you're in a traumatic childhood, you want to be hypervigilant in a state of hyper arousal. This keeps you safe, it helps your survival. So I think it's really important to first just give grace and compassion to the fact that this was how your brain and your body responded. The tricky thing is that if you're lucky enough to then no longer be in as unsafe of an environment, this adaptation becomes a mal adaptation because now you are stuck with the foot almost stuck on the accelerator pedal, your limbic system, your amygdala, your brain is stuck and locked into a position of hyper arousal and hypervigilance.   (25:50): And not only is that a really unpleasant and anxiety provoking state to go through life and it, you're basically perceiving threat even when there is none. It distorts your view of reality. But then also it's very hard to heal or be well in other ways because a lot of our healing hinges on a particular fulcrum in the nervous system. Whether our nervous system is in a tone of sympathetic or parasympathetic. And now with polyvagal theory it's more complex. But I think that, you know, the most simple understanding is are you in a state of stress or are you in a state of relaxation? And when you're in a state of relaxation, your gut can heal, you can sleep deeply and well and then everything else can heal while you're asleep. You can feel a sense of calm and awe and gratitude. And when you're in a state of stress, everything is, there's a triage mechanism that happens in the body.   (26:38): The body basically says, this is not the time for housekeeping, this is not the time for healing or repair work. This is the time for dealing with the threat. And so we can go our entire lives triaging out of housekeeping, triaging out of repair work in our bodies because our body is still stuck in that state of we have something to be stressed about. And so the trouble with trauma is when we get stuck. And that's where I think trauma focused therapies that work at the level of the limbic system, whether that's E M D R or somatic experiencing therapy or something like DN r s or primal trust, something that's going in and with precision really reprogramming the limbic system and where it hangs out so that it can start to understand that was then this is now. And we don't, we no longer need that now maladaptive state of hyper arousal. And I think that that can help people who have a history of trauma move forward from a place of a calmer limbic system, the ability to be in a state of relaxation.   (27:37): So some people listening, because this was me before I realized I had trauma, are thinking, oh, I don't have any, I didn't have any trauma . I'm just wondering how would somebody know that you might be talking to them that they might be a candidate for having trauma. So if you could talk a little bit about what trauma is. I mean I used to think, you know, nobody beat me when I was a kid. I didn't have trauma, right? I didn't have this extreme thing so I didn't have trauma. And then come to find out I had a lot of things I didn't remember that happened and that I did qualify. So I just want to wondering what you might say to those people who are wondering, could this apply to me? I   (28:24): Think it's a really good question and I'm not sure I have a great answer. I think that one thing I'm always on the lookout for is like a heightened startled response. Like , you know, somebody closes a door behind you and you jump at a proportion to what it is like, is your body basically perceiving threat disproportionate to, to what's happening around you? Any state of hyper arousal. But I think that I'd be so curious. I think in a way I am, I have a handicap, which is that people come to me already saying I need help. And so I think I'm less good at the phase that happens in the lead up, which is going from, I'm not sure I have a problem to realizing that we do. So I'd be so curious to hear what shifted for you and how did you start to pick up on the fact that you were holding trauma?   (29:09): Oh, , that's a long story. Let me see what the short version is. But basically, you know, there's this compulsion when you've had traumatic interpersonal relationships, particularly with your primary caregivers when you're young to have that repetition compulsion. And so it was a repetition compulsion relationship issue that sent me into having acute P T S D symptoms. And then it was, oh my gosh, what is happening then? Then that's when I discovered, oh yeah, I was traumatized. And through some of the modalities you mentioned then uncovered memories ca you did go through an alphabet soup there, kind of, which I know some people Yes. Are going what, so for those people who, you know, even have an inkling that it might, this might be who you do want and I would love it if you could talk about what is a trauma informed therapist, what credentials they might have, but also some of the modalities you mentioned.   (30:09): Yeah, so let's see if I can define those. The alphabet soup, I think the first one I said was E M D R, which I believe stands for I movement desensitization and reprocessing. Reprogramming, I mean one of those. And so this is a wonderful non-invasive modality. That's it really. It's, it uses a smart way of kind of distracting the mind as it helps you work through trauma. I think that's a big part of all of the trauma focused therapies is that in a way we need to access the amygdala, the limbic system where the brain is holding onto these memories and work through them without tripping a wire that sets off an all out stress response because then we're just a, an animal against a wall in a very defensive stress response and not a lot of fruitful work can happen in that state.   (30:55): So a lot of these therapies really figure out a way of, of kind of working around and not tripping that wire in the first place. I mentioned Somatic Experiencing Therapy, a very body-based therapy. I also mentioned D N R S, which stands for Dynamic Neural Retraining System. Hmm. And that, you know, people do rounds and there's a lot of difference in terms of how you talk to yourself and how much you focus on symptoms. And so all different ways for reprogramming. And then Primal Trust is kind of this newer version of of DN r s that I actually really like the evolution there, which is recognizing that there is a body, there's a, this is just like the true anxiety, false anxiety dichotomy that some things are related to our trauma and some things are related to inflammation and caffeine and gluten. And sometimes we need to discern which one to, where do we need to make changes and where do we need to accept and recognize that it's our nervous system creating our symptoms.   (31:52): Okay, thank you for explaining that. And if, if someone also suspects that this, they might be a candidate, how do they find someone who's actually skilled at working with trauma?   (32:04): Yeah, so if you're wanting to do therapy around trauma, it's really important to make sure that someone has, I think, self-described as a trauma-focused therapy. Because any kind of therapist, whether it's a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a licensed mental health counselor, family mari, marital therapist, basically if we're not trained and I'm not right, if you're not trained in, in trauma focused therapy, then what you do is you do talk therapy. And talk therapy is not only often ineffective for trauma but can be actively unhelpful, can be retraumatizing. And so I think it's critical to work with one of these less verbal, more limbic based modalities. And so look for those words on someone's website. And if you wanna start by doing something on your own, if you kind of have the safety and the leeway to do that, something like Primal Trust is a good place to start. This is something you can do for yourself and there are support groups you can join, there are coaches you can work with and that's a really nice system. And if you're not finding the perfect word of mouth trauma-focused therapist in your area that's affordable and taking new patients and working with your insurance, starting with something like Primal Trust is a great, is a great place to start.   (33:13): Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing those resources. We have to talk about this topic before we wrap up, so hopefully everybody listening will give us a little few more minute leeway. This idea of being off your path and what is your path and how does that create anxiety? That was a huge part of my story and exactly what you described, Ellen, where I had gone into medicine because I knew I wanted to work with women and help them with their health. And I said, well how, what will gimme the biggest toolbox in order to do that? So of course I went and got my medical doctorate and then was disillusioned when I was in practice that exactly what you said, I started saying, are we really helping anyone? We're harming people. And that was off my path, but I didn't know what to do about it and of course had my own health challenges so that discordance created this anxiety. So I'm wondering if you can talking, talk about that a little bit.   (34:09): Yeah, I mean and it's, it's interesting I think even how both of us, I've never thought about it this way before but in a meta way getting off our path was a very critical part of our path . And so go figure, you know, it's just giving people permission to slow down, get still and just tune in like how are we doing? Like not like are your parents approving of what you're doing? Do your friends, are they impressed by it? How's your bank account? But like how are you really doing? What are your values? What kind of life do you wanna live? What makes you feel fulfilled? And is that happening or are you on track towards building a life where that is happening? And if you feel like you might be way off course, we have a world that gives us a lot of junky values where it tells us like here's what you should be striving for, have this kind of skin and this kind of car and this kind of money and this kind of impressive job and this kind of attractive partner and have these perfect kids.   (35:05): And you know, it tells us, here's what Instagram is telling you what we like, you know, literally what we like, what get gathers likes and who is to say any of that is what fulfills you or what feels right or familiar for you. And so I think it's just so important to step out of the framework and the conditioning that we've all inherited and just know for yourself what is right for you. And then make sure that you're actually on the path towards building toward that if you don't already have it. And it's certainly not moving actively in the wrong, wrong direction. And so this sometimes has a lot of inconvenient truths, it can blow up our lives, right? You can feel like, you can feel like you just gave 10 years a lot of student debt, blood, sweat and tears to medical trading and you're like, holy, I'm harming people.   (35:52): What the hell did I just do . And so I think that I love my friend Brit Frank, brilliant therapist and she says, choose your hard. And there are these moments when you realize you're off your path and you're like, it would be really hard to get back on a path and it would be so much harder to live the rest of your life this far off your path. And so sometimes we really do have to choose that short-term, really hard blow up our life change to get on our path. And I will be the first to admit it is scary and difficult to do this. But it has to be a, a dance where you're constantly checking in with yourself and from a place of radical self-love and self-worth and also self-love and self-worth that helps guide us back. But also, and this one's big and sometimes harder for us to realize this is my worldview.   (36:38): It doesn't have to be everyone's but a recognition that we have a unique set of gifts and perspectives and insights and talents that we have to offer this world. It's a contribution that we only us can uniquely make. And I think I have a lot of friends right now, they're coming to me and being like, how do I change my career and do something more meaningful? And they feel like, how would I have the audacity to think I could be an artist or I could be a healer or I could be a writer, whatever it is. And I think the question is really like how could you have the audacity to think that you should suppress these gifts? Like this world assigns you a mission, we desperately need you doing that work. Who are you to block that from being manifest in this world?   (37:22): Oh my God so beautifully said. It reminds me of Maryanne Williamson's. I think it's in Return to Love where she says like, you know, it's not our darkness that scares us, it's our light. And who are we not to express our light? And that's really one of the reasons that I do what I do is because I think some people are only gonna hear it from me. Some people are only gonna hear it from you Ellen, right? So if your unique voice is missing from the choir that's singing the song of true health and healing, then there are women and men who aren't gonna hear it and they're not gonna get the memo. But you listening, you're so lucky cuz you are here and you heard it from Dr. Ellen yourself. So for me, a key part was being off the path and I didn't know, I knew I was on the wrong path, but I didn't know what the right path was.   (38:15): And through a series of synchronous events, the universe conspiring to get me on the right path, you know, I got there. Unfortunately, I did have to blow up a lot of things in my life and I'm all the better for it. So yeah, choose your heart. I love that This has been so rich and so wonderful. I am so happy to have you here. I'm so, if you're listening, you just got a huge big gift to hear this woman share her brilliance and her journey and I so encourage you to get her book. She has a free gift free, we're gonna tell you about that. The link will be in the show notes. So tell them about your free gift, your book, where to find you online.   (38:56): Sure, yeah. At one point you were asking like, you know, if you go in, if your doctor's asking you like, well, you know, you're feeling like what does white gut have to do with my mental health? I was just thinking like , the only way I can summarize that is the two 50 pages of my book that are like, here's what your gut has to do with your mental health and here's what your thyroid and your nutrition and your hormones and your caffeine consumption and alcohol and so on and so forth that a lot of that's not fun. Like the chapters on alcohol and caffeine, everybody's least favorite chapters but impactful, right? Nonetheless. So my book is called The Anatomy of Anxiety and it really details this concept of true anxiety and false anxiety and, and how we can work with both and experience less anxiety, but also to fuel, let that purposeful anxiety, fuel purposeful action. My free gift is, I think it's called Dr. Vos Four Keys to Health. And it's like, it's the one page version of my book . I said my best to make it concise if people wanna interact. I'm pretty active on Instagram. I'm at Ellen Vora, md.   (39:55): Awesome, thank you so much Ellen. Any last words you want to offer? Everybody listening before we go?   (40:04): I think in addition to everything else we've covered, if there's two things that Trump all like everything, how we support our mental health, I think on a physical level at sleep, if you could focus on only one thing, it's prioritizing better sleep, which in the postmenopausal or perimenopausal body is always its own special tricky journey. But there are things we can do That's chapter five of my book. Even though perimenopausal sleep is is tough, there's still things we can do to support it. And then I think community on the psychospiritual end of things, if you could choose only one thing that trumps everything else, it's just prioritizing, making sure we're actually connecting with the people that fill us up. And it's hard in modern life, but it's really worth fighting for.   (40:47): So important I call sleep the nectar of life. , I preach it all the time, but now I realize I forgot to ask you such an important question. So if you'll allow me one more. You know, this time of life, midlife and beyond, I think, you know, I think it's so the Dai Lamas quoted as saying that the western woman will save the world and I think it's the western menopausal woman. Mm. And I'm wondering apropo, our que our conversation about life path and blowing up your life and switching your path , and I see so many women who are stuck in these lives that they've realized they're not really in alignment with, whether it's a marriage or a job or a career and they wanna make changes. I'm just wondering if you have any insight or or words of wisdom for them about, you know, I can't remember and maybe it's in the book of Thomas, in the Bible it says, if you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you don't bring forth what is within you, it will kill you basically. That's my paraphrasing. Yeah. Can you speak to that?   (41:50): Oh, I love this question. I mean, I think about menopause. Let me see if I can do this in like less than an hour. . So I think about, I don't know if you were taught this, I think I was actually taught this undergraduate and not medical school, which is that menopause is this oddity evolutionarily because it's by definition post reproductive. So it's very hard for us to select four genes that make for a better menopause. It doesn't work for survival of the fittest because even if somebody did have a mutation that gave them a better menopause, then you know, it dies with them and there's no way for them to have had a more successful reproductive life for having that gene. So in a way the body reacts in a way that would be adaptive to something that happens in the reproductive life. And so in many ways that crash in hormones, if it resembles any crash in hormones in our reproductive years, it's actually the postpartum period.   (42:39): So in some sense, the way our body reacts in the menopausal years is what would be adaptive in the postpartum period. You should mobilize calcium from your bones to make breast milk. You should radiate heat to keep the baby warm. You should have very superficial sleep so that you'll wake up if you hear the baby cry. And it's like, well that's all well and good if you have a newborn. And man, is it a bummer if you're in your forties and fifties and you're just trying to live. But I think that it comes with it, this concept of it's a bit of a rebirth, but there isn't a baby. This is a rebirth of a a different and in certain ways truer version of ourselves. And I think that estrogen is the hormone that helps us keep the peace. Because in primate populations, the more interpersonally effective you are, the more reproductive successful you are.   (43:25): Estrogen makes us say yes and nod and smile and suppress our own needs in favor of other people's. And that's fun, but it's not necessarily our deeper truth. And so we have a cultural attitude, which is that menopause is unfortunate because we don't value wisdom and age and we only value youth. And this is a whole other problem. But can we reframe the whole dang thing to realize this is a rebirth when we have waning levels of estrogen and we no longer are hormonally programmed to keep the peace and suppress our own needs in favor of other people's needs. This is a rebirth where we are the baby, where we get to say, it's my turn and here's my truth and here's what I know I want and it's gonna ruffle some feathers and not everyone is gonna like this. And that no longer really matters to me.   (44:16): , I love that. Oh my gosh, that is spam. Okay, it's gonna take me like a week to unpack what you just said. That was amazing. I hope you all heard that. If you need to listen to that again, because that's just so insightful and revolutionary and I love it. Thank you again so much for being here. Thank you for sharing just your brilliance and beauty with everyone. I hope you will take action listeners from what you have heard today. You know, always I, I know I beat the drum of the sleeping, the nectar of light, but it really is. So go do that and get yourself pooping every day and give yourself a high five when you make a nice Nike Swoosh in the toilet . So this and more information on how to get your hormone today. We'll have another great rest for you next week. Thanks so much for joining me and until next week, peace,   (45:15): Love, and the   (45:16): Hormones y'all.   (45:17): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.   ► Get a FREE copy of Dr. Ellen Vora's "4 Keys to Health." - CLICK HERE.   ► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?   It might be time to check your hormones.   Most people don't even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what's going on with your hormones and get you back on track.   We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.   Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before.   CLICK HERE to sign up.    

My favorite thing in the world to talk about is books and while I will always have occasional reading episodes here as part of 10 Things To Tell You, did you know that I do a reading roundup every single month as part of my Secret Stuff membership?  Every month on Secret Stuff I share what I've been reading lately (the good, the bad, and the unfinished), and I wanted you to have a sneak peek to what one of those episodes sounds like.  In addition to the monthly reading roundup, when you join Secret Stuff you also get personal episodes, bonus content and merch, and TWO monthly zooms led by me!  CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT SECRET STUFF This episode is presented ad free like all Secret Stuff episodes.    FULL SHOW NOTES FOR THIS EPISODE ARE HERE   MENTIONED in this episode: Kindle Paperwhite vs. Kindle Oasis   What Laura Read: Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response by Ellen Vora, M.D. We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng Spare by Prince Harry    On Laura's TBR List: How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix  Elektra by Jennifer Saint  Toad by Katherine Dunn  My Heart is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro    Books Coming Out This Year that Laura is Excited About: Exiles by Jane Harper I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai  You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith  Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld  Those We Thought We Knew by David Joy  Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah  The Ferryman by Justin Cronin  Congratulations, The Best is Over! by R. Eric Thomas  The Cook's Book by Bri McKoy The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs by Laura Tremaine  Also mentioned: Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson  Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson  Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng  Geek Love by Katherine Dunn  The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones  The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai  Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah The Passage by Justin Cronin   SUBSCRIBE to 10 Things To Tell You so you never miss an episode! CLICK HERE for episode show notes FOLLOW @10ThingsToTellYou on Instagram FOLLOW @10ThingsToTellYou on Facebook JOIN the 10 Things To Tell You Connection Group SIGN UP for episode emails, links, and show notes JOIN the Secret Stuff patreon BUY THE BOOK: Share Your Stuff. I'll Go First. by Laura Tremaine PREORDER: The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs by Laura Tremaine

In this extra bitesize episode Clemmie explores the challenges and causes of anxiety with psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher Dr Ellen Vora, who specialises in depression, anxiety, insomnia, women's mental health, adult ADHD, bipolar, autoimmunity and digestive issues. She also wrote The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. Ellen takes a functional medicine approach to mental health, considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root, and she and Clemmie cover all that and more in this episode including the impact of diet and alcohol on anxiety. It's the episode Clemmie wishes a younger Clemmie had been able to listen to! Check out Ellen's work at Ellen Vora, MD - A new approach to mental health, find Clemmie on Instagram @Clemmie_Telford and get more podcast content @butwhy_podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Birch Living and InsideTracker.Blood sugar is starting to get more of the attention it deserves in terms of optimizing metabolic health, but there's one issue that often gets left out of the equation—anxiety. The way our blood sugar, insulin, and other hormones respond to sugar and starch wreaks havoc on our mental and emotional wellness. Yet most people struggling with anxiety and depression are given medications without any consideration of their diet and lifestyle choices.On today's mini-episode, Dhru sits down with Dr. Ellen Vora to talk about the hidden root causes of anxiety and what you can do to beat it today.Dr. Vora is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, yoga teacher, and author of The Anatomy of Anxiety. She takes a Functional Medicine approach to mental health—considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her BA from Yale University and her MD from Columbia University. In this episode we dive into:-The hidden root causes of anxiety -The connection between blood sugar dysregulation and anxiety -Women, intermittent fasting, and anxiety -Caffeine consumption and anxiety -Understanding psychiatric medication in treating anxiety -Tools to help mitigate anxiety Also mentioned in this episode:-4-7-8 Breathing Technique-Amma (Extended Mix) by James Asher Listen to the full episode here. For more on Dr. Ellen Vora, follow her on Instagram @ellenvoramd, Facebook @ellenvoramd, TikTok @ellenvoramd, YouTube @ellenvoramd, and through her website, ellenvora.com. Get her book, The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response, here.This episode is brought to you by Birch Living and InsideTracker.Birch mattress by Helix is made out of organic latex, organic cotton, New Zealand wool, and American steel springs. To get $200 off your Birch Living mattress plus two free eco-rest pillows, head over to birchliving.com/dhru today.InsideTracker provides detailed nutrition and lifestyle guidance based on your individual needs. Right now, they're offering my podcast community $200 off Ultimate or 34% off at insidetracker.com/DHRU until the end of the month. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Watching America, host Alan Campbell discusses the increasingly common issue of anxiety with psychiatrist and author Ellen Vora. In Vora's new book, “The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response,” she considers how imbalances in the body affect emotional states. Vora offers new insight based on her own clinical work. ellenvora.com

In this episode Clemmie explores the challenges and causes of anxiety with psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher Dr Ellen Vora, who specialises in depression, anxiety, insomnia, women's mental health, adult ADHD, bipolar, autoimmunity and digestive issues. She also wrote The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. Ellen takes a functional medicine approach to mental health, considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root, and she and Clemmie cover all that and more in this episode including the impact of diet and alcohol on anxiety. It's the episode Clemmie wishes a younger Clemmie had been able to listen to! Check out Ellen's work at Ellen Vora, MD - A new approach to mental health and find Clemmie on Instagram @Clemmie_Telford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is one of my favorite episodes to date. I connected with Dr. Ellen Vora on an amazing level. She really got me and communicated about mental health in a way that strongly resonated. Ellen Vora, MD, is a holistic psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health—considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. We hit some GREAT topics, including the meanings of "false" and "true" anxiety, tips for coping with these anxieties, considering mental illnesses as symptoms vs. diagnoses, and how to listen to your body. Plus, I shared more insight into my fertility/pregnancy anxieties - her response was just what I needed. Dr. Vora received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.D. from Columbia University, and she is board-certified in psychiatry and integrative holistic medicine. She is the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response.       This episode is brought to you by WHOOP, Munk Pack and Macy's.   WHOOP isn't just another fitness wearable - it's designed to provide personalized and actionable data based on your body. Go to WHOOP.com today and use code WHIT at checkout to save 15% today.   Munk Pack offers Low-sugar, keto-friendly bars which are plant-based, gluten-free and non-GMO. Get 20% off your first purchase of ANY Munk Pack product by visiting Munkpack.com and entering our code WITHWHIT at checkout.   Head on over to Macy's Gift Finder at macys.com/giftfinder to make Dad feel like your #1 this Father's Day.    Produced by Dear Media

This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market and InsideTracker.Blood sugar is starting to get more of the attention it deserves in terms of optimizing metabolic health, but there's one issue that often gets left out of the equation—anxiety. The way our blood sugar, insulin, and other hormones respond to sugar and starch wreaks havoc on our mental and emotional wellness. Yet most people struggling with anxiety and depression are given medications without any consideration of their diet and lifestyle choices.Today on The Dhru Purohit Podcast, Dhru sits down with Dr. Ellen Vora to talk about the hidden root causes of anxiety. Dr. Vora is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, yoga teacher, and author of The Anatomy of Anxiety. She takes a Functional Medicine approach to mental health—considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her BA from Yale University and her MD from Columbia University. In this episode, we dive into: -The hidden root causes of anxiety (2:11)-The connection between blood sugar dysregulation and anxiety (4:15) -Women, intermittent fasting, and anxiety (15:39) -Caffeine consumption and anxiety (25:07)-Social isolation and the importance of creating community (30:02)-Understanding psychiatric medication in treating anxiety (41:52)-Using breath work to treat anxiety (1:05:09)-Tools to help mitigate anxiety (1:13:48)-False anxiety vs. true anxiety (1:23:45) -The role psychedelics play in treating anxiety (1:28:22) Also mentioned in this episode:-4-7-8 Breathing Technique-Amma (Extended Mix) by James Asher For more on Dr. Ellen Vora, follow her on Instagram @ellenvoramd, Facebook @ellenvoramd, TikTok @ellenvoramd, YouTube @ellenvoramd, and through her website, ellenvora.com. Get her book, The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response, here.This episode is brought to you by Thrive Market and InsideTracker.Thrive Market is an online membership-based grocery store that makes eating well convenient and more affordable. Join today at thrivemarket.com/dhru to receive an extra $80 of free groceries off with your first order.InsideTracker provides detailed nutrition and lifestyle guidance based on your individual needs. Right now, they're offering my podcast community 20% off. Just go to insidetracker.com/DHRU to get your discount and try it out for yourself. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sign up to become a Neurocycle Certified Facilitator today and get 25% OFF! The first training will be August 4-7 in Dallas, Texas. Just use code INAUG25 to get your discount: https://neurocycleinstitute.com EPISODE DESCRIPTION: In this podcast I talk to holistic psychiatrist, Dr. Ellen Vora about the importance of taking a functional medicine approach to mental health, addressing imbalances at the root, taking a whole person approach to wellbeing, her amazing new book The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response, exploring what anxiety tells us, why women are often accused of being more anxious than men, anxiety and hormonal changes, and so much more! Read the blog here: https://drleaf.com/blogs/news/the-anatomy-of-anxiety-understanding-overcoming-the-body-s-fear-response Get Dr. Vora's book here: https://ellenvora.com/book/ OFFERS FROM OUR SPONSORS: -Best Fiends: Download Best Fiends for FREE from the App Store or Google play. Plus, earn even more with $5 worth of in-game rewards when you reach level 5. That's Friends, without the r—Best Fiends. -Amen Clinics: Visit amenclinics.com/drleaf and use the promo code DRLEAF10 to get 10% off your first evaluation. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: 4:00 Dr. Vora's new book The Anatomy of Anxiety 4:40 Anxiety is not just in your head 6:00 Why you should stop believing this mental healthcare myth 8:10 Why there is more to mental health than our genes 13:00 There are things we can do right now to improve our mental health! 15:04 How our modern environment can impact our mental health 15:30 Psychotropic medications & mental health 18:00 Anxiety as a signal 19:44 The difference between false anxiety & true anxiety 28:00 Mental health & addressing the whole person 29:20 Women & mental health 40:20 Simple ways to start managing anxiety 42:15 Mental health is physical health ADDITIONAL RESOURCES: -Get my new book Cleaning up Your Mental Mess here: https://www.cleaningupyourmentalmess.com -Download my new and improved brain detox app here: https://neurocycle.app -Get a free Cleaning up Your Mental Mess workbook when you subscribe to my weekly email at drleaf.com! -Sign up to join my free text program and receive mental health care tips. Just text DRLEAF to 1 (833) 285 3747 -Visit my website at https://drleaf.com for more free resources -Instagram: @drcarolineleaf: https://www.instagram.com/drcarolineleaf/- -Facebook: Dr. Caroline Leaf: https://www.facebook.com/drleaf -Twitter: @drcarolineleaf: https://twitter.com/DrCarolineLeaf - Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/drcarolineleaf *DISCLAIMER: This podcast and blog is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. We always encourage each person to make the decision that seems best for their situation with the guidance of a medical professional.

I think when I was starting out, I probably would not have considered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.  I was really focused on stopping my symptoms and I was not the introspective person.    More bullheaded and introspective. I was much more focused on making my symptoms stop.   While doing the things that caused them in the first place.    I can tell you, that's probably not the way to go, but I had to learn from experience as opposed to from intellect. It was a rough road.   In this episode, a look at Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.    If you need support contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255, the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or text “START” to 741-741. Resources Mentioned:  The Anatomy of Anxiety, Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response by Ellen Vora. Link leads to the publisher Harper Collin's page of the book.   Psych Hub video about ACT    Timothy Gordon aka Zen Social Worker video on What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?   Verywell Mind comprehensive post on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.   From the How American Psychological Association there is a therapist locator page as well as a page on How Do I Find a Good Therapist? Disclaimer:  Links to other sites are provided for information purposes only and do not constitute endorsements.  Always seek the advice of a qualified health provider with questions you may have regarding a medical or mental health disorder. This blog and podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing in this program is intended to be a substitute for professional psychological, psychiatric or medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment

More than 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety in any given year. Psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora joins PRETTYSMART to share her functional medicine approach to anxiety and mental health. Psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora joins PRETTYSMART to share her functional medicine approach to anxiety and mental health. She shares: What lifestyle choices could be directly impacting your anxiety (and changes you can make easily.) Foods that could be contributing to your anxiety.  The difference between “True Anxiety and False Anxiety” Why conventional medicine tends to view anxiety as a “neck up” problem (and why that is a problem). Why anxiety is a whole-body condition and not just a brain condition. How to do a “False Mood Inventory” as a way to check in on your mental health.  External factors contributing to our anxiety  Two simple tips to reduce the impacts our phone has on your mental health. The power nature has to help our mental health and how you can tap into it even if you live in a big city.   Ellen Vora, MD attended Columbia University for medical school and received her BA in English from Yale University. She's a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, yoga teacher, and author of The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response.    Follow Dr. Ellen Vora: https://www.instagram.com/ellenvoramd/?hl=en Purchase Anatomy of Anxiety: https://tinyurl.com/2er3dby4

Now is always a good time to talk about anxiety. Although we're feeling okay presently, we know that the wonderful adventure of parenthood will also come with many challenges that will test our relationship with ourselves and one another. Enter Dr. Ellen Vora. Dr. Vora is a holistic psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health—considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.D. from Columbia University, and she is board-certified in psychiatry and integrative holistic medicine. More than 40 million Americans suffer from anxiety in any given year, a number that has only increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. We've long thought of anxiety as a “neck up” problem—a problem of brain chemistry and psychology, but now in The ANATOMY OF ANXIETY: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response, acclaimed psychiatrist Dr. Ellen Vora offers nothing less than a paradigm shift in the way we understand anxiety and mental health. Vora suggests that the symptoms of anxiety are frequently the result of physical imbalance—that is, anxiety is a whole-body condition, not simply a brain condition. In the same way that Bessel van der Kolk's bestselling The Body Keeps Score changed how we understand trauma, The Anatomy of Anxiety will transform our understanding of anxiety. The good news is that this body-based anxiety is treatable—simple solutions include: getting our circadian rhythm back on track; limiting caffeine, and becoming aware of blood sugar and its contribution to “hanxiety.”Connect with Dr. Ellen Vorahttps://ellenvora.comIG: @EllenVoraMDhttps://www.instagram.com/ellenvoramd/YT: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiVEkdGfZmvqfBcPvF9EvJA/videosDr. Vora offers a ton of resources!!! https://ellenvora.com/resources/Get her book, The ANATOMY OF ANXIETY: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Responsehttps://ellenvora.com/book/Thanks to our friends at ADT for making it possible for us to share these stories in a safe and secure place, At Home. https://www.adt.com/AtHomeText 310-496-8667 with your questions for #AtHomePodcast !If you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe, rate and share with a friend! Thank you for being a part of the At Home community! Connect with Linda & Drew: instagram.com/athomeinstagram.com/imlindorkinstagram.com/mrdrewscott#AtHomePodcastTHEME SONG BY: Victoria Shawwww.instagram.com/VictoriaShawMusic Chad Carlsonwww.instagram.com/ChadCarlsonMusic MUSIC COMPOSED AND PRODUCED BY:Rick Russohttps://www.instagram.com/rickrussomusicSpecial thanks to all our At Home homies: PRODUCERS:Brandon AngelenoHanna PhanPOST AUDIO ENGINEER:Chris CobainNicole SchacterWEBSITE:Wesley FriendSERIES PHOTOGRAPHER: Dennys Ilicwww.instagram.com/dennydennSponsored by:ADT: It's important to have not just a beautiful home -- but a smart and safer home.https://www.adt.com/AtHomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, Aleen is joined by Dr. Ellen Vora, who is a holistic and board-certified psychiatrist, medical acupuncturist, yoga teacher and author of the new book The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. Dr. Vora is here to help us break down why we're always anxious, explain *wtf* anxiety actually is and how to identify the root cause. Throughout the conversation, Dr. Vora explains her functional approach to mental health and how our diets, screen time, and quality of sleep can impact our anxiety. She also shares that healing anxiety from a holistic approach may work for people who find that medication does not. We wrap up with sharing ways to help soothe our anxious thoughts and Dr. Vora gives us tips on how to climb out of our “anxious pandemic holes”.

We've long thought of anxiety as a “neck up” problem—a problem of brain chemistry and psychology. But now, in The Anatomy of Anxiety acclaimed psychiatrist, Dr. Ellen Vora offers nothing less than a paradigm shift in the way we understand anxiety and mental health.Dr. Vora suggests that the symptoms of anxiety are frequently the result of physical imbalance—that is, anxiety is a whole-body condition, not simply a brain condition. More than 40 million Americans are suffering from anxiety in any given year (a number that has only increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic), add to that the woeful lack of accessibility and affordability of mental health, anxiety is everywhere. We'll hear about false anxiety vs true anxiety, managing the feelings that come up during meditation and even talk about wrapping our heads around death.

We've long thought of anxiety as a “neck up” problem—a problem of brain chemistry and psychology.We've long thought of anxiety as a “neck up” problem—a problem of brain chemistry and psychology. But now, in The Anatomy of Anxiety acclaimed psychiatrist, Dr. Ellen Vora offers nothing less than a paradigm shift in the way we understand anxiety and mental health.Dr. Vora suggests that the symptoms of anxiety are frequently the result of physical imbalance—that is, anxiety is a whole-body condition, not simply a brain condition. More than 40 million Americans are suffering from anxiety in any given year (a number that has only increased as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic), add to that the woeful lack of accessibility and affordability of mental health, anxiety is everywhere. We'll hear about false anxiety vs true anxiety, managing the feelings that come up during meditation and even talk about wrapping our heads around death.

Ellen Vora, MD attended Columbia University for medical school and received her BA in English from Yale University. She's a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, yoga teacher, and author of The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. Full show notes: https://maxlugavere.com/podcast/222

Dr. Ellen Vora, the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response, joins Chris Kresser in this episode of Revolution Health Radio to discuss how to define anxiety and reshape our relationship with it. Dr. Vora explains the difference between true and false anxiety, discusses the role of psychedelics in treating anxiety, talks about the impact of technology on anxiety, and discusses how religion and spirituality figure into anxiety management. The post RHR: The Anatomy of Anxiety, with Dr. Ellen Vora appeared first on Chris Kresser.

WE APPRECIATE OUR PARTNERS. CHECK THEM OUT!Business Growth With SEO: https://www.stephanspencer.com, get a FREE consultationProbiotic Eases Stress: https://www.omnibioticlife.com/DAVE/, use code DAVE20 to get 20% offControl Blood Glucose: https://pendulumlife.com, sign up for membership to get monthly supply delivery, use code DAVE20 to save $20 on your first shipmentIN THIS EPISODE OF THE HUMAN UPGRADE™... … Ellen Vora, M.D., takes a functional medicine approach to mental health that considers the whole person and addresses imbalance at the root. She's a Yale and Columbia University educated holistic psychiatrist board-certified in psychiatry and integrative holistic medicine. She's also an acupuncturist and yoga teacher.In her new book, “The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response,” she takes on anxiety, which hits more than 40 million people in any given year. The pandemic drove that number up even more. Even if math isn't your strong suit, you can understand these numbers:An estimated one out of every nine people, or 800 million people, suffer from a mental health disorder, the most common of which is anxiety. Up to 33.7 percent of Americans are affected by an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Conventional medicine tends to view anxiety as a “neck up” problem of brain chemistry and psychology. Dr. Vora disagrees. She suggests that various physiologic inputs influence anxiety symptoms. “What we've been indoctrinated with is this idea that our mental health is genetically determined chemical imbalance,” Dr. Vora says. “There's some validity to that, although I think, for the most part, any chemical imbalance is often a downstream effect of a state of imbalance happening elsewhere in the physical body.”In this episode, you'll learn:the difference between avoidable, purposeful, false and true anxiety;simple strategies for tuning into “true” anxiety and using its benefits;how your body may be physiologically out of balance (immunity, gut health, inflammation);how “hanxiety” means that blood sugar is affecting your anxiety; actionable lifestyle factors to bring yourself back into balance; how to manage medication withdrawl; and how to reframe your understanding of, and relationship with, anxiety.Dr. Vora also confronts what she calls techxiety. This can include a boundaryless workplace, how the posture of screen use signals your body for anxiety, and, of course, social media. Research shows social media is associated with higher rates of anxiety and depression. Just 20 minutes of Facebook can impact mood.So much of how you live your life as an adult profoundly impacts how your mental health manifests, and that's the part you can control.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

For the season four finale, Rachel would rather be reading about a paradigm shift in our understanding of anxiety and mental health. This book is an absolute game-changer and a must read. The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response by Dr. Ellen Vora We'll be on hiatus for a while -- never hesitate to reach out at helloidratherbereading@gmail.com! So proud to be part of this community with you.

Mental health, once a taboo topic rarely talked about in the open, is quickly becoming one of the biggest discussions of our time. The past decade has brought about a more open, less stigmatized dialogue and we are seeing a paradigm shift in public attitudes surrounding mental health in general. Thanks to people like Ellen Vora, MD, those discussions are getting a lot more helpful as well. She wrote the bible on anxiety, “The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response,” and her approach is – by my estimation – exactly what many of us need. Resources: Learn more at https://ellenvora.com/ (ellenvora.com) Follow Ellen on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellenvoramd/ (@ellenvoramd) Read https://ellenvora.com/book/ (The Anatomy of Anxiety) Follow + DM us: https://www.instagram.com/offtherecordwithyou/ (@offtherecordwithyou) + http://instagram.com/skinowl (@skinowl) Tag Us: #offtherecordpod  Shop SkinOwl: https://www.skinowl.com/ (skinowl.com) Want to try SkinOwl skincare? Use code “OFFTHERECORD15” on https://www.skinowl.com/ (SkinOwl.com) for your first order.  Best sellers: Maqui Berry Beauty Whip, Eye Concentrate, and our first ever product to alleviate breakouts and dark marks: Geranium Drops.

Dr. Ellen Vora is a holistic psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health—considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.D. from Columbia University, and she is board-certified in psychiatry and integrative holistic medicine. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter. Be sure to check out her new book, The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response.In this episode we discuss:The difference between true and false anxiety.The biggest lessons she's learned about people as a psychiatrist.How to properly deal with trauma instead of hurting yourself even more.How to turn your anxiety into a superpower.And so much more!For more go to: www.lewishowes.com/1240Get Ellen's Book: The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear ResponseMel Robbins: The “Secret” Mindset Habit to Building Confidence and Overcoming Scarcity: https://link.chtbl.com/970-podDr. Joe Dispenza on Healing the Body and Transforming the Mind: https://link.chtbl.com/826-podMaster Your Mind and Defy the Odds with David Goggins: https://link.chtbl.com/715-podSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Farnoosh speaks with Dr. Ellen Vora, psychiatrist and author of the book The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response about the root of our anxieties, how they impact our financial wellness and her holistic approach to healing. More about Dr. Vora: She received her B.A. from Yale University and attended Columbia University medical school. She's a board-certified psychiatrist, medical acupuncturist, and yoga teacher. Dr. Vora takes a functional medicine approach to mental health--considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root, rather than reflexively prescribing medication. In addition to her private practice and speaking engagements, Dr. Vora consults for healthcare startups. Got a question for our Friday episodes of Ask Farnoosh? Text 415-942-5002. Want more articles and videos by Farnoosh? Check out www.cnet.com/somoney. Subscribe to her weekly So Money newsletter for the latest updates and advice. Catch her weekly money videos on YouTube.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is your anxiety true or false? You might be thinking “It's TRUE anxiety—it's real, not false, and I'm not making it up.” It turns out your anxiety might be of both types, but this does not mean you're making up anything at all. Tune in to explore: The difference between true and false anxiety, and which one to tackle first Why many people have become culturally conditioned to seek the “coddling” approach to mental health issues, and how this detracts from self-empowerment The relationship between anxiety and physiology (especially blood sugar levels) In what ways psychedelics can help people access inner truths, inspiration, and true engagement in their lives “Genetics loads the gun, environment pulls the trigger.” This simple phrase reflects the underpinnings of Dr. Vora's work as a holistic psychiatrist. She believes everyone has the ability to influence their mental health, simply because a person's diet and lifestyle determine how their mental health manifests. People who seek new avenues of relief for their anxiety—beyond or altogether outside of prescription medication—come to see Dr. Vora. These avenues almost always lead straight to the physiological conditions of the body that relate to mental health, such as blood sugar levels, hormonal imbalances, digestion, and sleep patterns. After that, Dr. Vora works with patients on a deeper, often psycho-spiritual level. Interested in learning more? Follow Dr. Vora on Instagram @EllenVoraMD, check out ,https://ellenvora.com/, and find a copy of her book The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response.   Episode also available on Apple Podcast: http://apple.co/30PvU9C