When anxiety narrows your world: adaptive or avoidant?

About this episode

Caroline Foran discusses with Dr. Alexandra Shaker how anxiety can narrow our experiences and the implications of this narrowing.

For this episode I’m speaking to clinical psychologist and author Dr Alexandra Shaker about her book The Narrowing and about how prolonged stress and trauma can constrict not just our nervous systems, but how we experience our lives and how we can identify when our narrowing might need to open up. When we’re anxious, especially chronically anxious, our worlds can begin to shrink. We say no more often. We avoid certain places. We reduce risk. We make life smaller so it feels manageable. I often describe it myself, when I’ve felt anxiety close in on me that I’m “making my world smaller so I could cope with it,” and at the time that felt protective, even necessary. But what happens when that narrowing becomes the default? Use code FORAN10 when pre-ordering my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety, with Easons . Order yourself (or for a friend) a copy of my new book, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety: A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm and Back to Yourself here Follow me on Instagram @CarolineForan and @OwningItPodcas t, on Tik Tok here Subscribe to my weekly Substack here (not always anxiety related, often parenting related) Support this show…

People in this episode

Guest: Dr Alexandra Shaker

Topics covered

• anxiety
• mental health
• stress
• trauma

Keywords

• The Narrowing
• chronic anxiety
• nervous system
• avoidance

Mentioned in this episode

Products: FORAN10, Tik Tok, Everything I Wish I'd Known About Anxiety

Books & works: The Narrowing, Everything I Wish I'd Known, A Roadmap out of the Overwhelm, Substack

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