Practical Tools for a Less Anxious Life - Donald Robertson - #1050
Modern Wisdom
How Avoidance and 'Anxiety About Anxiety' Maintain Fear
Donald describes experiential avoidance, second-order anxiety, and how safety behaviors prevent habituation.
Donald Robertson is a cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist, an author and an expert on ancient philosophy.
Why are we so anxious in the safest time in human history? Our brains evolved for real danger, predators, hunger, survival, not notifications and deadlines. So what are the modern tools for calming our primitive nervous system in a modern world? And is the answer something our ancestors already knew?
Expect to learn what Donald wishes more people knew about anxiety, how it works and what causes it, how CBT might be the best therapy to combat chronic anxiety, what the main problem with the major psychoanalytic theorists is, why CBT is just a modern extension of Stoicism, why modern American culture has become extraordinarily passive aggressive, how people can keep their life in alignment with their values and much more…
Timestamps:
(0:00) How Anxiety Actually Works (15:40) Is Self-Help Actually Helpful? (25:55) Why Avoidance Makes Anxiety Worse (39:22) Useful Skills to Tackle Your Anxiety (48:47) Top Down vs Bottom Up: What’s the Best Approach? (01:03:08) Were the Stoics the Original Psychotherapists? (01:11:14) Why People Fear Exposure Therapy (01:26:42) Should We Prioritise Targeting Anger? (01:41:01) Why Donald Quit Psychodynamic Therapy (01:52:24) Where to Find Donald
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