Reset Your Anxiety with Dr. Gregory Jantz

Our guest this week is Dr. Gregory Jantz, author of The Anxiety Reset, we talk about the causes of anxiety, the importance of dealing with it, and how to remove some common stressors from your life.

Follow up with Dr. Jantz at his website aplaceofhope.com

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Transcript

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Gib, hello and welcome to another episode of intelligence for your life. The podcast, our guest this week is Dr Gregory. Chance we are going to talk to him about anxiety, about all of the things in our lives that are causing us anxiety, about the importance of anxiety, and also, of course, how you can deal with it, including some of the resources that he has on his website. So stay with us for that, folks, we are so excited to bring this to you today. Here's without further ado, my interview with Dr Gregory Jantz. Dr Gregory Jantz, author of multiple books, but most importantly, you're a psychologist and the best selling author of the anxiety reset. Thank you so much for being with us today. We really appreciate it good to be with you. And boy, what a topic that people are experiencing anxiety. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I know that I've been feeling it more and more, and with all of the caffeine and stimulants that we that we take all the time. I guess that does that. Let's let's start there. Are you seeing as a, as a, I know in my life, I'm experiencing it more, but I'm an anecdote. Are you seeing it at the statistical and practical level that that anxiety actually is on the rise? Here's what we know right now. Anxiety is the number one diagnosis. Number one diagnosis, we have a country that is filled with anxiety. Now think about that that's above many other diagnoses. That's above cancer, heart disease, anxiety taking the number one place. Now anxiety means it's beyond worry. Anxiety has a physical component. I have physical symptoms. My sleep is disrupted. I may have headaches. I feel this anxiety in my body, and I can't seem to shake it off. That's anxiety. So okay, so we have this, you know, it's beyond, again, like you said, it's beyond just stress. It's beyond just worry. We have these physical symptoms of anxiety. It's, it's the number one, like you just said, it's the number one diagnosed medical condition right now. But why are we just getting better at knowing it? Or are there, are there societal and maybe chemical changes that have begun to occur that are leading us down this path? Yeah, if we can look here at the last two and a half, no, nearly three years of of a pandemic season where we were put in some unusual situations and created some isolation. There also has erupted kind of a trend where people are they're weary, and depression is along the side. But with this weariness and this anxiety, there's a great deal of distrust, who to believe, what to believe. So we're seeing a culture of distrust. And we're also seeing this like, for example, road rage is all. Major cities are up on road rage, and so people are acting out their emotions, the frustration, the anger, and a lot of this is due to the anxiety level we see people, I call it Doom scrolling. They're just growing negative. Yeah, so we're looking at all this negative information. Do you feel like, you know you're bringing up road rage? Do you feel like because of the amount of data that the highway, you know, the highway institutes collect that this is a good barometer to better understand how anxiety is manifesting itself, because, because you just have this secondary level layer of data on that, you know, yes, now here's what's happening. Addiction rates are up. So anytime addiction the level of anxiety goes up. The level of addiction goes up. Alcohol cells. We've never sold so much alcohol. There was a period of time of weeks where alcohol cells reached the all time highs. So when we're anxious, we tend to get tired of that after a while, and we try to do a little self medication. So alcohol tends to be the first choice. And so we're seeing that the rates of addiction people coming to us at a place of hope, seeking help, and they've got this CO addiction going on, but it started with anxiety in their life. So it's so that I see that there's, you know, well, I want to talk in a minute about the consequences of anxiety, especially undiagnosed, untreated anxiety, but I want to talk more about what you think is actually leading to this. So obviously, big societal changes, Doom scrolling. Do you think it's as simple as just the algorithms keep the most the most fearful news content? Or is reinforced by the algorithm being sent, sending us the same thing over and over and over again. Well, I think too it's what are people allowing in their minds? Yeah, I just talked to somebody yesterday, and he goes, I'm really doing good. I said, What's what is? It goes, well, I. I've cut myself off from all news. I'm feeling so much better. And if we don't have appropriate guardrails about what we're letting in, and for all we're letting in is negative, right? It gets confusing also what to believe, and we're living in a habitual state of negative information, right, right? And that negative information, again, is reinforced by an algorithm, absolutely and it is such that people are isolating more. They are pulling away instead of towards people, and we're finding that, you know, that's why you go back to road rage, and people are upset is they're easily triggered. There's a real hyper sensitivity that's going on right now, right? And so we're seeing that, okay? So we see in a road rage. We see it in addiction rates. Those are some of the consequences of it, aside from the news at this idea of doom, scrolling this the these algorithms that loop us in with more and more reinforcing that engagement on the negative emotions, the Doom scrolling, all that stuff. What are you think there's some other contributing factors to a broader sense of anxiety? Or is that? Is that, is that it like, is it because we're drinking more coffee, or because of energy drinks or anything like that? Is it the caffeine stimulus? Well, it is some of it. We tend to add to our anxiety symptoms by some of our coping behaviors. So I mentioned alcohol. I just talked to a guy. He goes, You know, I think I'm averaging about 12 cups of coffee a day. Wow. Well, 12 cups of coffee a day, you know. Go, okay, that's gonna create a little anxiety, you think. And so we also know that we're in the middle of a season where we're seeing more sleep disorders. Sure, insomnia people waking up during the night, and in essence, they're having anxiety attacks, and they are hearts racing. They feel wide awake, but they've they've suddenly woken up from asleep because their body is having what we'll call and a panic attack, and that's and that's disrupting our sleep, and you think that's, is that again, is that? What do you think is the cause of all this? Does it is in a minute, I want to talk about some of the consequences. I want to talk about how we can deal with it. But I really want to understand, like, where you think some of this is coming from, aside from just our our constant attack of being on our phones, or is that it like the phones are messing up our sleep, the constant screen time, the constant inundation with news, then do we just need to make those habit changes? Or are there, like, are there some other things that were that we're doing inadvertently, that you think are contributing to our increased levels of anxiety? Yes, well, I think we have to look at social media. Yeah, okay, yeah, the social social media and kind of that technology addiction, if you will. And we see it. We see folks come to us, and, you know, initially, anything with a screen, we put in a safe and lock up for them. And by day three, we are seeing people with anxiety symptoms, sweaty palms, heart rates up, anxiousness. Say, I just forgot to return an email. Can I have my stuff back? You know? So you see the sweaty palms, I can't focus. And those are really symptoms of withdrawal. Wow. Well, okay, so do you, I mean, do you recommend that we get little I know some people have do this, and they then they practice this at their own house, where, where they have a safe in their house, a time lock safe. And everybody, when they come home from work or school, they put their phones in the safe and it you can't open it until a certain time has gone by. For Executive you're talking about these addict these addictions, the phones. Boy, if you can do that, I'm gonna say that's great, because that that takes some self determination and discipline just to do that. My goodness. So yes, I do believe that having time and having a buffer zone, for example, really developing the discipline that says, you know, up to about an hour before bed, I'm putting all my devices away just having those routines, there is a detox from just all that stimuli that can be important, social media can be so disruptive, and you look at somebody's post and you get upset, and then you can't sleep, or you get, like any addiction, by the way, you say, hey, well, how long were you on online? Oh, probably 30 minutes. Well, it was really three hours, right? You lose track of time, right? I got one of those. I got the timer on my on my phone. Now it tells me how long I've been, and my estimation is wildly low, wildly low. I'd be like, Oh my gosh, eight hours. I thought. I thought maybe two hours, but I was on, I was on my phone for eight hours today, or whatever it is, you. It's insane. So, and I think it's important, let's look at all the influences on the whole person. Well, what, what is, what are we allowing to invade our life, invade our thinking? The longer that you spend on social media, do you feel worse or better? Well, honestly, people feel worse. So what are we doing to amplify our symptoms, and what are we doing that's disruptive to our sleep? And the other thing we need to look at is, what are we doing that can be disruptive to our relationships? Well, we have a little rule at our home is when you sit around the table and we're eating, you don't pull out your device, and we're present. We have eye contact, we communicate with one another. Oh, you want to show me something that was online? Okay? You know, we ask permission, then we put our device away. So is it controlling your relationships? And that's something that's sometimes painful to look at. Now I would is there, is there an upside to any, to the to the phone and the constant communication? So I hear that it's an anxiety cause, right? I hear that, and I understand why social media is a negative but for a lot of people, you know technological, technological interaction was their only interaction during a big part of the lockdown. Do you see that there is a, there's a flip side to that, where there is a, maybe a sweet spot where, where the connection that you can get via social media and via your phone or via, you know, via the screens, is good. Before it starts to turn to that, that addiction and anxiety inducing place that you've been talking about, there is a sweet spot. It's called balance. Can I self regulate? The next question? It's like a person that's addicted to perhaps gaming. And I did use the word addicted because I see it, the person cannot self regulate. Okay, no, I will. I'll get off the game at one in the morning, I promise. And it's four in the morning. You couldn't do it. You couldn't self regulate. That's a sign there's a problem, right? So you okay, that makes sense, yeah. So, so it's those standard addiction signs let you know that perhaps your behavior around these devices, around these things, that that is going a little bit too it's going a little bit too far on that That's right. Let's go back. I want to talk about some signs for how to know that you are are, whether it's from devices or what have you, that you are experiencing, not just run of the mill worry, not just run of the mill stress, but the kind of anxiety that we're talking about that can lead to some addiction stuff before. So how, what are some key indicators beyond road rage, that that let us know that we're that we've gone too far. Yeah, I think one of the things am I waking up with a lack of of daily I'm going to use the word joy, and I don't mean that to be fake exuberant, but many times people are waking up with a heaviness. It's it like feels like a depression you can't shake off. So just monitoring, what is the predominant emotion I'm experiencing? Am I experiencing predominantly anger and frustration? Is that the main thing I feel? Do I feel fear and anxiousness and worry all day? Do I feel guilt, shame, that something's wrong with me, or do I feel like, No, I'm doing good. I I'm at peace with myself. I'm being of help to others. You know, what's the predominant emotion you find that drives you along during a day that's always a good checkpoint? Great, great. Okay, so that'll give us a sense of it. And then, you know, I want to go back to actually, you know what? Let's take a quick break. I'm gonna take a quick break when we come back. We're going to talk some more about, actually, what we can do to begin to unpack the the anxiety. I want to call it an epidemic, but just how we can begin the anxiety reset when we come back with Dr Gregory chance, Dr Jantz. Before the break, we were talking again about how anxiety is at an all time high, about the causes of our phones and our constant connection, these sort of signs of addiction to our devices and to news and to connectivity. Great. Okay, so we, I think we've all experienced some version of what you're talking about. How do we begin to remove this from our lives, remove the anxiety element from our lives. Removing anxieties requires probably taking some baby steps. I talk about simplifying one's life, and this means, first of all, I've got to get some self care in order. And you know, I can't do the 12 cups of coffee. I need to eat some protein and breakfast in the morning. I've got to have these patterns of self care if Can I regulate my sleep? Can I get my sleep cycle? I used to work in sleep research, and I know sleep and emotional well being are so closely tied together. Can. Am I doing simple things like when I'm anxious, I tend not to drink water. Am I drinking my water, or am I drinking a whole lot of other things? Water improves mood. Water improves concentration. People forget the importance of water when they're anxious, right? Am I able to do my just go through my day without anxiety paralyzing my decision making. If I'm at a place that I wake up in the morning and I can't even make a decision about what to wear, and I mean, it's extra hard, I can't make any the simplest decisions there at times, reaches a point where anxiety paralyzes us, and we need to seek out help. We need to seek out and find out really what's going on, because anxiety will lead us down to a path that could potentially be self destructive. So is anxiety been with you for longer than six months now, we've all gone through and we all are going through some uncertainty and anxious times. It's out there. Let's not ignore reality, but let's also look at what am I doing that could be fueling this indirectly? What's the quality of my relationships? Do I have two or three people? It's usually just no more than three, usually that really know me, that speak life into me, that are truth tellers, or is everybody around me an emotional drain? For example, what am I surrounding myself with? Well, so those are a few kids. So everybody around me is an emotional drain. Yeah, the Okay. So, so you start, you begin to evaluate what your relationships, the quality relationships, and are they actually helping you? Can Do you start to cut out some of those emotional draining things? How do you begin to form? Because I feel like it's a vicious cycle. This is, that's what I want to kind of get to is I feel like we get anxious because we're disconnected, and because we're Doom scrolling, so we then Doom scroll more and disconnect more, and dissociate more. And we are anxious because our relationships are adding anxiety and not and not fueling us positively. And so we we just lean into those negative relationships more, or we dissociate more. Like, it's a it's a spiral, it's like a positive feedback loop. Like, the more stuff happens, the more we engage in that. So I want to, I want some, like, some comprehensive things that we can do. And I hear you say, professional help and a good friend to begin to break that spiral. Yeah, we do need to break that spiral. And one of the things I want you to get outside of your normal environment. I know it sounds simple, but the power of going for a walk, a power of getting outside the you've got to get movement in when there's things anxiety and anxiousness, physical movements really important. I don't mean to say physical movement and water cures everything, no, but it's a beginning, a practice of some significant self care. Also find out how significant your anxiety really is. I'll share how to take my free anxiety. It's pretty extensive, but an anxiety test to see really, where do I score on this, how big a problem is it? And then an opportunity to really get some information about some steps I can take. We also need to watch what am I putting in my mind every day? And we've got to evaluate that we sometimes get really compelled and compulsed to always pull the negative in. And it's like we get used to that, and it's we almost seek it out. So, but those are just a couple ideas. Well, you know, going back to what we're talking about before, you know, the negative is the most engaging, right? It's the most engaging thing. The study after study has shown that for news organizations, the negative, scary things, are the things that drive the most engagement. So they, they double down on that, because that's, that's what the algorithm is telling them to do, and then that feeds us, and it feeds this sort of creates, again, this anxiety loop. So I hear you, so look for the negativity. Find some positive things to put in your life. And I love the idea that, you know, we I'm a big fan of hydration and exercise, right? Like, so that, that idea that start, yes, see if that solves it, like, get a little bit, get in the sunshine for maybe 15 minutes every single day so that you can get your vitamin D levels up, like all of that, all those basic things to kind of start the process. Do the more new, the newer things like mindfulness, which I know mindfulness meditation is not new, but the mindfulness meditation apps and background noise, apps, things like that, that that are kind of newer. Do those actually work? Or is that just more noise? Well, I love what you're saying, and you're so right on. It's these small things that have a cumulative effect over time. And so I call them baby steps. And what we need to do is keep doing these. Give it 30. Days. But really create, I want you to create a 12 week plan. You can create a fair amount of change in a 90 day period. Then after that, you go, Okay, where am I? Am I doing? Well, am I addiction free? How's my sleep? How am I really doing? But you have to allow some time you can see some good change in 30 days. I just want to encourage keep going. Something about hitting that 90 day mark when we're dealing with anxiety is really significant. Interesting, interesting. So, so give yourself that like 90 day of form, some of these lifestyle habits, these basic ones that we're talking about, and then evaluate from there absolutely and one. That's why, that's why we, we kind of give away this 12 week plan, because we know it's going to take some time. Stay with it. And you will, you'll find, yes, I can make a lot of changes. Am I still suffering to such a degree on a scale of one to 10? It's seven, eight, then I maybe I need to look at, let's see what kind of professional intervention I could benefit from, right, right? And then begin to evaluate your professional needs at that point. Could you do those things concurrently? Could you begin to seek out professional help while you do those things? Because for some people, that timeline may be too long for before they before they see professional help. Oh, yes. And one of the things we may need to do is find a resource, a professional or there's times where you need something a little more intense, there's times that anxiety is so paralyzing and you just lose that will to live, and the addictions increase where we really do need to have some intervention and receive, you know, kind of the type of whole person care that we do, where it's a little more intensive because it's, it's really paralyzed your life and just your daily functioning. Well, we want, we want to get help, you know, before it gets that that far along, and you may say, you know, I have panic attacks. And panic attacks is really your body's way of saying, I've had enough, and it wants, yeah, yeah. You know, we sort of see those in pop culture, right? We see that in in movies and televisions. People having having having panic attacks and the consequences of it. But when you actually experience it, it's, it's, it's very disorienting. I mean, you all nothing, nothing can calm you down. And you're, you're just sort of overtaken by this, this panicky feeling. Yes, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna wrap this up. We've taken a lot of your time, and your time is valuable again. You know, people follow I'm gonna ask you two last questions about that. I asked that. I asked everybody, first and foremost, if people want to follow up with you. Dr Jantz, where can they follow up with you? The best way is a place of hope.com, a place of hope.com. And as much as I speak about some of the dangers of social media. I am on social you'll find me. Oh, iron, so, but, and then do, do, be sure to take the anxiety I called it anxiety test. It takes a little bit of time. It's pretty extensive. Okay? It's totally private. We don't see that you're taking it. It's you do it confidentially, and there's an opportunity to get some free information. We download to you to really be of assistance. It's a good place to start. So that's that's all on a place of hope.com link to a place of hope.com in the show notes, you guys can just click that and head over to Dr Jan's website. One last thing. And I ask it to everybody, what is one thing we can all start doing today that will make our lives a whole lot better? Yeah, reach out to somebody in need. Look around, sometimes we get self absorbed and we go, oh, man, you know, but reach out and extend a handy of somebody, maybe in need today, do something with some kindness towards somebody else. Awesome. Dr Jantz, thank you so much. We really appreciate your time today. Good to be with you. That's it for our show today. Thank you guys so much for listening. If you like the show, please rate, comment, subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, wherever you get your podcast, helps us out a lot. So you know, if you want to follow up with us, check out facebook.com/contest, we go live there all the time, including a try weekly. It's three times a week, workout show that we do, plus all kinds of other fun stuff we got going on. Again, that's facebook.com/john Tesh. You can follow John on Instagram at John test underscore, if, well, I'm Gib Gerard. You can find me at facebook.com/gib Gerard, or at Gib Gerard on Instagram and Twitter. Folks try to respond to every DM, every mention of the show, because ultimately they do the shows for you guys. So thank you so much. You.