Fear, Anxiety, And The Stories We Tell

Fear asks a simple question—am I safe—while anxiety writes a whole novel about everything that could go wrong. We pull those threads apart with honesty and humor, from jump scares and snakes to the heavy stuff that keeps parents awake at night: kids walking alone, teens driving, rideshare safety, and the rising noise of true-crime headlines. Our goal isn’t to scare you; it’s to turn raw worry into focused, actionable steps that protect your peace while keeping your family ready.

We get practical about modern vigilance. You’ll hear how we handle rideshares (sit behind the driver, share your live route, use presence scripts), what to do in parking lots and gas stations when attention is thin, and how to avoid phone scrolling that blindsides awareness. We also talk about bar and event safety—drink covers, can guards, and simple habits that prevent tampering. On the health side, we address allergy preparedness, from keeping children’s liquid antihistamines on hand to understanding when an EpiPen matters, and why small systems calm the nervous system more than big promises.

Then we zoom out to mindset. We walk through a simple loop-breaker: name the fear, bring it into the present, build evidence, practice micro bravery, and talk it out. Fear grows in silence; anxiety loves isolation. Laughter helps too—it cuts the trance and returns you to your body. You’ll leave with a few phrases to interrupt the spiral, ideas for teaching teens real-world safety without scaring them rigid, and a reframing that matters: feeling afraid means you care, but caring shouldn’t cost your peace.

If this conversation helps, tap follow, share it with a friend who needs a calm, and leave a quick review so other moms can find the show. Your stories fuel this community—DM us on Facebook or TikTok at the ARMC and tell us what tiny brave step you’re taking today.

Transcript

Fear Vs. Anxiety Defined;

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You're listening to the Anxiety Ridden Moms Club, Season 2. I'm Kylie. And I'm Gina. Real moms, real anxiety, real conversations. Let's dive in because chaos is our cardio.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Welcome back to the Anxiety Ridden Moms Club, where we overthink everything so you don't have to. Today, we're talking fear. Because honestly, fear is like the messy friend who won't leave our house. It shows up, sits on the couch, eats our snacks, and triggers our anxiety.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Fear is wild because it doesn't even have to be logical if you something tiny, something from childhood, something we saw on TikTok at 2 a.m. And boom, anxiety activated.

SPEAKER_00 0:45

Fear by itself isn't always bad. It's our brain's warning system. But when we let fear run the show, that's where anxiety builds. Like fear whispers, what if something bad happens? And anxiety jumps up, like, say less. I'll imagine every scenario. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Fear throws the first spark. Anxiety takes it and burns down the whole house. Fear is a moment. Anxiety is a story we tell ourselves around that moment. For real.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Fear asks, is this safe? Anxiety asks, what about the 47 million other things that could go wrong? So I love putting you on the spot.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Oh Lord, here we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

What's your biggest fear?

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I'm full of fear. You are. I am always. I'm the most don't have me watch a scary movie. I'll never sleep for weeks. Seriously. Yeah, I'm scared. I scare easily. I'm fearful of everything. I that's probably my worst downfall is fear. I'm not fearful of like um I mean just like anything, you know, somebody says you're gonna need to go up there and talk to these people about, you know, I can you know, everybody has their nervous feeling. That's not I'm not fearful, but fearful of like driving and it's nighttime and look at the woods and go to bed at night and are the doors all locked, and I'm just like fearful.

SPEAKER_00 2:03

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yes, I get scared very easily.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

We're prepping you know what we're gonna what we're gonna talk about, and I say fear, and you're just like, okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

You know, I have plenty to talk about this because I'm scared of death. I'm scared of everything. Oh yeah. Like that, you know, the it's prime I like, I don't I'm not somebody who should watch the news, scroll on crap that's gonna tell you the bad shit that's happened every night that we go to sleep while people are, you know, having all sorts of problems, the kids being taken, the stuff happening, go to Target, is somebody following you, watch and make sure they're not. Are they walking out the door with you? Like somebody might be in the parking lot. Did you park next to a van? I mean isn't that just cautious? Yeah, but it's like I mean, makes me like more than cautious. It makes me like uh fearful. Like something could happen. That could really happen. I'm not exact I mean, I just feel like I don't know.

Everyday Fears And Phobias;

SPEAKER_00 2:58

There are so many get in my way. There are so many different directions to run with this right now. Like surface level, petrified of snakes. Like like oh yeah. I don't want anything to bite me, eat me, hurt me. I can't. I can't. I'm petrified of snakes. Like yeah. When I used to work in an office, like there was a guy that was like the big prankster, and he put a fake snake in my like you no, I will fucking fire you. Like that's not funny. I don't think it's funny. Yeah, I get fearful every time I walk under a tree. One's gonna fall on my head. My mom had a huge one on like the wreath on her door, and now I can't, like, every time I walk through a front door, I walk full, like avoiding the tree or the wreath.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Um, if you follow us on social, I have a RoboVacuum. And did I already talk about this on a show, like a previous show? I can't remember, but it will throw an air if it runs over something and like it gets away.

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Oh, yeah, yeah, and again, a snake or something.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

Yeah, and so normally it's like a sock or a ponytail or a cat toy or whatever. And so it's no big deal. I just go flop the vacuum over. And so I went, yeah, it threw an air and I went to flop the vacuum over, and there was a freaking snake. I literally just ran out the house and I called. I can't remember if I called my dad and he didn't answer. So then I called my mom to find my dad and he's like, just take it outside. And I'm like, no, I'm outside. It's inside. I need you to come down immediately. And so then there's my dad, oh god damn. And then, you know, I live a house down, so it's not like that far. But yes, I am an inconvenience on a regular basis. And so he came down and got the snake out. But like now, every time the vacuum throws that alarm, petrified to turn it over, like petrified. But on a bigger, like on a deeper scale or a deeper level, like I fear things, and what keeps me up at night are like losing my parents. Like I will get paralyzed losing a child. Like those things come into my mind and like will paralyze me with with fear. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 5:16

Well, when I first when I first had Austin, I had nightmares a lot for like a couple years, a lot. And it was all the time like people would sneak in my house and like do something to him, like murder him, bring him in with like it was horrible. It was like horrifying, like horrible things all the time. So I've always had a lot of fears of something happening to my kids. Yes. I think that's the worst though. I think we always have fears of our family members, children, anything, something bad happening. You know, us losing them. Or I the other thing is I think when it comes to kids too, I think that's why, especially with like sex trafficking going on, you know what I mean? You're there's such a fear of somebody taking your kid. And at the time that Austin was actually around, I think around the age of like 10, he was like, I swear to God, all I ever kept hearing was the boys being taken. And I was petrified, like, oh my god, he's gonna walk to school. He can't walk to school. There's no way. I was like, he's not walking to school because they're getting off the bus and they're getting snatched, and it was all the time it seemed like it was boys. And so I went through some years during that where I was like, What is the thing? Somebody takes him. And then it switched, I think, to feel about like more girls again. But there was like a phase and it was during that age time, and that would just give me nightmares. And I wake up and it's not good because when I wake up at night, like I have to grab Tom and wake him up because I'm like, I I think there's no way I can go back to sleep. I mean, I'm like a little kid who cannot go back to sleep because you had a bad nightmare. It's bad. Like really bad. I hate it. I hate it. And I do think that like, you know, a lot of people have fears of like failing, being judged, not doing enough, all that type of stuff. Honestly, God, like I'm not fearful of that.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

I'm just fearful of the boogeyman. That's that's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

Yeah.

Parenting On High Alert;

SPEAKER_00 7:01

Yeah, I I I I fear my kids when they drive. I mean, back to the sex trafficking thing, like I don't think I I don't know. It's just so scary because it's so freaking real. Yes. And like I feel like every day I read something on Facebook, like most recently car, I'm pretty sure it was in Alton. Um I mean, obviously you you live close to St. Louis, you know, where I'm an hour out, like and supposedly it's a sex trafficking hub, and there are cars that like are whether it's women driving alone or young kids driving alone or whatever it is that they're coming up and riding your ass or getting you to pull, you know, flashing lights and trying to get you to pull over. Like that, it freaks me out. Like it just freaks me out because one wrong move decision, walking out of a raw store, mother, when you listen to this episode, not paying attention, looking at your receipt, seeing if like it could just happen so fast. And that scares the crap out of me because what do you do? I mean, I know we have tracking on phones. Um, I know, you know, just recently because when Jerseyville had their county fair, um, somebody mentioned putting like an air tag in the kid's shoe, and now they they sell soles of shoes that fit an air tag. And I'm like, oh my God, I would have never even thought of that. Right. Um, but then there's also on the flip side of that, there's where creeps are dropping air tags on people to track them.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

Like when you're walking like it is Well, here's the problem. Some of the problems are like, it's a really kind of a neat like an air tag like that, and you can just like just toss it up and it goes right on their car and anywhere on it, and all these different has things that I'm like, okay, I'm sure somebody in certain ways came up with it for all the positive things.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

And now there's some creepy fuckers that are using it.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yes. So and that's why I'm just all I mean, I tell my daughter all the time, I'm like, if there's something on your car, I don't care it was a hundred dollars, you don't touch it. You know what I mean? Like, there's so many things that you have like when I was a kid, it was um my mom would tell me when you walk, walk up to your car, look underneath your car, look in your backseat before you get in.

SPEAKER_00 9:23

Like right there in the the parking lot, you're looking, climbing underneath your car.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

Well, no, you just need to be like, you know, as you're approaching it, you gotta see to see if there's somebody underneath it or somebody got in your backseat of your car. And um, because the big thing was at that time they'd cut your atlee's tendon. And then so that way you were all of a sudden you couldn't run or do anything, and then that's how they could get to you. So that was like and that was just I mean, I'm not kidding you. I always get pain, I think, in my Kelly's when I walk up, would walk up to my car thinking about it. Like if there's somebody in there, but uh, she always would, you know, just talk about checking, you know, your vehicle for somebody being in it or underneath it. Well, now you have to be worried that they've tagged it. Well, that means now you have to pay more attention to even the passenger side. I mean, every you must have to do a circular run around your car, make sure nobody did a twist tie or some shit on there. I mean, it's kind of crazy what you have to really look for and how I don't know. And then on top of it, what's the most disgusting to me out of this all is how many women are involved in helping to find the girls and then sex traffic them.

Sex Trafficking Risks And Street Smarts;

SPEAKER_00 10:27

It just the whole thing just there's someone that I'm no longer friends with. Um, but we were on a work trip to Las Vegas and there was a guy and two women like sitting at the bar and like creepy watching us, like totally creepy watching us. And so we were in the store, and like, of course, like one person she she checked out first, and then I was checking out, and as I was checking, like I had noticed because I am very aware of my surroundings, I try to always be very, very aware of my surroundings. Now there are times where I am I'm not because I'm like on one about something else, and like going on a tangent about how Ross didn't give me a penny change because they're like, well, they don't make pennies anymore. So we round down and I had a real problem with that. I was like, I don't understand how this is all gonna work anyway. So if I'm going on about a penny tangent, then I can see like somebody coming up and stabbing me and I wouldn't know any different. But moral of the story is I'm normally pretty well aware of my surroundings. She's giving this motherfucker every detail about us. Yeah, we're here for work. We're from blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We're all by ourselves. And I was like, and finally, I just like turned around and grabbed her arm. I'm like, I'm sorry, we've got to go. We've got, we're meeting somebody. And like, you're right, the women that he was with, it was all like I could tell. And I was like, my God, we could have ended up in a shipping container in an hour and you would have had no idea. We're here for work, we're all by ourselves in this big city, the week of Super Bowl. Like it was literally the year Super Bowl, yeah, Super Bowl was Sunday, and I'm in Vegas with just one other female. So people from all over the world. We could have, I and I literally had to say to her, Do you realize we will we could have been in a shipping container in an hour? Because I mean, we then at random times throughout the night, we would see one or two or three of them. And like they were trying to get us to come drink with them. Yeah. So they can roofie us and put us in a shipping container. Do you not understand? She's like, Well, he was offering. I'm like, I don't care what he was offering. Like, yeah, don't ever. And so at that point, I realized that people are really unaware of like what's going on in the world and things around. Yeah. Like, and another situation is you know, when we used to fly to Florida, because our corporation was in Florida, and everybody would fly in separately and then Uber to the hotel or the conference or whatever. And we actually had another area manager that her Uber ride. Yeah, we talked about that before. Yeah. Her Uber ride went off of path. And she ended up calling her husband who called the police, and like, thank God everything turned out okay. But the type of company we worked for didn't even fucking notify us or be like, hey, someone was almost sex trafficked last week. Yeah. Don't take an Uber from the airport by yourself. Like, no notification, no anything. Like, what? If she wouldn't have been paying attention, so like PSA. Pay attention. Pay attention. Make sure your Uber rides on route. On the route, they're supposed to be. And I saw something about that. I think it was a purse. Was it a purse chain? I don't know. We need to post some things on social media about how, but you always are supposed to sit behind your Uber driver, not like diagonal from them. But if you're in an Uber by yourself, you sit behind them. So if you need to choke them out with your purse, you can.

SPEAKER_01 13:42

Oh, that's a good idea. Well, there's one I there's a guy on TikTok, but he had was doing I haven't seen it in a while, but he had um put on a whole recording that you can actually like act like you're calling your boyfriend and it was him. And he said exactly like, okay, you know, where are you at? And okay, well, when are you gonna get home? All right, I'm watching for you. Oh, I can see that I can see you in route, you know, like all this stuff. So everything that to where it was like so at least the person would think somebody knows like they're paying attention. You know what I mean? And that's the thing about us too, is I think it's best to, you know, I think it's a good idea to get on the phone with somebody and be able to say, be talking to them so that the person's a very knows that somebody else is very well aware that they are in the car with you, and you know what I mean. And I do like that on Uber that they have where you can send that to like like I always have used it, I send it to my husband so he can track me. And I think that it's but it is a good, especially if you're by yourself to just talk to you know, a friend, a spouse, or whatever, the why you're putting Uber so that they know that you're talking to somebody. You know what I mean? Because I think that makes a huge difference for safety. They're not gonna take somebody who's just lolygag and not paying attention, looking at Facebook, ignoring how's going on. And I think that that's the big thing about social media that's become um to their advantage, is we just are when we're bored and don't have a we're not talking to anybody, what do we do? We scroll, looking at just to entertain ourselves. We are completely not paying attention to our surroundings. And I think that it's important that everybody realizes that if the phone's a great thing, and there's a time and place to be on it. And it's not when you're getting in to be Uber driven around. It's not when you're walking on the Target parking lot. It's it's not when you know, there are times just put your phone down, you know, put it in your purse, get yourself settled and get out and you can scroll on it later. Plenty hours in a day to sit and scroll and look at all your fun stuff. But it's not when you're walking around. I mean, there's been times they've shown like girls, you know, young girls, they're got their headphones on and they got their phone in hand and they're scrolling, and the next thing you know, a guy just comes up and stabs them. That's because they're unaware. And by the time it hits them, they're being taken. I mean, they're not fighting back. They're not their brain hasn't caught up with what's going on, you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:56

So it's scary. It is scary. I think I want, I mean, I I definitely, these are conversations that I want to have with with Wyatt and Nora, especially. Wyatt will be driving. Oh my God, I can't even imagine. And he thinks he's such a badass, and I think he's such a badass in in lots of different ways. But like, kid, you couldn't protect yourself. I wonder if there's a there needs to be a family. We need to have a family. Um, we need to take a class.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Oh, I already have been looking into having Kylie take a self-defense class because I just look at it as I mean, at least you have a better chance. You know, there's several different things. Obviously, they always go after somebody who they feel has less confidence. You know, I mean they can kind of like there's certain sides, like they go to somebody, they use empathy. A lot of times they'll be like, oh, let me talk to you about my sad story. And then the girl that's the most empathetic and I'll stop to help is the you know more of a target, you know. You at least have to be that you are paying attention, then a lot of times you're not as apt to, but at least even if you still are put in that position, you have ways to get out of that. For sure. Like my mom would talk about how you pop somebody's eyeballs out. Like if somebody was, you know what I mean, which just totally grosses me out. But believe me, I will poke your eyeballs out. How do you pop? You put them in thumbs, you put your thumbs like right on the tops of their cheeks, and then you like dig in and pop it out. Oh yeah. Like get on top of me, people, and I'm gonna pop your eyeballs out. You're tiny but mighty. Oh yes. Them eyeballs will pop right out. And what do you think the guy's gonna do then? He might be worried about his eyeballs more than that. That's why I like being heavier set.

SPEAKER_00 17:33

Good luck, motherfucker. Good luck. I'll take you down. We'll just, I mean, back to the scrolling thing. I watched a movie last night and it was an awesome, like it was just adorable. I don't know if you've ever seen Virgin River on Netflix, but it's Alexandria Breckenridge um is the main actor, and she's the main actor in this movie. It's called My Secret Santa, and it's just adorable because she pretends to be Santa. And the the reason she does pretend to be Santa, it obviously is spelled out in the movies, I'm not gonna give any spoilers, but adorable. But do you know that I had to restart the movie four times because I don't know, I was I was texting, I was working on um missed stuff. Yeah, and I literally had to restart it four times because I just got in my I just got uh we are featured on um Yell STL, an app, and um our podcast is featured on Yell STL and I had gotten on there and it we didn't have a cover cover photo and it only said seven episodes. I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, we're on like 28. So um we were going back and forth and uh trying to get that updated. And then I was just scrolling four times to restart this movie. Because I'm like, wait, where is she? What is happening? Who are you? Like I'm I'm it's ridiculous. So definitely paying attention to surroundings is something that that people need to do. Need to do better. It's not a lawyer. Absolutely. And you know, I think there's something to be said too that where where I had mentioned earlier, like fear is our brain's warning system. So, like following our gut too, like if something feels off, it probably is. Um I don't know, it's hard because you don't want to live your whole life in fear. So you don't do things or you don't travel or you don't go anywhere by yourself because I am seriously something that could take my mind to anxiety to that point.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

Yeah, yeah, I don't need to go anywhere. Bad things happen there. Forget it. Oh, did you hear the story over here? Don't need to go there either. It would not take much for me to be like, yeah, I think I'm not gonna go anywhere. And so I have to it, I think it is where I mean, fear can definitely take life away from you easily.

SPEAKER_00 19:46

Absolutely, but sometimes it's for good. I what what was going through my head when I was just staring at you is I've seen so many times mom say, like, oh no, I'm a stay at home mom because I fear sending my kids. to to daycare and we've talked about that before and like just a simple fear can really truly alter the course of your life because and for good reason we should be fearful for our kids and right and and you have to be protective and you gotta pay attention and be smart but we don't want to be fearful to the point where that we don't allow anything to happen either.

Rideshare Safety And Digital Awareness;

SPEAKER_01 20:19

That's right. Yeah allow life to happen to some degree you have to be open to it. And I think that's the biggest thing like for me like I have to like if the fear comes in then I have to kind of back up. Actually like my husband's a worry wart. Like he's tough about everything. I mean believe me I was in a situation uh he will protect me a hundred percent and he'll be not fearful in those moments but yet at the same time he's always like the one who'll be where the kid's going well I'm worried about this well what if this what of that you know what I mean and then that makes me worse because if he wasn't saying all this stuff to me I wouldn't be as fearful as I am about some of this stuff I'd be like maybe we shouldn't go there then but I do think you have to definitely that is truly triggers that bad anxiety that can take this over and create many problems and make life life be not as fulfilled as it should be.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Man so I and I text you this this week actually because um of some stuff you had going on but I saw it on a church sign and I've probably talked about it before but it said I don't know I was having a bad day coming home from work but it said um worrying is like praying for something bad to happen. And I texted you that this week like your mind can take you to places and and that's overthinking too like overthinking is so exhausting because you've played out every what if scenario and worst case scenario that will probably never happen and like the energy drain that has on you of playing out 192 things that will never ever ever happen but it's just the what the what if game um I don't know if it was a TV show or a movie or it might have been This is Us that they used to play like worst case scenario. So like if they were worried about something they would be like okay give me your worst case scenario and they would come up with the most off the wall crazy things but they're like okay worst case scenario is like I die in a car accident and blah blah blah blah blah. Um and that's how they kind of worked through that when they were over when they were worrying or overthinking or different things. They're like okay what's worst case scenario and so I've actually used that from time to time to be like okay worst case scenario and it's not that bad. So then I can kind of like move on from it and and get so little like tips and tricks like that I think are I think that is helpful for a lot of a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 22:41

I think the only time like what my worry that I had that we talked about ended in a really bad result. And so my worst case scenario was my worst nightmare on in certain ways, right? But at the same time I I mean it does help for somebody just to tell to remind you it's like the worrying isn't gonna it isn't gonna make it better. It doesn't make anything go away. And I think also like this is where like if I get too bad my dad always gets in my head because my dad's like the everything's positive. Everything's great. It's a great day I'm like it's like there's a freaking tornado coming at us. It's gonna be fine. We're a tough family. We'll be good. We'll take care of each other. I mean like it's always things are gonna be just fine. We're no matter what happens bad that we're a family and we will always be a strong family and we'll always move forward. So he's just always I mean when he worked a lot of hours he would just like clap his hands and rub them together and say it's gonna be a great day and I'd be like you're gonna work like 15 16 hours a day. Why do you always say that he's like well you gotta say you got to tell yourself it's gonna be a great day or it won't be so I feel like that's the thing is too when I get to worrying I have to I try to try to get some of that positive cheerleader stuff going in my head and it helped when you said to me that's like we're worrying about the like like what you're worrying about is gonna is like almost asking for it to happen to happen. Yes like and then I always thought oh my God I have to stop worrying because then it's gonna make it happen.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

That's what anxiety does to you. Okay right now stop worrying about this because then it will come to promotion and then we're gonna yeah no it's for real. And then you're I'm not gonna have a panic attack. No but thinking about that very specific or that scenario I kind of did play like worst case scenario with you. Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:22

And and we kind of and we even worked through that towards like you know worst case scenario we have a good situation to to help us through that worst case scenario. So I think that was good. You worked good you were good. I'll give you one Gina 150 Kylie one that is so funny.

SPEAKER_00 24:44

Oh man but yeah and the the fear creeps in the anxiety creeps in and then it's all it's just it's all kind of comes together.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

And I I think that's the thing is that we have to for sure definitely I think this is why as we talk about anxiety and the problems and the issues there are so many things that can spark that anxiety and it really comes down to the tools that we use to help us to get through the anxiety that it creates. So whether that's created by fear or something else it's always leads back to anxiety and getting your mind straight and looking toward and making sure you have your village of people you have your if you meditate or you know there's lots of people who do um a lot of different things to calm their mind um bilateral music as we've talked about before people should relax sometimes in the day and do those things um definitely can help us so that we don't get out of control. But I do think that you know my fears are more not like I said someone's gonna walk out of the woods and mine are the you know oh I don't like anything that flies. I hate anything that flies I like and it's not like it's a fear like if it's a bee I don't know which way it's coming at me. And then it just freaks me out. And so like Tom gets mad at me. I don't care about spiders so much I'll be like oh they're gross but I don't like I'm not fearful of a spider. Fly at me you know that thing goes zoom and then you're like where'd it go? Zoom and it's back again. And it's in your face.

SPEAKER_00 26:15

You're like oh my God I swear it's gonna get me I fear that my children are going to meet an untimely death and Gina fears bees wasps they'll get you too anything with a little stinger on the end I don't want anything to do with.

SPEAKER_01 26:31

So I don't even know if I'm allergic to it.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

Well if I get stung by it now I have I've always been going I literally just got goosebumps all over my body because I stings oh no I'm scared of what it'll feel like and then I'm scared of what it'll do to you. I can almost feel it like getting stung by a bee or like I feel like the the last time I got stung by a bee I like stepped on it like in grass or something. But it I tried to explain to Nora I don't go out barefoot in grass. Hello there's bugs, bees, things that sting your bite you Nora was helping me clean and she must have hit a like wasp's nest with a paper towel and so and she came in she's like something got me and like I could see the spot on her face and she's like I can't explain the feeling I was like it's like Casper running through your veins. It's like something like pig like you can almost like feel it.

Hypervigilance, Media, And Urban Myths;

SPEAKER_01 27:18

It's so I've never been stung you've never been all the time I'm scared of death I've never been stung and I don't want to be oh my gosh no the mm-mm mm no I'm not kidding when that thing when it goes how have you lived in on this earth for for so long you're gonna wish it about me to be stung next week good thing it's winter you've never been stung no and I don't want to be oh man I'll probably blow up like a blowfish and won't be able to breathe or something that's what I'm scared to that's like no that's for real though it is for real that's what I was telling you I don't want that and I'll be in the emergency room and it'll be crazy and if you make it there I've seen people drop dead because like okay see now you just made it work young no for real young healthy like people that go into anaphylactic shock and then they don't know dude I have a bottle of liquid benadryl ever since I swear it's because of the freaking COVID shot like I'm not kidding.

SPEAKER_00 28:17

I've always been a sensitive soul but also sensitive to everything like I have a sulfa allergy I have a Raglan allergy I have I have I have lots of allergies right um but I'd taken amoxicillin my entire freaking life my entire life and I took one or started a dose of antibiotics and I called my mom and I'm like something's not right and I'm telling you within like minutes I felt like I couldn't breathe. Like it was it was insane and it was my first encounter with Epi which reminds me I need to call my doctor I'm I'm convinced I need to get I need to have an Epi pin on hand because luckily my brother had one. Luckily my brother had one and like it was the first time but like I could legit and I think what happens is you're like it's just a B and you don't realize but like allergic reaction is an allergic reaction so it could cause major problems your throat and it's gonna hurt you drop it's gonna cause major problems.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

But liquid benadryl too and so well I will tell you liquid benadryl children's liquid benadryl knock you on your butt way faster than anything adult. So I always prefer the children's go straight in there. Yeah and it get you. So having a bottle of Benadryl is like so that's one of my fears around because I'm not king you I've had allergic reactions to stuff that doesn't even make sense or you can't figure out and it just happens.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

Well I was literally like what the like what the hell and then penicillin like I'm allergic to so many things it's like what can I even what can I even take and then my mom who worked in a pharmacy for a long time I I don't I don't even remember what it was but like they could have also counted something on the tray like prior to so like am I really allergic to amoxicillin or like did they count something of something else that I was right like I'm gonna try and find out exactly not happening. Exactly but yeah I guess that's another fear you can add is anaph dying of anaphylactic shock. And and we both watched recently we watched all her fault and she killed spoiler alert spoiler alert she killed her husband by kissing him she ate peanuts because he had a peanut allergy and then she killed him by kissing him.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

Genius I know I know but that's scary. That's the type of stuff it's just scary like all those different things that types of things you know I don't know that's why I I've never been stung I better never it get stung that's why I like if I have a soda can and I'm gonna be outside oh no you know how many times I've heard people say the bee got into their soda and then they went to take a drink and then no new new so I buy those like little plastic guards that go over it and then you pop the top and go back down no no no I no bee is getting into my soda for me to then zing into my mouth can you give me one of those because my dad one time drank a soda tab. Like the tab on top of a soda of a beer can I love those things they're great though you just close that puppy right but right up nobody can roofie you either just like that's the other thing is that women there's a lot of different things they now make for you to put over your drinks so if you go to a bar and you put it over your drink so that way that nobody can roofie you. That is that's over your cup and stuff like that. It is very scary you gotta be careful.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

And I remember when I was younger it was long island iced teas you just didn't get one at the bar because that was what everybody wanted roofie at the time it was a long island iced tea I never drank them so it didn't matter did you ever have a lot so you never Long Island iced tea when I was in college um Applebee's would have like five dollar Long Island iced tea nights and you would get fucked up in like two it was like the greatest thing ever. So it's like probably because you were roofy and you didn't know I was so good. No but I just so yeah it's it's true. I spent a lot of time watching TV and watching on social and looking at social media but I did just also see a story that I was she a teacher I don't know see I know that sometimes when you guys listen to this podcast you're like this bitch does not know what she's talking about. And it is absolutely 100% true like I said Brad had been sober for a very very long time he's like it's only been six months but I'm like should I correct that or what people even notice. But anyway she was I think it was like one margarita but somehow it got mixed with chemical cleaner and she didn't it she spent like a year like the worst year of her life trying to like fight it and figure out what was wrong and she just she just recently died. What? Because somebody that didn't speak English mixed the wrong thing in like her margarita.

unknown 33:01

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

It could have been a long tea and I could have no idea what I'm talking about that without that's the disclaimer I'm giving but for real like that so as social media can help it can also harm because sometimes I don't even think about it.

Allergies, Anaphylaxis, And Preparedness;

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Like do you wear gloves when you pump gas because I've seen oh yeah that's why you should always have to you pump gas think of how many people have you wear gloves when you pump gas no I don't but I have uh handstand tires a lot of times that I put on and my daughter even carries them in her purse and stuff like that just because if there's so many things that you can get off of that a million things you get off of it just from germs wise and then you take in the fact that people have put other stuff to like make you pass out or that's why they put it if you put$100 on your windshield you don't touch it. Somebody's put some stuff on it and make you knock out man fear just living in so I can talk about fears for stuff forever I'm telling you that's my biggest problem is I'm fearful.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

Very very fearful didn't even know so how do we break the fear anxiety loop let's talk about solutions because the goal of the podcast is not to live terrified forever we can't we wouldn't live a life if we lived terrified so what are some things what are how how can we break the fear anxiety loop um first I think you have to name the fear.

SPEAKER_01 34:16

Yes absolutely um but we would be here for a very long time because I just learned in the last 30 minutes that my co-host is afraid of everything I am so yes so and I think that I mean realistically though when you don't if you if you don't name the fear though you can't heal what you refuse to acknowledge and I think that's true just because just like what when I was fearful and was talking to you this week and you talk about worrying and all that kind of stuff you know I have to be I have to acknowledge what's bothering me and then you gotta move on.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

We're gonna start playing worst case scenario games. Yes. Yes and then if anything it's so dramatic because I'm always dramatic it makes us laugh and then we just move on.

SPEAKER_01 35:02

Yeah it's you know and I'm you know that's the thing for me laughing is healing. Yes laughing is healing. I mean I I really do feel like you know um there's been a lot of talk about it actually been a lot lately I've even noticed and and I've always felt this way but you know even when you talk about happiness or anything you have to create happiness. Happiness somebody else doesn't create it for you an item doesn't create it for you. You create your own happiness and so I turn anything that's negative into uh happiness somehow or laugh it off or laugh about something about it. And you gotta find something and way to deal with it. And I it's the same for fear. You know I might be scared of that bee, but we can be laughing while I'm scared to death.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

And then it'll fly in your mouth and you'll have the worst case scenario it'll be laughing. We're having a good time we're laughing when it flies in your mouth and you die of anaphylactic shock. But I have a bottle of liquid Benadryl so we're fine. I'm discovered perfect yeah I think you need to ask yourself like when we're in these scenarios is this fear or is this anxiety exaggerating the fear? Because there is a difference.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

There is a difference for sure for sure um and I I think um you gotta bring the fear into the present moment because fear lives in the future anxiety loves the future we always worry about what's coming next when what's gonna happen what's worst case scenario right right my mom put a fear in me because she's like we were talking about and I think I mentioned this too replacing the siding on her house and she was like what if I don't like it you know I had to live with this for 30 years but I'm not I'm not even gonna live that long so what do I care?

SPEAKER_00 36:41

And then I was like oh my God she's not gonna live that long and like what happens to her house and like what oh my God what am I gonna do? Like that the spiral is real. The spiral is real.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

So we've got to interrupt the story interrupt the story fear gives you a sentence anxiety turns it into a whole damn novel so we've got to we've got to stop the novel close the book yes calm calm the fuck down um you also have to build evidence against the fear so you survived a hundred percent of your worst day so far it's not just a quote it is literal data you that is damn straight we have 100% of them yes micro bravery do tiny brave things daily tiny bravery reduces giant fear I think that's the thing about anybody with anxiety or anything especially if you find yourself truly spiral in anxiety and can't get out of it I think it is through tiny things. You always have to take the little steps you know it's never gonna be like I'm gonna get from one to a hundred overnight it's gonna happen in small increments. Just like when we talked about money everything's about the little wins um and I also think you gotta talk it out but I think if you're not talking it out that's a problem. Fear grows more in silence and anxiety loves isolation. So make sure you're saying it out loud um usually loses half its power instantly just from saying it.

SPEAKER_00 38:09

Even if you say it to the mirror to yourself well normally I'll type the text to you and then I'll erase it and be like that's fucking dumb and that's what she's gonna tell you. This is fucking dumb and stop being ridiculous. Let's just get rid of it. If you're listening and you're thinking my fear feels my fears feel huge that doesn't mean you're broken. It means you're human and you've been protecting yourself the best way you know how.

SPEAKER_01 38:31

Fear doesn't mean you're weak. It means you care but caring shouldn't cost you your peace.

SPEAKER_00 38:36

All right friends this episode of the Anxiety Ridden Moms Club has been your reminder that fear is loud but you can be louder.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

And your anxiety brain she means well she's just dramatic. We love her but we're also not letting her run the show anymore.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Thanks for listening. Thanks for being part of this village and don't forget to follow subscribe and leave a review.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

And if this episode hit home send it to someone who needs it. We'll see you next week. If no one's told you lately let me be the one to say it you're not failing. You're growing you're not broken you're becoming and you're doing better than you think.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

Thanks for being here today. If this episode resonated with you I'd love if you'd subscribe leave a review or share it with another mom who might need to hear this. You can also connect with us on Facebook or TikTok at the ARMC. We'd love to hear your story.

Drinks, Bars, And Situational Safety;

SPEAKER_01 39:27

Until next time, give yourself grace breathe deep and remember peace is possible