Episode

Bonus Episode: What Is Anticipatory Anxiety (And Why It's Often Worse Than the Thing Itself)

Podcast
Your Anxiety Toolkit - Practical Skills for Anxiety, Panic & Depression
Published
May 1, 2026
Duration seconds
926
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://kimberleyquinlan.libsyn.com/bonus-episode-what-is-anticipatory-anxiety-and-why-its-often-worse-than-the-thing-itself
Audio
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/kimberleyquinlan/Final-Audio.mp3?dest-id=367887
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/your-anxiety-toolkit-practical-skills-for-anxiety-panic-depression-440514/episodes/bonus-episode-what-is-anticipatory-anxiety-and-why-it-s-often-worse-than-the-thing-itself
Markdown
/podcast/your-anxiety-toolkit-practical-skills-for-anxiety-panic-depression-440514/bonus-episode-what-is-anticipatory-anxiety-and-why-it-s-often-worse-than-the-thing-itself.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/your-anxiety-toolkit-practical-skills-for-anxiety-panic-depression-440514/episodes/bonus-episode-what-is-anticipatory-anxiety-and-why-it-s-often-worse-than-the-thing-itself/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/your-anxiety-toolkit-practical-skills-for-anxiety-panic-depression-440514/bonus-episode-what-is-anticipatory-anxiety-and-why-it-s-often-worse-than-the-thing-itself.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

In this episode, I talk about anticipatory anxiety, the intense fear or dread that shows up before something even happens. So often, the waiting, imagining, and "what if" spiral can feel worse than the actual event itself. I explain how this happens and why your brain reacts so strongly, even when there isn't a real threat in front of you.