xxiv ~ Caroline Foran ~ Owning My Anxiety

The DODcast

In this week’s episode, I speak to best-selling author Caroline Foran. After releasing her book, Owning It – the bullshit free guide to living with your anxiety, she has been praised far and wide for providing a universal tool to dealing with daily stresses and anxiety. Caroline has always suffered from anxiety and in this episode we speak about how this initially presented in childhood. We talk about how important it is to recognise the early signs so that they can be dealt with practically and the journey she went through looking for a non-existent quick fix. We speak about her mental breakdown at the age of 26 after moving jobs and the things she did at the time which just ended up making things so much worse. Afraid to leave the house, she explains how it feels to hit rock bottom but more importantly how she started to put the pieces back together again. Caroline has just recently published her new book The Confidence Kit which details the transformation in her person but at the same time recognising that anxiety will always be a part of her and useful tools of how she keeps it at bay. Episode Breakdown 10.12 – Anxiety manifesting in childhood 14.02 – Owning your vulnerability 17.05 – Perception vs reality through the lens of social media 18.48 – Experiencing a mental breakdown 26.40 – The awareness of experiencing mental health difficulties 30.40 – Normalising mental health 36.10 – Practical advice overcoming mental struggles 38.08 – Negativity bias and putting your irrational thoughts on trial 42.30 – Exercise & nutrition 51.29 – Niche questions Website: https://carolineforan.com/ Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Owning-Bullsh-t-Free-Living-Anxiety/dp/1473657601 Article: https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/living-with-anxiety-i-went-from-carefree-to-not-being-able-to-leave-the-house-1.3088199