A New Approach to Mental Health: The Anatomy of Anxiety with Ellen Vora (P1)

We are thrilled to invite Dr. Ellen Vora to the show today. Ellen is the author of one of our favorite books, The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response.
Anxiety is often regarded as a “neck up” problem, but Ellen debunks this in her book and in our conversation. Anxiety is rooted in our body, and by identifying the role our bodies play, we can more effectively mitigate our symptoms. Ellen breaks anxiety into two categories, true anxiety vs. false anxiety, and we explore how to manage both of them.
Ellen approaches anxiety and mental health from a holistic perspective, acknowledging that talk therapy and meds can be helpful, but they’re not the only solution. Small, incremental lifestyle changes can make a huge difference in dealing with false anxiety, thereby clearing the way to treat true anxiety.
Join us as we broaden the conversation around anxiety and talk about the other paths up the mountain of healing with Dr. Ellen Vora.
Untraining: The mindset that the presence of anxiety means there is something wrong with us that needs to be fixed and that our only two options are psychotherapy or medication.
Ttraining: The idea that some anxiety is rooted in the body, and that through teaching, experimentation and listening to ourselves, we have more options when it comes to resourcing ourselves and alleviating anxiety.
What we will explore in this episode:
The differences between true and false anxiety.
Lifestyle and diet changes that can help alleviate false anxiety.
True anxiety isn’t what’s wrong with us…it’s what’s right with us!
How soft solutions can work for hard problems.
Why society values the yang and how to get back in touch with the yin.
Symptoms of anxiety that are “celebrated” (looking at you, Super Moms!)
Being present and listening to the messages your body is sending.
How to radically reclaim the present moment.
The physiological toll that modern life takes on our bodies.
The three things to focus on when you’re at the beginning of your healing journey.
Guest Bio:
Ellen Vora, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher, and she is the author of The Anatomy of Anxiety. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health-considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Dr. Vora received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.D. from Columbia University.