Jen Kirkman is a comedian, author, actor, TV writer, and podcaster that has lived through anxiety and panic for large portions of her life. I was fortunate enough to have Jen on the podcast this week to talk about her path into anxiety and panic, then out the other side. I’m sure her story will sound familiar to most listeners.
While talking with Jen (I was on her podcast last week), I realized that we had lived very different experiences emotionally and mentally, yet both wound up in the same place with regard to anxiety and panic issues. Panic attacks. Irrational fears. Driving anxiety. Life restrictions. Jen and I lived a similar experience with anxiety even when our emotional and thinking styles could not be more different.
I spent some time exploring this with Jen.
She was very tied to her emotions and thoughts, and almost found her identity as a deep thinker that was in touch with her feelings.
I was exactly the opposite, rarely giving my thoughts or emotions a second thought. Regardless, we arrived at the same point in the anxiety universe, which tells us something about the mechanics of the process.
Hearing Jen come to the conclusion that she had almost “set the table” for disordered anxiety by following every thought and emotion she had was of particular interest. The idea that she could recover by NOT following every thought and feeling seemed completely bizarre to her because that notion was completely outside her experience.
In comparison, the idea that I wound up in a place where I started following my thoughts and emotions was completely foreign to me and presented a particular challenge.
Two paths … same destination.
We ended the conversation by revisiting Jen’s pervasive fear that gravity would stop working for her when she experienced high anxiety and panic. The fear of literally floating away is a great illustration of how creative a frightened mind can get. In all my time interacting with thousands of people in this community, Jen is only the second person I’ve found with this gravity fear.
I really appreciate her willingness to share that so openly because the moral of that story is that no matter how “strange” you think your specific fear might be … you’re likely not the only one that has it. You are not alone, nor are you especially broken or unique!
Thanks so much to Jen for taking time out of her busy schedule to talk to us this week. I’m looking forward to having her on the podcast again when time allows.
Find Jen Kirkman and The Anxiety Bites Podcast here:
https://jenkirkman.com
http://www.jenkirkman.com/anxietybitespodcast
https://twitter.com/JenKirkman
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anxiety-bites/id1583022382
https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/3928a3de-7f76-41ba-9ee2-fb9b4a432cf9/anxiety-bites
https://open.spotify.com/show/2YiHO5Ek2HOr61KIFonij9
Want to support my work in some way? Here’s how to do that!
—
This post was previously published on The Anxious Truth
***
You Might Also Like These From The Good Men Project
Compliments Men Want to Hear More Often 
Relationships Aren’t Easy, But They’re Worth It 
The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex 
..A Man’s Kiss Tells You Everything Join The Good Men Project as a Premium Member today.
All Premium Members get to view The Good Men Project with NO ADS.
A $50 annual membership gives you an all access pass. You can be a part of every call, group, class and community.
A $25 annual membership gives you access to one class, one Social Interest group and our online communities.
A $12 annual membership gives you access to our Friday calls with the publisher, our online community.
Register New Account
Log in if you wish to renew an existing subscription.
Username
First Name
Last Name
Password
Password Again
Choose your subscription level
- Yearly - $50.00 - 1 Year
- Monthly - $6.99 - 1 Month
Credit / Debit Card PayPal Choose Your Payment Method
Auto Renew
Subscribe to The Good Men Project Daily Newsletter By completing this registration form, you are also agreeing to our Terms of Service which can be found here.Need more info? A complete list of benefits is here.
—
Photo credit: iStock.com
The post Jen Kirkman: Two Paths, Same Destination appeared first on The Good Men Project.
Original Article
