The Real Truth About Anxiety And How To Heal W/ Dr. Russell Kennedy
June 26, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readDr. Russell Kennedy, a neuroscientist and medical doctor, opens the conversation with a blunt reframing: anxiety is not a thinking disorder that feels—it is a feeling disorder that thinks. He argues that most therapies fail because they treat anxious thoughts as the root problem, when in fact those thoughts are just symptoms of an underlying alarm stuck in the body since childhood. The mind, through confirmation bias, then generates scary warnings to match what the body already feels. Kennedy calls this the "alarm in the body" and the "anxiety of the mind," each revving up the other in a loop that cognitive therapies alone cannot break.
The Body-Mind Loop
Kennedy explains that when the body secretes cortisol and norepinephrine during alarm, it paralyzes the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain that can rationally evaluate threats. The emotional brain then takes over, making worries feel more real. This creates a double whammy: not only do you generate more worries from the emotional alarm, but you lose the part of your brain that could tell you those worries aren't valid. Most people mistake the anxious thoughts for the problem itself, when those thoughts are just symptoms of an alarm stuck in the body since childhood. The real work, Kennedy argues, is learning to stay with the physical sensation of alarm without immediately explaining it away with thoughts—a practice h
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What you'll learn
- 1 (03:00) **Dr. Russ Kennedy's Origin Story** - Born to a schizophrenic father and neurotic mother, he became a people-pleaser and external-validation seeker, which led him to become a stand-up comic, yoga teacher, medical doctor, and author.
- 2 (07:00) **The Two-Part Definition of Anxiety** - Anxiety is primarily a feeling disorder that thinks, not a thinking disorder that feels.
- 3 (08:44) **The Core Practice: Sensation Without Explanation** - The key is to find the alarm in your body and stay with the physical sensation without adding a mental story.
- 4 (11:22) **How Anxiety Manifests Differently** - The coping strategy (people-pleasing, avoidance) is learned in childhood, but the underlying alarm is the same.
- 5 (14:14) **The Somatic-First Approach** - Somatic therapy is the entry point; cognitive therapy is the icing on the cake, not the foundation.
- 6 (18:54) **The SHOULD Acronym** - What you should have received as a child (Seen, Heard, Open to, Understood, Loved, Defended) is what you should give yourself now.
- 7 (20:46) **Biggest Myths About Anxiety** - The right partner won't trigger you is false; relationships are inherently triggering and point you back to your own wounds.
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Show Notes
What is anxiety, really, and why won't it go away no matter how much you overthink it? Sabrina sits down with neuroscientist and anxiety expert Dr. Russ Kennedy (Anxiety MD) to break down anxiety in dating, relationships, and everyday life. They cover why anxiety lives in the body and not just the head, why CBT, EMDR, and medication so often treat the symptoms instead of the root, and how to tell a real alarm from a false one. This one is for anyone who has ever felt anxious, avoidant, or convinced they were fundamentally broken.
They also dig into the myth that a new partner will fix your anxiety, why overthinking is really under-feeling, and how inner child work and somatic healing actually move you forward. You will walk away with tangible tools to stop abandoning yourself, get out of your head, and work through anxious attachment, breakups, and the uncertainty of dating. The biggest takeaway is learning to separate the feeling in your body from the thoughts in your mind, because that is where real healing starts.
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