Episode 60: Is False Anxiety Causing You Stress? with Dr. Ellen Vora

Listen to Episode 60 with Dr. Ellen Vora →

When Your Anxiety Isn't What You Think

You've tried therapy for your anxiety and learned all the coping skills. You practice mindfulness and challenge your anxious thoughts. But the anxiety persists despite your psychological work because you're treating the wrong type of anxiety.

What if your anxious feelings come from blood sugar crashes, caffeine overload, or inflammation rather than unresolved psychological issues?

Not all anxiety is real anxiety rooted in psychological causes. Some of it is false anxiety where your body creates anxious feelings from physical imbalances, not psychological ones that require therapy.

Dr. Ellen Vora joins me today as a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, yoga teacher, and author of The Anatomy of Anxiety. We discuss something that could change your life by helping you understand the difference between true and false anxiety and why that distinction matters for treatment.

Understanding False Anxiety

False anxiety comes from physical imbalances in your body rather than psychological distress. Blood sugar crashes create feelings of panic and doom. Caffeine overstimulates your nervous system and mimics anxiety symptoms. Inflammation throughout your body triggers anxious feelings through immune system signals. Your body feels intensely anxious but nothing is actually wrong psychologically that requires processing.

The difference between true and false anxiety matters tremendously for treatment approaches. True anxiety has a psychological root in unresolved trauma, stress, or emotional patterns that needs addressing through therapy or trauma work. False anxiety needs physical intervention through addressing the biological imbalances creating the symptoms. Treating false anxiety with therapy alone won't work because you're not addressing the actual cause.

Understanding the Biology of Trauma® reveals how stress and trauma affect your body's biochemistry in ways that create conditions for false anxiety. Chronic stress dysregulates your blood sugar, increases inflammation, disrupts your gut microbiome, and makes your nervous system more reactive to physical triggers. Your trauma history makes you more vulnerable to false anxiety because your body's regulatory systems are already compromised.

Dr. Vora discusses medications for anxiety and the challenge of managing withdrawals when people want to come off them. When to use medications as tools during crisis or severe symptoms. When medications mask false anxiety by suppressing symptoms without addressing underlying physical causes. How to approach coming off medications safely while addressing the root causes that created the need for them.

Trauma as Undigested Experience

The metaphor of trauma as "brain indigestion" captures something important about how unprocessed experiences affect you. Trauma represents an undigested experience that your brain can't fully process or integrate. It sits in your system creating ongoing symptoms including anxiety because your nervous system keeps trying to complete the processing that got interrupted or overwhelmed.

Where to start with your anxiety depends on ruling out false anxiety sources first before assuming you need psychological treatment. Check your blood sugar stability throughout the day and notice if anxiety correlates with meals or fasting. Assess your gut health since the gut-brain connection powerfully affects mood and anxiety. Evaluate inflammation levels through symptoms or testing. Consider your caffeine intake and other stimulants that might be driving anxious feelings.

Then address true anxiety if it remains after you've addressed physical causes. Many people discover that their anxiety significantly improves or disappears entirely when they stabilize blood sugar, heal their gut, reduce inflammation, and eliminate excessive caffeine. The anxiety they thought required years of therapy resolves through addressing physical imbalances.

Dr. Vora's book The Anatomy of Anxiety provides a framework for breaking down anxiety into its different types and sources. Understanding which type of anxiety you have changes your treatment approach entirely from psychological interventions to physical ones or a combination of both. This prevents wasting time and money on treatments that can't work because they're aimed at the wrong target.

Physical Causes You Can Address

Many false anxiety triggers are within your control to modify or eliminate. Your diet affects blood sugar stability, inflammation levels, and gut health that all influence anxiety. Your sleep quality impacts nervous system regulation and stress hormone balance. Your consumption of stimulants like caffeine directly triggers anxious feelings in sensitive nervous systems. Addressing these physical factors can eliminate anxiety you thought required psychological treatment.

The connection between trauma and false anxiety means that people with trauma histories often experience more false anxiety than others. Your dysregulated nervous system from trauma makes you more reactive to blood sugar swings, more sensitive to caffeine, more vulnerable to gut-brain axis problems, and more prone to inflammation-driven mood issues. Healing your Biology of Trauma® reduces your vulnerability to false anxiety by improving your body's regulatory capacity.

Understanding this distinction prevents the shame and frustration that comes from anxiety that doesn't respond to therapy. When you're working hard in therapy but anxiety persists, you might blame yourself for not trying hard enough or doing the work correctly. The reality might be that you have false anxiety requiring physical intervention rather than psychological processing.

Dr. Vora's integrative approach combines her training as a psychiatrist with her understanding of holistic medicine, acupuncture, and yoga. This allows her to see the full picture of what creates anxiety in your body and mind. She recognizes when medication is appropriate and when addressing physical imbalances resolves symptoms that psychiatry would otherwise medicate indefinitely.

The Path to Addressing Your Anxiety

Start by investigating potential physical causes of your anxiety before committing to years of therapy for psychological treatment. Track your anxiety in relation to meals, caffeine intake, sleep quality, and stress levels. Notice patterns that suggest physical triggers rather than psychological ones. Work with practitioners who understand both false and true anxiety to get appropriate assessment and treatment.

When you address false anxiety through physical interventions, you might discover that underlying true anxiety also needs attention. The physical imbalances were amplifying or masking psychological issues that become clearer once your body stabilizes. Working with both the physical and psychological aspects creates the most comprehensive healing.

Dr. Vora's work demonstrates that effective anxiety treatment requires understanding which type of anxiety you're experiencing. This prevents the common problem of people spending years in therapy for anxiety that has primarily physical causes. It also prevents people from only addressing physical factors when deeper psychological trauma needs processing for complete healing.

The integration of physical and psychological understanding that Dr. Vora brings to anxiety treatment aligns with the Biology of Trauma® framework. Your anxiety lives at the intersection of your body's physical state and your nervous system's trauma responses. Addressing both creates more effective and sustainable relief than focusing on either alone.

This Episode Is For:

✓ People with anxiety that hasn't responded to therapy 

✓ Anyone consuming lots of caffeine or experiencing blood sugar swings 

✓ Practitioners helping anxious clients who need to understand false versus true anxiety 

✓ Those taking anxiety medication wondering about underlying causes 

✓ Anyone with trauma history experiencing persistent anxiety 

✓ People ready to investigate physical roots of their anxious feelings

What You'll Learn

Listen to learn what false anxiety is and why addressing physical causes might eliminate anxiety you thought required psychological treatment. Discover how to distinguish between true and false anxiety in your own experience. Understand why trauma makes you more vulnerable to false anxiety and what to do about it.

Your anxiety might be your body's response to physical imbalances rather than unresolved psychological issues.

Listen to Episode 60 with Dr. Ellen Vora →

Disclaimer

This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical or mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information shared reflects my clinical expertise and research, but every person's biology and healing journey is unique. Always consult with qualified healthcare providers before making changes to your treatment plan or starting new interventions. If you're experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact emergency services or a crisis helpline immediately.

Join the Conversation

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this episode. What resonated with you? What questions came up?

Please keep comments respectful and supportive. This is a community of people committed to healing. We welcome diverse perspectives and honest questions, but we don't tolerate personal attacks, spam, or content that could harm others on their healing journey.