Reclaim You- Managing Anxiety During Seasonal Shifts
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Join Sarah and Emily, eating disorder and trauma therapists at Reclaim Therapy, as they discuss the challenges and opportunities that come with the changing seasons and transitions in life. From managing anxiety to embracing fall fashion and self-care tips, this episode has it all.
Get ready for some autumn vibes and valuable insights to help you reclaim comfort and balance during times of change.
Grab a pumpkin spice latte and tune in!
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[00:01] Sarah: Hi there. Welcome to Reclaim You, a podcast published by the Reclaim Therapy team. Join us as we share stories, tools, and insights on how to reclaim you in the wake of trauma, disordered eating, and body shame. Grab your coffee, tea, or your favorite snack and get cozy, because we're about to dive in.
[00:19] Sarah: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to reclaim you Emily and I are just talking about the end tree of fall and fall decorations and anyone who's watching a video, my pumpkin mug. Flip it around. Yep, the happy pumpkin. This is your cue to go check out the YouTube video of this episode to see my cute mug. Yeah. So we were just talking about fall and the transition from summer to fall, and Emily is in the process of getting decorated for fall Halloween. How's that going?
[00:50] Emily: Amazing. I mean, it's my favorite time of.
[00:56] Sarah: I love it. What do you like about the fall? Tell us.
[01:00] Emily: Halloween. I mean, Halloween is my favorite holiday, so I've always gone all out, and I love to decorate and get things up early and enjoy them. And the weather. I'm kind of sick of this hot weather. I'm ready for it to cool down and get some sweaters out.
[01:20] Sarah: Sweatshirts, comfy, cozy.
[01:24] Emily: Yeah, I'm ready for all of it.
[01:29] Sarah: Yes. And, like, chilly. Yes. It's a dream. I always feel like September should be cooler earlier. It should be in the 60s right now in my brain.
[01:43] Emily: I know. I feel that. And, like, last week was, like, 100 degrees. I was so sad. So I'm, like, putting my decorations up. I'm like, I'm just going to stay inside and pretend that this is with.
[01:55] Sarah: The air conditioning on. Pretend that the windows are open.
[01:58] Emily: Yeah, absolutely safe.
[02:02] Sarah: Bring on the fall.
[02:03] Emily: I know. I feel you. I'm ready.
[02:07] Sarah: Yeah. So today we're talking about the change of seasons and transitions and how difficult that can be, just life in general, and of course, in eating disorder recovery and in recovery from overwhelming stuff that has happened in your life, transitions can be so destabilizing and really anxiety producing. That's what we're planning to chat about.
[02:29] Emily: Today, change of seasons. I mean, I feel like I even notice it with my own anxiety. When things transition, it's change, and change always kind of kicks things up. So this has definitely been a hard time for a lot of folks, so I think this will be a good conversation.
[02:48] Sarah: Yeah. The summertime schedule is just so different than the fall winter spring schedule. Right. So it feels like this is a very hard transition for a lot of people to get back into just, like, the structure of everyday life. And for some people, it's a relief of having a lot of structure around school and work, and if you have kids, childcare, all that kind of stuff. And for others, it can just be a lot to manage and shift and navigate and all of that for you in your experience, how do you feel, or how does anxiety present to you with these types of transitions?
[03:25] Emily: Yeah, I feel like I notice it a lot physically, a lot comes up for me. I feel like when these transition periods come up, I always notice that I'm a little bit more antsy. It's hard to focus. So some of those somatic body symptoms really kick up for me. And it's interesting, like, the past couple of years, I've paid attention to it, and it does normally happen, like, change of season, because I feel like it's just like, we're going into summer, we're going out of summer, and especially with fall, it's like, okay, the holidays are coming, winter is coming, summer is over. Like you were saying, we're back to real life. There's a lot there, and I love fall, but it always makes me feel like antsy for a couple of weeks until I get adjusted to that change.
[04:19] Sarah: Yeah. I'm sure that the decorating and making your space visually appealing and cozy and comfy, I'm sure that that presents some sort of ease in your body, or I would imagine it does.
[04:32] Emily: Yeah, it's self care. It's something that I can do to help with that anxious feeling, like, to actually get it out, in a sense. And like you were saying, make my space comfortable, make my space more enjoyable. That is definitely something that helps me when I'm feeling like that.
[04:53] Sarah: Yeah, me too. Sometimes my go to is like rage cleaning. I call it rage cleaning, but I don't know if it's actually rage cleaning, because when I'm feeling really anxious, it feels really good to feel contained in some ways. So if that's organizing, I go to town, and it really helps.
[05:10] Emily: We'll do that quite often, actually. I feel like that's such a thing, especially with anxiety. Like, I know for me and a lot of people that I work with your space, it's so important to have a comfortable space when you deal with anxiety. So that's definitely, I think, so helpful.
[05:33] Sarah: Yeah. Let's talk more about anxiety and maybe how it might present. I mean, I think most people who are listening in know what anxiety is, or just generalized anxiety, but I'm wondering about maybe some of the sneaky ways that anxiety can present or show up outside of maybe what people would expect, if you have any insight on that.
[05:54] Emily: Yeah, so I feel like a lot of times, myself included, when we think about anxiety, it's like that we think about that classic nervous feeling of, like, oh, I have butterflies in my stomach, or I'm sweating, or we kind of sometimes take it to that panic level, and it's like, oh, that's what anxiety is. And it can be, but not all the time. I think that that's sometimes more of the severe end of anxiety, and it's easy to miss those things in the middle that are harder to catch. So I know, for me, something that I think I mentioned earlier, I noticed especially in transitions, it gets really hard for me to focus. I just feel like super scattered. I'm, like, from one thing to the next thing to the next thing. And I didn't realize that that was anxiety for a long time. And it took a while for me to be like, oh, this happens a lot when I'm anxious. So that's become a big red flag for me. If I feel like I can't focus on something or I'm jumping from thing to thing, or I feel really scattered, that's definitely a sign that I need to slow down and check in with myself. Yeah, trouble sleeping is another big one. So, like, trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, feeling really fatigued throughout the day, I think is another huge way that anxiety shows up, especially in transitions. And sometimes we can blame that on the transition and be like, oh, I'm just working a lot, I'm tired. But sometimes it is just that's how anxiety is showing up in our body. So definitely queuing into that. Even other things in the body, like, are you having headaches? Are you having tension? That's a huge sign that there's a lot of anxiety present that we might benefit from looking at.
[07:46] Sarah: And so when someone's noticing that maybe they're running on the anxious side of things as schedules are still probably in upheaval I know our schedules are in a bit of upheaval with the transition into the fall. If someone's noticing that they're a bit more tense or maybe they're ruminating and not sleeping well and just feeling overall, I don't know, pressured maybe, in some ways. What are some maybe easy tips to help relieve some of that anxiety? Some go to coping tools or self care strategies. What do you feel like works, even if it's just for you? I think that that's always helpful to hear what works for other people so that people can dabble and try what works for them.
[08:24] Emily: Yeah, totally. And this might sound kind of like no duh, but just acknowledging what's going on. I feel like sometimes when I notice that in myself, so it's like, I'm feeling tense, I'm feeling irritable, I'm feeling tired. Like all these things, I want to give it this big grand explanation, and sometimes it is just like, it's a hard week, it's a hard couple of weeks. There's a lot going on outside of my control. There's not necessarily anything that I can do to change what's going on. Sometimes just that acknowledgment of like, yeah, this is hard, I can lean into, that can be helpful. Obviously, then, self care needs to come in, and we need to do things to kind of make that time easier for us, even if things are outside of our control and life is happening for myself. And I always encourage clients too, that's when we need to go into our toolbox and be like, okay, what is the self care that makes me feel good? And there's no right answer and there's no wrong answer to that. It might be cleaning. It might be yoga. It might be going for walks. It might be reading, it might be spending time with loved ones. There's really no right answer or wrong answer. It's just what, self care makes you feel the best.
[09:47] Sarah: Yeah, I'm thinking back to it was probably one of the earlier episodes, well, it was definitely one of the earlier episodes when we were talking about body image and kind of diffusing from thoughts of acknowledging kind of like you said, I'm just having a really hard time right now. Things are tough, things are chaotic. And acknowledging that and not going down the rabbit hole of meaning with the thoughts of allowing the thought to just be a thought and not making it a whole narrative story, truth, all of the things. Because we know that thoughts are just a function of our brains and they're going to keep coming. And the less we can attach to them, probably, the more we're going to be able to find space to engage in self care that's going to be supportive and regulating.
[10:32] Emily: And that's the one thing that's so hard about anxiety, because I think anxiety in and of itself makes us anxious. So it's like, oh, this thing is making me I'm already anxious. This thing is making me more anxious. But the more that we fight against anxiety, which I think is obviously the natural reaction, because it's scary, it's dysregulating, it's all the things. So of course we want to fight against it and make it go away, but the more that we do that, the more anxious that we're going to be. So sometimes it is just like that, okay, I'm just going to lean into this. I'm going to acknowledge that it's really hard and I'm going to take care of myself.
[11:11] Sarah: Yeah, it's energy that's moving through your body. It's like the more that we fight it, the more bottlenecked it becomes and builds and builds. And the pressure is another metaphor, like the pressure cooker, and then the steam is going to come out everywhere.
[11:25] Emily: That's very real.
[11:28] Sarah: So self care, especially when you're feeling the I guess the somatic side of things, you're kind of in touch with your body enough to feel those physical side effects of anxiety, like maybe erasing heart or you're feeling hot or clammy or you're feeling really tense and your muscles feel like, contracted. What are some go to tools that you have to create some ease or movement in the body?
[11:56] Emily: Yeah, I normally try to check in with myself, am I feeling physical tension or am I just feeling that racing, anxious energy? And it kind of depends on what I do based on how I'm feeling. So if it's more of the tension route, I'm huge on stretching just to actually get some of that out of our muscles because that's where we store it. When we feel pain in the body, that can even make us more anxious. So I think really focusing in on that, take a hot bath or use a heating pad, something to help relax your muscles is always like my go to for when I'm noticing that tension. If it's more of the anxious energy, I think that it can be really helpful to do something a little bit more active if you feel comfortable with that. So those are the moments that it's like, okay, I'm going to go for a walk. I'm going to go move my body in some way. Maybe I'm going to listen to music and dance around and just kind of shake it out a little bit. Even talking to people in those moments, I think connection can be really helpful when it's just kind of like that overwhelming anxious, like, I have to get this out of me energy. Being able to connect with another person I think can be really helpful in those moments.
[13:13] Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. I'm thinking of just the nervous system and how when we're anxious, we're hyper aroused. Right. And what really supports us to come into a more tolerant place is like safe, authentic, attuned connection. So I think that you're so right having someone who can provide that to you and maybe not matching your energy of anxiety and panic because then the snowball starts and the spiral starts and the cycles and all of those things. But someone who can hold space for you, stay really regulated and calm and create that space to just be heard without questions or judgment of just validation of yes, this is a really hard season. This is a really hard couple of weeks, and I'm here for you.
[13:57] Emily: Yeah, that's always helpful. Like just that space to be able to talk even if the other person isn't saying anything back, just being able to get out how you're feeling and feeling safe and feeling validated is really important.
[14:13] Sarah: Yeah, and I'm thinking of all of this and especially folks who have headed back to school or college, even maybe heading back to work without worrying about the summer, I don't know, ease and how that can show up. The anxiety of just the transitions can show up in eating patterns and having to readjust and renegotiate and structure differently or pay attention to different things. Maybe we can talk about that a little bit for folks who may be struggling with some restriction or eating disorder symptoms or behaviors. How to navigate the stress of the transitions while also taking care of yourself through the act of feeding yourself.
[14:57] Emily: Yeah, I think that's definitely a big factor. Even talking about anxiety when anxiety is high, that can absolutely impact our appetites. Like whether or not you deal with an eating disorder or disordered eating anxiety in and of itself will impact that. But we also know the role that anxiety plays when you're struggling or in recovery. So I think that's something that is really important to touch on. I think that that kind of going back to what we were saying. Sometimes we do need to just acknowledge what's going on and that it might be a harder time. So let's get ahead of it. If we can acknowledge that, let's get ahead of it and let's maybe plan for that a little bit. So that might be a time we're really going to have to tune into. Okay, how can I meet myself where I'm at? I always encourage people and even myself when I'm feeling anxious and it's like I don't want to eat nothing. Sounds good. Really sit with that. And if one thing comes to mind, have that one thing. There's no right answer. There's no wrong answer. Meet yourself where you're at and make it easy on yourself. Have things that don't require too much effort. Or if cooking feels overwhelming, what are things that we can have that are just kind of grab and go so that it's not overwhelming, it's not taking too much effort, but you're still able to feed yourself and nourish your body.
[16:28] Sarah: Yeah, I love that the making it easy part feels so important in periods of stress and transition. Thinking about how structure, flexible structure, not rigid structure of dieting or whatever, but structure of making sure that you're feeding yourself often enough and adequately can be just such a lifesaver in these periods of stress and transition. Because it's this touch point of this is just how I'm going to take care of myself, which of course is challenging in lots of ways, but I'm going to feed myself every few hours. It's just what I'm going to do. Right. Knowing that anxiety can often disconnect us from our bodies. And so if we're disconnected from our bodies, we're not going to be tuning into hunger, fullness craving, satisfaction, all of those important things as readily, probably. So having the structure can just bring you back, pull you back into what is and the needs that need to be met and then it gives you fuel to actually deal with the anxiety instead of feeling disembodied and hungry and hangry.
[17:30] Emily: Yeah, exactly what you were saying. Loose structure. Like I always go with the three to four hour rule. Like every three to 4 hours, let's just check in and have something. It can be a meal, it can be a snack. Let's just have something to keep things regulated and give our bodies what we need.
[17:48] Sarah: Yeah, and I'm just thinking too about clothes in the fall because I know even you mentioned, and I mentioned too, I think earlier, like, yes, it's going to be sweatshirt, sweater, comfy so much, just like I don't know, comfy, cozy vibes. Right. And how I think for a lot of people it's a relief to be exiting summer and being seen a little bit more and how to navigate that in a way that's honoring of your body and not hiding away. Hiding can feel really safe. And also it feels important to honor what is and do it from a place of respect and compassion versus I'm not enough, so I need to hide under all of the clothes.
[18:34] Emily: I think a big thing there is honestly exactly what you just said. We need to acknowledge if that's what's going on, and talk about it a little bit because obviously there's a lot there. I know that is something that's come up. Even myself, I prefer the sweatshirts and the sweaters and the oversized. That's a preference. And sometimes that gets really confusing of can I prefer this or does that mean that I'm hiding? And I think sometimes we need to talk about that too. It is okay if that is a preference. It is okay if that's more comfortable. Because objectively it is for a lot of people.
[19:19] Sarah: Yeah, totally.
[19:21] Emily: So I think that that's also important to call out. It doesn't have to mean anything bad. If that is a preference, it can be more comfortable because it is more comfortable a lot of times. So I think sometimes even too, just focusing in on the feeling, not necessarily the fit, like, does this feel comfortable? Does this feel cozy? What's the feeling I want to get from this? Clothing can sometimes be a full reframe there.
[19:49] Sarah: Yeah, that's such a great point of it's okay if it's a preference. And I think it's also important to name that it's okay to feel like you have to hide sometimes too, because back on our old episodes about diet, culture and all of those things, it's real. It's real to want to have to hide and not be seen for a lot of people, for lots and lots and lots of different reasons. And I think it's a matter of how can you see yourself in those moments and tend to what's there, what's driving you to want to hide.
[20:20] Emily: Yeah. And with the transitions of seasons, I think just in general, even if it is going from summer to fall, which like you were saying a lot of times is a lot more comfortable for folks, it's still a time when we have to think about clothes more. A lot of times we're changing our closets or we're getting things out of storage. It kind of inherently makes us think about clothes a little bit more. So absolutely things can come up. And I'm thinking about our clothing episode.
[20:53] Sarah: Yes.
[20:54] Emily: Just really tuning into, okay, what do I like, what makes me feel comfortable, what do I feel good in? And trying to make that as easy for ourselves as possible.
[21:10] Sarah: Yeah. I'm also thinking about our clothing episode. I was going to text you and I totally forgot. I had ordered a couple of pairs of jeans from Abercrombie because they typically have, like they have decent stuff right like much different from when I was in middle school, high school.
[21:26] Emily: Different vibes. I lived in their shorts all summer.
[21:29] Sarah: Yeah. So I ordered literally the same style of pants. Just one was like a black type wash. I don't remember what it's called. And the other one was kind of like a medium wash. Right. So I got them, tried them on. Same size, same style, same cut, fit, whatever you want to call it. Vastly different sizes.
[21:52] Emily: This literally happened to me last winter. I ordered so many jeans from them.
[21:58] Sarah: Yeah.
[21:59] Emily: And I was all over the place. And then like, I couldn't even get up. And then other ones like these fit, and then I wore them a couple times and then they stretched. It was.
[22:14] Sarah: You know, I hadn't had that experience with Abercrombie. So I'm like, okay, I'll order their jeans mean, and they're relatively expensive jeans, right. And I don't want to be spending like hundreds of dollars on jeans because I sit behind this computer and wear yoga pants most days. But I got them and I was like, holy ****. I wanted to hold them up and look and see how differently sized they actually were. And I forgot they're in the return bag. So I remember to return them, but it's just wild. So another reminder of Sizing is just such bullshit. Abercrombie, if anyone works there or know someone, like, get your **** together, y'all. Come on. Same style, different wash, completely different sizes. One was too big. One I could not zip up.
[22:54] Emily: Same experience. I feel like it's like that know, even the last time I got jeans at Old Navy, different washes, fit differently. A very good reminder. It's all made up.
[23:13] Sarah: It's all made up.
[23:14] Emily: All made up. I really would love to see the system that they use because I swear it isn't real and doesn't exist, right?
[23:22] Sarah: Yeah. They just wing it, each pair of jeans.
[23:25] Emily: Yeah. And I think it changes every year. What do we feel like doing this year, right?
[23:31] Sarah: Yeah. So that's just a friendly reminder from the clothing episode that we did. We'll link to it in the show notes. But that sizing is bullshit. It's all made up. The clothes are the problem. Your body is not the problem to sink into that, especially if you're ordering new clothes for this season or your old clothes aren't fitting the way that you want them to or they once did. Multiple sizes. It's okay because you just don't know what Abercrombie is going to send you in the mail, right?
[24:02] Emily: Sure don't. And I know it's hard, but as much as we can try not to focus on the number. The number is just the number. It's made up. How does it feel on your body? Because if we find something that's comfortable, we're not going to think about it as much.
[24:20] Sarah: You're just going to live your life, right?
[24:22] Emily: There might be that initial, like, I have my feelings about the size or whatever it is. But as we put that on, as we move through our lives, if it's comfortable, our brain is just automatically not going to go there because it's like, okay, this feels good. I'm going to go do my thing.
[24:41] Sarah: Right? I'm going to go to work or I'm going to go, whatever, to the farmers market. All fall things. I guess that's a summer thing too.
[24:49] Emily: That's fall.
[24:50] Sarah: Or I'm going to go apple picking.
[24:51] Emily: That's love it.
[24:54] Sarah: Well, this feels so important, this managing anxiety through times of transition and just giving yourself grace and space and allowing yourself to feel the energy of the anxiety despite how uncomfortable it is. It will pass, it will move. You're deserving of support.
[25:11] Emily: I mean, that feels like the most important points there. Acknowledge it. It will pass. I know it doesn't always feel like that in the moment and that we can support ourselves and that like you were saying, that we are worthy of support, like that those feel like the most important things to remember.
[25:30] Sarah: Absolutely. Okay, so what are your top three things for the fall? Let's close out the episode with that. Top three things you're looking forward to.
[25:38] Emily: Top three things I'm looking forward to. I mean always halloween. Halloween is number one. Having a big party this year. So very excited about that. Very fun annual Halloween party. I do always love to do, like, a horror movie marathon with my friends that enjoy horror movies. I know that's very polarizing, so love to do that. And probably apple picking or, like going to a pumpkin patch or something like that. Yeah, I do always love doing that too.
[26:10] Sarah: Love it. Love the fall vibes.
[26:12] Emily: Yeah. How about you? What are your top three fall activities?
[26:18] Sarah: Yeah, I think one thing I'm looking forward to this year is we're going to be getting an animatronic for the front of our house from, like, spirit Halloween.
[26:28] Emily: Love it.
[26:29] Sarah: We have to decide on which one. My son, he's four. He's going to be the deciding factor, which feels a little scary. We're going to provide some limitations around which one because we're not going to spend $300 on an animatronic. But that should be fun. We live right near the high school in our town, and the football games are on Friday nights. And so the kids love to go and watch the blue people is what they call them because their uniforms are blue. So we walk around the track until they lose their minds and we have to come home. But they love that, so that's fun. It's nice to get out in the cool weather. And then, of course, Halloween. Love Halloween and the decorations and just the cool weather. So that was like, five things that I'm looking forward to.
[27:13] Emily: I love it.
[27:14] Sarah: All right, well, thank you. Thank you for sharing some tips around anxiety and managing it in times of transition and clothes and eating and all of the things appreciate you. Absolutely. All right, everybody, we will be back next week with Casey, and we will talk to you then.
[27:35] Sarah: Thank you so much for joining us on this episode of Reclaim You. Be sure to, like, comment and subscribe and check us out on YouTube at reclaim you. If you're looking to start therapy for trauma disordered eating or body image concerns, head over to our website at WW reclaimtherapy.org to learn more about us and our work will be back next week with another episode. Until then, take good care of yourself. Our.
Reclaim therapy provides body image therapy and therapy for eating disorders in Horsham, PA.
We are a group of trauma therapists near me who provide comprehensive eating disorder treatment, complex PTSD therapy and EMDR for trauma in Pennsylvania. We are passionate about helping people reclaim their lives from eating disorders, trauma and body image issues.
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