126: What if you don’t have to feel anxious 24/7?
Summary
Hosts Ash and Moira discuss escaping chronic stress and the fight-or-flight response, sharing personal experiences with acupuncture, swimming, and the importance of pointless play. They explore how modern life triggers anxiety and how coping mechanisms like hyper-resilience can mask underlying trauma. The episode concludes with a listener dilemma about navigating jealousy and differing definitions of monogamy regarding porn consumption in a queer relationship.
Topics discussed
Intro: London heat, Scottish housemate, and show format
Choose one: No periods or no spots ever again
Prayer, pub facts, and identifying character actors
Summer holidays, swimming in the Thames, and reading habits
Acupuncture experience and the physical toll of chronic stress
Mistaking stress for personality and the fight-or-flight response
Suppressed anger, freeze responses, and resilience myths
Volcano vs. Bank Vault: Coping mechanisms and professional purpose
Finding play, touch, and somatic ways to drop out of stress
Listener question: Anxiety over partner watching porn
Defining monogamy, imagination, and testosterone differences
Accepting partner's inner life and managing past betrayal anxiety
Listen ad-free on Castria