Your Anxiety Toolkit - Practical Skills for Anxiety, Panic & Depression
May 1, 2026 · 15 min · 12 segments
In this episode, I talk about anticipatory anxiety, the intense fear or dread that shows up before something even happens. So often, the waiting, imagining, and "what if" spiral can feel worse than…
[gentle music] Have you ever noticed the incredible degree of dread, uncertainty, anxiety, terror about an upcoming event? You are waiting, you're ruminating, you're ...
It's all you can think about, and you are spiraling on what if worst-case scenarios.
Now, if this is you, you're not alone, and I know it can be so overwhelming.
And what's so interesting is when the event actually happens, we realize it wasn't as bad as we thought it was.
Has this happened to you? Because the truth is, this is actually really, really common.
Sometimes the hardest part about these events isn't the event itself, it's the actual anticipation of that.
So by the end of this episode, what I want to promise you is that you will know what anticipatory anxiety is and why it is often so much worse than the thing itself.
Read the full transcript.
Create an account to read the whole episode, search across every transcript, and follow the shows you care about.
[gentle music] Have you ever noticed the incredible degree of dread, uncertainty, anxiety, terror about an upcoming event? You are waiting, you're ruminating, you're ...
It's all you can think about, and you are spiraling on what if worst-case scenarios.
Now, if this is you, you're not alone, and I know it can be so overwhelming.
And what's so interesting is when the event actually happens, we realize it wasn't as bad as we thought it was.
Has this happened to you? Because the truth is, this is actually really, really common.
Sometimes the hardest part about these events isn't the event itself, it's the actual anticipation of that.
So by the end of this episode, what I want to promise you is that you will know what anticipatory anxiety is and why it is often so much worse than the thing itself.