Apr 5, 2023
Do you feel like there aren’t enough solutions for mental
health?
In this episode of The Darin Olien show, I chat with Dr. Ellen Vora
about the anatomy of anxiety. While most of us believe that we have
a predisposition to certain mental health illnesses due to our
genetics, this isn’t necessarily true. The truth is that anxiety
and other similar types of disorders are activated by environmental
stressors, which then pull the trigger on genetics. Thus,
understanding how to create an environment that is beneficial to
your mental health and not detrimental to it is the first step to
ensuring the production of serotonin.
We also chat about the two different types of anxiety and why one
is considered to be false anxiety and the other to be true-form
anxiety. Dr. Ellen Vora dives into the different pillars of health
you should address before you turn to big pharma to feel
better.
Ellen Vora, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist,
and yoga teacher, and she is the author of
The Anatomy of
Anxiety.
She takes a functional medicine approach to mental
health—considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the
root. Dr. Vora received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.D.
from Columbia University.
What we discuss:
04:12: About Anxiety
06:22: When did Dr. Ellen’s interest in anxiety start?
11:22: Why did Dr. Ellen write her book about mental
health?
16:18: Are doctors equipped to take care of mental
health?
20:44: How are the pillars of health related to mental
health?
25:02: What are the two different types of anxiety?
35:00: What do you need to know about the anxiety
process?
37:49: Are you destroying your health for pleasure?
39:30: What do we need to do to protect our health?
42:40: How is the attention economy affecting our mental
health?
44:29: How does a day in life look like for Dr. Ellen?
48:51: What was Dr. Ellen not thought at medical school about
spirituality?
53:41: Why does society think that crying isn’t
accepted?
56:23: Where can you learn more about Dr. Ellen?
Key Takeaways:
-
You aren’t born with mental health issues. What you are born with,
however, are the genetics that may play a part in the development
of mental health concerns such as anxiety and depression. The
common misconception when it comes to the link between anxiety and
genetics is that one’s genetics are what triggers anxiety. In
reality, genetics do not do such a thing; they only pull the
trigger when your physiology is already out of whack and under
stress. Genetics only runs with what it is given. Thus, there is
hope for those who may feel like they can’t escape what may feel
like a never-ending cycle of anxiety. It’s only a question of
pinpointing what environmental factors need to be
adjusted.
-
When we take a close look at what anxiety is, we can see that there
are two different types. First, there is false anxiety. This is
when the anxiety you are experiencing is due to a biological
response to your physiology being affected by certain physical
stressors that have been building up in your day-to-day. This could
be an unstable sleep routine, overconsumption of caffeine, or
overconsumption of sugar. Overall, you shouldn’t be experiencing
this type of anxiety. The second type of anxiety is called true
anxiety. This is the type of stress that you shouldn’t be
pathologizing, suppressing, or can diet your way out of. It’s your
true north, asking you to slow down and pay attention to what’s
happening within you. There’s usually a call to action you need to
act upon to go back into alignment with yourself.
-
The modern approach to anxiety is not completely irrelevant. There
are some advantages to taking prescription medication in some
cases. However, modern-day medicine isn’t the best-suited place to
turn to when you’re truly looking to get rid of exaggerated levels
of anxiety as they often look to diagnose and treat rather than
cure. What’s important to do is to look at your health from a
holistic point of view, and work from the outside towards the
inside, not the other way around.
Find more from Darin:
Find more from Dr. Vora:
More links: