Dr. Ellen Vora: What If Your Anxiety Is Trying to Help You?

Elizabeth welcomes Dr. Ellen Vora, holistic psychiatrist and bestselling author of The Anatomy of Anxiety. Ellen takes a whole-body approach to mental health, looking beyond symptoms to consider how blood sugar, sleep, gut health, alcohol, technology, relationships, and modern life can influence the way we feel.

In this conversation, Ellen breaks down the difference between false anxiety and true anxiety, why trying to optimize every part of our health can become its own source of stress, and the importance of bringing more rest and “yin” energy into our lives. She also shares why protecting the bookends of the day matters, how crying can help complete a stress response, and how her evolving relationship with control, grief, trust, and surrender shaped her upcoming book, Season of the Witch: A Psychiatrist’s Case for Magic.