The Anxiety MD

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The Anxiety MD Physician | Neuroscientist | Speaker
Anxiety Expert
Author of Anxiety Rx | Creator of MBRX

This page is where I will post Videos and articles relating to the treatment of anxiety and related disorders.

Comment SAFE below if you'd like the first lesson from my groundbreaking anxiety healing program MBRX 2.0 free.There is ...
10/19/2026

Comment SAFE below if you'd like the first lesson from my groundbreaking anxiety healing program MBRX 2.0 free.

There is a gap where so many people with chronic anxiety get stuck. They do everything right in their heads, they check the facts, talk themselves down, reassure themselves again and again. And yet, their bodies don't budge. They're still terrified everyday, and assume they're not doing it right, or are inherently broken or unfixable.

This is NOT true.

It is simply because the alarm doesn't live in your thoughts. It lives in your body, and your body doesn't respond to your brain's logic.

The body learns safety through EXPERIENCE, a little bit at a time.

This is why I keep coming back to small, daily moments of connection with yourself. A few slow breaths where you actually FEEL your belly rise, or the air on your nostrils. Or maybe it's a hand resting on your chest while you stay with whatever emotion is there.

It can be something as simple as noticing the weight of your feet on the floor, or your butt in a chair.

None of it will feel like much on its own, but I promise you that repeated over days and weeks, it teaches your nervous system the safety your mind will never be able to.

👉 Comment SAFE below and I'll send you the first lesson from MBRX 2.0, along with practical tools to help your body feel safer and your mind grow quieter.

👉 Follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for grounded, compassionate support to heal anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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10/17/2026

Send this to someone who's hard on themselves and could use a reminder of how they started out.

I can't tell you the number of people that come to me saying, "I've been hard on myself for decades. How do I just start loving myself now?"

I truly get it. It's like trying to jump from basic addition to advanced calculus.

But listen guys, no baby looks at their reflection and thinks anything less than "I'm perfect." And once upon a time, you did too.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way most of us learned to turn on ourselves with what I call JABS: Judgment, Abandonment, Blame and Shame.

We picked it up from the people and messages around us, and then we kept doing it to ourselves long after they'd stopped.

If you've ever tried saying kind things to yourself in the mirror and it felt hollow or pointless, there's a reason.

When you don't have a template for loving connection with yourself, it's pretty darn hard to create it from scratch at this point in your life.

But here's the thing: you don't need to fall in love with yourself today. You just need a simple daily act of kindness and connection towards yourself. Over time, these connections will become something bigger - a new foundation (that you built yourself) for self-love and acceptance.

So today, instead of trying to move mountains, put a hand over your heart and simply say, "I'm here for you." You don't have to feel loving yet, you just have to stay with it.

👉 Follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for grounded, compassionate support for healing anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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Comment SAFE below if you'd like the first lesson from my groundbreaking anxiety healing program MBRX 2.0For more than 3...
10/13/2026

Comment SAFE below if you'd like the first lesson from my groundbreaking anxiety healing program MBRX 2.0

For more than 30 years I believed my anxiety was caused by my thoughts. And so I did what most anxious people do: I tried to think my way out of it.

I analyzed everything, read countless books,
and took all the courses I could. I learned CBT, ACT, mindfulness, and meditation.

And while many of those things helped, none of them lasted long term, and I was left feeling totally defeated fully when the anxiety inevitably returned.

What finally changed my life was understanding that chronic anxiety doesn't start in the mind.

It begins in the body as a tight chest, a knot in the stomach, a racing heart, a lump in the throat. These are all manifestations of a nervous system that has learned, (often for very good reasons), that the world isn't safe.

Then the mind does what it was built to do and rushes in to explain what the body is feeling.

Now don't get me wrong, those anxious thoughts ARE real. But they are often a response to the alarm that was already there, not the source of it.

This is why so many people get frustrated when they can't think their way out of anxiety. What they're trying to do is solve a feeling problem with a thinking solution.

Healing from chronic anxiety happens when we learn to listen to the body FIRST, build safety from the inside out, and develop a very different relationship with the alarm beneath our anxiety.

👉 Comment SAFE below and I'll send you the first lesson from MBRX 2.0, along with practical tools to help your body feel safer and your mind grow quieter.

👉 Follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for grounded, compassionate support to heal anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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Share this with someone who avoids connecting with others when they need it the most.When anxiety makes us pull away fro...
10/11/2026

Share this with someone who avoids connecting with others when they need it the most.

When anxiety makes us pull away from people, it can feel like we're simply protecting ourselves. And in a way, we are. But over the years I've come to see that anxiety survives, and actually thrives, through separation.
And as I've said many times before, the opposite of anxiety isn't calm, it's CONNECTION.

For most of us, the alarm started when connection broke early on, through loss, rejection, or someone not being there when we needed them. To survive that alarm, we learned to separate from it by living in our heads instead of our bodies.

Letting the phone ring out or cancelling dinner plans is often that same old survival move, just in grown-up clothes. It feels safer in the moment to cancel the plans, but it keeps us apart from the very thing that helps us heal.

Now let me be clear: this doesn't mean forcing yourself into every situation that scares you. Pushing through a party while your body is in full alarm will only leave that frightened part of you alone again.

What I'd suggest is something much smaller, and on a calm day rather than in the middle of a spiral. (E.g. You don't learn to swim when the boat is sinking.)

Put a hand over the place you feel the alarm (for me, it's my solar plexus). Instead of asking why you feel this, ask where. Then whisper, "I'm here with you." Don't be surprised if it brings up emotion. That younger part of you has been waiting a long time to hear it.

As that part of you starts to feel less alone, reaching toward other people will start to feel a little less dangerous.

We're not doing this all at once, and that's okay. Above all, be patient with yourself.

👉 Follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for grounded, compassionate support for healing anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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Comment HEAL below if you'd like grounded weekly guidance on healing anxiety at the level of the body, not just the mind...
10/09/2026

Comment HEAL below if you'd like grounded weekly guidance on healing anxiety at the level of the body, not just the mind.

As much as I enjoy researching and learning about the neuroscience of anxiety, the cognitive aspects of understanding it can only take us so far.

I love brain science (clearly). But the thing that healed me when I was at my worst was retraining my anxious nervous system to feel safe.

It took time, patience, and far more compassion than I was ever taught to give myself. But I did it. And so can you.

Comment HEAL and I'll send it to you for free, along with practical tools and insights to help you begin feeling safer in your own body again.

👉 And follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for more grounded, compassionate support for healing anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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10/07/2026

Comment SAFE below and I'll send you the first lesson from my anxiety healing program MBRX 2.0, completely free.

Chronic anxiety does not have an "off" switch, but that's doesn't mean you can't heal it.

👉 Comment SAFE below and I'll send you the first lesson from MBRX 2.0, along with practical tools to help your body feel safer and your mind grow quieter.

👉 Follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for grounded, compassionate support to heal anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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10/05/2026

Comment BEYOND and I’ll send you the Health Anxiety Cheat Sheet from my brand new mini-course Beyond Health Anxiety.

1. Separate the facts from the story.
A health concern is a fact.
The catastrophic narrative the mind creates around it is a story.
Stay grounded in what is known, what your doctor has said, and the evidence available right now.

2. Take care of what is within your control.
Book the appointment. Get the test. Follow the treatment plan. Ask the questions.
Do what needs to be done, then let go of what cannot be solved today.

3. Stop using worry as a substitute for certainty.
Worry creates a "pain you know" so you don't have to face an "uncertainty you don't."
But worry doesn't protect you.
It only steals your peace.

4. Come back to your body when your mind spirals.
Feel your feet on the floor.
Connect to your breath.
Feel the support beneath you.
Remind yourself:
"I am safe right now, even if it doesn't feel that way."

5. Remember that the real challenge is uncertainty.
Most anxious people aren't afraid of the health issue itself.
They're afraid of not knowing.

6. See your health concern as a challenge, not a threat.
A threat creates fear and helplessness.
A challenge creates agency and resilience.

You don't need certainty that everything will be okay.
You only need faith that you'll be able to meet whatever comes.
The child in you fears the unknown.
The adult in you can handle it.

👉 If you’re ready to understand what’s really driving your health anxiety and begin healing it at the root, I’d love to send you my Health Anxiety Cheat Sheet.

👉 Comment BEYOND below and I’ll send it to you, along with the link to my brand new mini-course, Beyond Health Anxiety.

👉 Follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for grounded, compassionate support to help you heal anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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Comment HEAL below if you'd like grounded weekly guidance on healing anxiety at the level of the body, not just the mind...
10/04/2026

Comment HEAL below if you'd like grounded weekly guidance on healing anxiety at the level of the body, not just the mind.

When anxiety and alarm start, our minds often immediately rush in with "Why is this happening?" and "What's wrong?" But a mind trying to make sense of that feeling will only hand you scary answers. 

The way through isn't more thinking, it's gently feeling what's happening in your body, and staying with it.

Save this for the next time you feel your alarm coming on:

1. Pause. 

Notice what's happening in your body and take one slow breath, letting your exhale be longer than your inhale.

2. Name it.

 "This is my alarm. It is trying to protect me."

3. Find it. 

Ask "where?" not "why?" (If you can't find it, just put your hand over your heart.)

4. Be with it. 

With your hand where you feel the alarm, say "I'm here with you."

5. Feel it. 

Stay with the raw sensation, without explanation. When your mind pulls you back up into your head, gently come back down to the feeling.

6. Let it move. 

You're not trying to make it disappear. Sensations shift and settle when they're allowed to be there.

👉 Comment HEAL and I'll send it to you for free, along with practical tools and insights to help you begin feeling safer in your own body again.

👉 And follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for more grounded, compassionate support for healing anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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Share this with someone who has back-up-plans for their back-up-plans.

When I was a boy, I never knew which version of ...
10/02/2026

Share this with someone who has back-up-plans for their back-up-plans.

When I was a boy, I never knew which version of my father I'd meet when I walked through the door after school. So I did what a lot of kids in unpredictable homes do, and I learned to go up into my head, and run through every single possibility ahead of time so nothing could catch me “off guard”.

That's hypervigilance. 

It's a nervous system pattern that develops early on, when the world wasn't completely safe. The mind decides the best protection is to stay on guard.

It often looks like scanning for problems before they happen, rehearsing worst case scenarios, and constantly keeping tabs on everyone's mood.

Back then, it helped you survive. The trouble is that the body doesn't always get the memo that the danger has passed. So decades later, you might still be living in all sort of imaginary tomorrows, trying to solve problems that haven't happened yet (and likely won’t!), hoping that if you can prepare for every possible outcome, you'll finally feel safe.

But the harsh truth is that you can't find safe in a place you are not. The more vigilant you become, the less safe you tend to feel. It also takes a tremendous amount of energy to stay that ready, which is why so many anxious people feel wired and tired at the exact same time.

For me, that readiness lives as a hot pressure in my solar plexus. Yours might be a knot in your stomach or a tightness in your throat or chest. That sensation is the alarm, and it is the part of you still waiting for something to go wrong.

So the next time your mind races into the future, try staying in the present moment. Ask yourself, “Am I safe right now?” Not tomorrow, or next week/month. Right now. Then put a hand where you feel the alarm and stay with it for a breath or two. 

Over time this practice is how you break the cycle of hypervigilance, by teaching your nervous system how to find safety in today, rather than 100 imaginary tomorrows.

👉 Follow Russell Kennedy, MD | Anxiety Recovery Doctor for grounded, compassionate support for healing anxiety from the inside out.

With loving support,
Dr. Russ
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