Introducing Adam
Hi, I’m Adam – The Anxiety Philosopher.
In February 2019 (it was a Saturday morning, and I’d just woken up), I was sitting in my living room at home, and I ended up having an emotional breakdown.
That led me sitting in my GP’s office, listening to her telling me that I was suffering with anxiety, stress and a low mood.
This directed me to a number of different treatments – group therapy, 1 to 1 therapy, CBT, and medication.
However, it was something completely different that led me to where I am today…
Adam's Story - Speaking Up About Anxiety
In January 2021, I decided to start journaling. I’d heard that it was a really useful tool for getting my anxious thoughts out of my head, and that was something that I most certainly needed to do.
2 weeks in, on the 15th January 2021 (it was a Friday afternoon), I was loving the journaling journey that I was on, so I decided to look at other ways I could talk about mental health.
I knew I wanted it to be a positive conversation about mental health, and the idea popped into my mind that I should do it about happiness…what other better state of mental health is there?
I spent that weekend researching how to launch a podcast, researching potential guests etc, and it was on the afternoon of Monday the 18th January 2021 that I recorded my first ever podcast about happiness and what happiness meant to different people.
The podcast allowed me to develop a strong philosophical way of thinking…reading books Aristotle and Plato and wondering what the meaning of life was (amongst other things).
In 2023, I decided to combine both my anxiety and philosophical thinking into a blog…a blog that is inspired by motivational thinking, written by some who is living with anxiety but who also likes to think philosophically. It was in May 2023 that The Anxiety Philosopher was born.
The subtle art and the not so exact science of blogging has allowed me to express my thoughts in ways that I can verbalise.
It has allowed me to get my thoughts out of my head and out into the world for others to read and to, hopefully, take some encouragement for the fact that you can still think positively whilst being anxious.
Focussing on something that is positive, whether it be my happiness podcast or philosophical blogging, has given me some direction in life.
It has given me the ability to sit down at the end of every day, knowing that, irrelevant of what kind of day I’ve had, I have done something positive.
It is this positive daily action that has allowed me to manage my anxiety…my anxiety hasn’t taken full control over my entire day. There is something within my day that has come from a non-anxious, positive part of my mind.
I would even go as far as to say that both the podcasting and the blogging have been my anchor to real life.