Dr. Becky sits down with psychologist Dr. Nicole Pensak, author of the book Rattled, and grabs a whiteboard to map the anxiety that quietly runs the show in early parenthood: the middle-of-the-night checking, the "if I feel it, it must be true" spiral, and the slow drift of avoiding more and more until your world gets small.
Your baby is finally asleep. So why are you standing over the crib for the fifth time in a minute, checking that they're still breathing?
If new parenthood cranked your anxiety to a setting you don't recognize, this one's for you. Dr. Becky sits down with psychologist Dr. Nicole Pensak, author of the book Rattled, and grabs a whiteboard to map the anxiety that quietly runs the show in early parenthood: the middle-of-the-night checking, the "if I feel it, it must be true" spiral, and the slow drift of avoiding more and more until your world gets small.
Together they draw three cycles (reassurance, emotional reasoning, and avoidance) and, more useful still, the one small move that breaks each one. You'll walk away knowing which loop is yours, and something you can actually try today.
One heads up: this episode has a whiteboard, and that's kind of the whole point. Watch it on YouTube to see the cycles drawn out. That's where it all clicks.
In this episode: postpartum anxiety, intrusive thoughts, the checking cycle, emotional reasoning, avoidance, and why anxiety after a baby is more common (and more survivable) than anyone tells you.
Dr. Becky wrote up the explanation to each of these cycles on the Good Inside blog.
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Looking for more support navigating pregnancy, postpartum, and life with a new baby? Good Inside Baby gives you practical tools, scripts, and expert guidance for the moments that can feel most overwhelming in early parenthood.
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