{"id":547201,"date":"2026-04-23T22:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/547201\/"},"modified":"2026-04-23T22:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-23T22:35:07","slug":"welcome-to-the-anxiety-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/547201\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Anxiety Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

The caricature of anxiety is sweaty hands, hyperventilating into a paper bag, alarms blaring, someone visibly falling apart. However, for most people, the experience feels like being a captive audience to a brain that constantly twists through worst-case scenarios. It is very internal and hides behind success, performance, humor<\/a>, and charm.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like there\u2019s an edgy improv group in your brain\u2026and it needs just one word suggestion to spin countless scenarios no one is comfortable with.\u201d \u2014 Aparna Nancherla, Anxiety Club<\/p>\n

Anxiety Club, directed and produced by Wendy Lobel, is an award-winning documentary that offers an honest portrayal of anxiety, healing, and hope, using humor without diluting the experience. Through stand-up, skits, and exclusive interviews, the documentary follows some of today\u2019s most brilliant comedians, including Tiffany Jenkins, Joe List, Marc Maron, Aparna Nancherla, Mark Normand, Baron Vaughn, and Eva Victor, pulling back the curtain on what it feels like to live inside an anxious mind. It offers rare access to that internal landscape through recognized voices, bringing what is often silenced into public conversation.<\/p>\n

I had the pleasure of speaking with Wendy Lobel about the making of Anxiety Club. Lobel is a director and Emmy Award\u2013winning producer with a background in journalism and documentary storytelling. She produced Worried Sick about teens with anxiety for Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, the long-running Nickelodeon series known for tackling complex social issues and current events geared toward young audiences.<\/p>\n

In our conversation, she spoke about witnessing profound suffering around anxiety, especially in teens, and having the privilege of seeing how transformative the appropriate therapeutic approach can be. She notes that this experience was what ultimately ignited the idea for Anxiety Club.<\/p>\n

Lobel was intentional about choosing comedians who were already speaking openly about mental health and who had the capacity to be vulnerable and transparent about their personal struggles. Describing herself as \u201ca member of the anxiety club,\u201d she brings an inherent understanding that deepens the interviews and builds trust within them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had these feelings of being nervous as a kid, and I just thought that I was crazy\u2026back then, I didn\u2019t really have anybody to talk to about it\u2026because everybody else seemed fine. So, I was like, I\u2019m not going to mention this is how I\u2019m feeling\u2026 There was no word for it.\u201d \u2014 Tiffany Jenkins, Anxiety Club<\/p>\n

For many people with anxiety, structured environments create predictability, where expression feels safer and more contained.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople always say, what, you\u2019re an introvert<\/a>, you\u2019re a comedian? You\u2019re anxious. How does that work? Well, because I\u2019m on a stage, saying exactly what I want to say, exactly what I\u2019ve been practicing. It\u2019s honed. I know it works. And then you can\u2019t talk\u2026and then I get to leave.\u201d \u2014 Mark Normand, Anxiety Club<\/p>\n

The film explores the relationship people have with their anxiety and different ways of approaching it. It follows Tiffany Jenkins through exposure therapy<\/a> with clinician Natalie Noel, LMHC, while also showing Joe List engaging in somatic meditation<\/a> with Tara Brach, Ph.D., offering access to different therapeutic modalities. Somatic techniques such as mindfulness<\/a> and meditation help regulate the nervous system<\/a> and bring awareness back to the body, interrupting the cycle of anxious thought patterns, whereas exposure therapy helps retrain the brain by facing feared situations instead of avoiding them. The nervous system learns that discomfort is tolerable and not dangerous. There is no one-size-fits-all phenomenon. Different approaches can all be pivotal in the healing journey. It is about finding what works.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like knowing why I do the things I do\u2026that\u2019s why I go to therapy. I like knowing what makes me tick\u2026what informs my decisions.\u201d \u2014 Baron Vaughn, Anxiety Club<\/p>\n

Anxiety has an evolutionary purpose. It is part of a survival system designed to detect threat and keep us alert, and it has been preserved because it serves a function. The work is learning to distinguish when it is protective and when it begins to interfere with the life we want to live (Balan, 2024).<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are incapacitated and your life is unmanageable\u2026you should address that. If you are uncomfortable but you are OK\u2026that might just be you.\u201d \u2014 Marc Maron, Anxiety Club<\/p>\n

Anxiety and addiction<\/a> often intersect as attempts to escape internal distress. When the nervous system feels overwhelmed, substances can offer temporary relief by numbing intensity or managing racing thoughts, but they disrupt regulation and reinforce avoidance, making the underlying anxiety more entrenched over time (Balan, 2024).<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026it felt like I could drown this, drink it away\u2026but then you\u2019re just dumping a depressant on top of depression<\/a> and anxiety and insecurity.\u201d \u2014 Joe List, Anxiety Club<\/p>\n

Mental health struggles are often intensified by the assumption that everyone else is calmer, less chaotic, and more regulated. That belief amplifies isolation, fuels shame<\/a>, and keeps people silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow, I got this brain\u2026 I wonder what it would be like to step into somebody else\u2019s brain for a day\u2026or twenty minutes even. Just to see what it\u2019s like.\u201d \u2014 Eva Victor, Anxiety Club<\/p>\n

Wendy Lobel explained how each participant was filmed separately, often within their own homes and personal environments, creating a sense of familiarity and emotional safety that allowed for a more intimate and honest portrayal of their experiences. There was a shared understanding around the mission of the film, which created a sense of openness<\/a> and a willingness to go deeper.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Jenkins\u2019 therapeutic work in the film required true vulnerability and bravery. During filming, she was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive<\/a> disorder (OCD), which initially felt like it might shift the direction of the film. Instead, it expanded the conversation and resonated with many people who experience anxiety alongside intrusive or compulsive thoughts. The inclusion of OCD treatment added another layer to the narrative, strengthening its relevance. The cameras were present in the therapy room but intentionally unobtrusive, allowing the sessions to unfold naturally. Lobel emphasized that Jenkins was free to stop at any point if she felt uncomfortable, which helped create a sense of safety within that unpredictability.<\/p>\n

Anxiety Club is designed to make people feel seen, less alone, and more open to seeking help. It is a hilariously disarming and deeply moving documentary and a testament that laughter<\/a> and mental health struggles are not mutually exclusive. The film is extending beyond the screen with a live stand-up tour launching during Mental Health Awareness Month, including a kickoff event at the Comedy Cellar in New York City on April 27 and the Laugh Factory in Hollywood on April 30. The tour coincides with the film\u2019s May 1 TVOD release on platforms including Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, PUNCHUP, Google Play, and YouTube Movies. The project is also reaching audiences through screenings at colleges, universities, and mental health organizations. A portion of proceeds from the Anxiety Club digital release will be donated to Comedy Gives Back and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.<\/p>\n

There is a conversation waiting to happen about anxiety. This film gives it a place to begin.<\/p>\n

As the Anxiety Club team puts it, \u201cThis is not just a movie, it\u2019s a movement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The caricature of anxiety is sweaty hands, hyperventilating into a paper bag, alarms blaring, someone visibly falling apart.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-547201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}