Anxiety resources that actually helped
Podcasts, books, apps and free Australian services for anxiety, panic and worry. Everything here is something we have used or been sent by someone who has. Nothing is sponsored and nothing needs a login. Some links may earn us a small commission. It never changes what we pick. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
51 anxiety resources
ARCVic
The Anxiety Recovery Centre Victoria runs a national helpline and support groups for anxiety, panic and OCD.
This Way Up
Free and low-cost online CBT courses out of St Vincent’s and UNSW. Six lessons, at your own pace, no waiting list.
Hope and Help for Your Nerves, Claire Weekes
Written by an Australian doctor in 1962 and still the clearest thing ever published on panic.
All in the Mind, ABC RN
The ABC’s long-running show on the mind, brain and behaviour. Free, no ads, properly researched.
Smiling Mind
Free mindfulness from an Australian not-for-profit. Adults, kids and workplaces, no paywall halfway through.
Inside the mind of a master procrastinator, Tim Urban
Very funny, and quietly the best explanation of anxiety-driven avoidance.
Therapy in a Nutshell
A licensed therapist explaining anxiety skills on YouTube, free, in ten-minute pieces.
MindSpot
Free online assessment and treatment courses for anxiety and low mood, funded by the government.
The Happiness Trap, Russ Harris
The plain-English introduction to ACT. On dropping the struggle rather than winning it.
The Imperfects
Hugh van Cuylenburg and guests on the parts nobody posts. Funny, Australian, kind.
MoodMission
Australian-made. Tell it how you feel, get five short evidence-based things to try right now.
The paradox of choice, Barry Schwartz
Why more options make you more anxious and less satisfied.
Dr Julie Smith
Short, practical videos on panic, rumination and boundaries from a clinical psychologist.
First, We Make the Beast Beautiful, Sarah Wilson
An Australian writer on living with anxiety rather than curing it. Fragmentary, honest, easy to dip into.
Ten Percent Happier
Dan Harris interviews people who are calmer than him. Good for meditation sceptics.
Beyond Now
A safety plan you build when you are well, so it exists when you are not.
All it takes is 10 mindful minutes, Andy Puddicombe
The Headspace co-founder on the case for doing nothing.
Yoga With Adriene
The anxiety and bedtime sequences in particular. Free, unpretentious, twenty years of goodwill.
The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, Edmund Bourne
The standard workbook. Not a page-turner, but the exercises are the ones therapists hand out.
The Happiness Lab
Dr Laurie Santos on what the research actually says about feeling better.
Insight Timer
Tens of thousands of free meditations and sleep tracks. No trial that quietly turns into a subscription.
The School of Life
Short essays on why you feel like this. Best watched one at a time.
Dare, Barry McDonagh
One technique for panic attacks, repeated until it sticks. People swear by it.
Feel Better, Live More
Dr Rangan Chatterjee on sleep, stress and habits, with long-form guests.
Clear Fear
Free CBT-based app for managing anxiety symptoms as they happen. Built for teens, useful at any age.
Headspace on YouTube
Free guided sessions and breathing exercises outside the paid app.
Unwinding Anxiety, Judson Brewer
A psychiatrist on anxiety as a habit loop, and how to interrupt it.
Huberman Lab
Protocol-heavy neuroscience. Skip to the breathing and sleep episodes.
How We Feel
A mood tracker built by scientists and designers rather than marketers. Free, no ads.
Rewire Your Anxious Brain, Catherine Pittman
What is happening in your amygdala, in language that does not require a degree.
The Mental Illness Happy Hour
Long, unvarnished interviews about the things people do not say out loud.
Daylio
A journal you fill in by tapping. Good if writing feelings down is the bit you never do.
Reasons to Stay Alive, Matt Haig
Short chapters from inside depression and anxiety. The book most often given as a present here.
Nothing Much Happens
Bedtime stories where nothing happens on purpose. Reliable for the 3am spiral.
Headspace
The gateway drug of meditation apps. Worth the free trial even if you stop there.
Notes on a Nervous Planet, Matt Haig
On why modern life makes anxious people more anxious, and what to switch off.
Sleep With Me
Deliberately boring bedtime rambling. Ridiculous, and it works.
Calm
Sleep stories and breathing. The one people actually keep on their phone.
Mind Over Mood, Greenberger and Padesky
CBT you can do at home, with worksheets. Dry, effective.
Unlocking Us, Brené Brown
Shame, vulnerability and the vocabulary for what you are feeling.
Finch
A self-care pet that grows when you do small things. Sillier than it sounds, works better than it should.
Feeling Good, David Burns
The original CBT self-help book. Still prescribed, still works.
MindShift CBT
A free app from Anxiety Canada with CBT tools for worry and panic.
The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel van der Kolk
On trauma living in the body. Heavy going, worth it, maybe not in a bad week.
Bearable
Track mood, symptoms and what affects them.
When the Body Says No, Gabor Maté
The link between suppressed stress and physical illness.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb
A therapist in therapy. The most enjoyable way to work out whether you want to try it.
Breath, James Nestor
How you breathe, and why almost everyone does it badly. Practical in an unexpected way.
Why We Sleep, Matthew Walker
Alarming in places, but the sleep chapter changes behaviour more than any app.
My Age of Anxiety, Scott Stossel
A memoir and history of anxiety in one.
The Worry Trick, David Carbonell
How your brain tricks you into worry, and how to call its bluff.
Where to start with anxiety
Anxiety is your body's alarm system going off when there is no fire. Racing heart, tight chest, a brain that will not stop running worst-case scenarios. It is one of the most common things people feel, and one of the most treatable.
If you are new to this, start small. Pick one book or one podcast rather than ten. Hope and Help for Your Nerves by Claire Weekes is still the clearest thing written on panic, and it was written by an Australian GP in the 1960s. If reading feels like too much, a free app like Smiling Mind or MindShift CBT gives you something to do in the moment.
If worry has taken over your days, the free online courses from This Way Up and MindSpot use the same CBT techniques a psychologist would, at your own pace.
When it is more than this page can help with
Anxiety that stops you working, sleeping or leaving the house is worth talking to a GP about. In Australia a GP can write a Mental Health Treatment Plan, which gives you Medicare rebates for sessions with a psychologist.
How we choose
Everything here is something we have used or been sent by someone it helped. Nothing is sponsored, and none of it replaces advice from a GP or psychologist.