Dr. Nicole Cain knows what it feels like to live in the grip of anxiety. As both a naturopathic doctor and clinical psychologist, she has spent years helping people who feel trapped in cycles of panic, fear, and emotional overwhelm. Her new book, Panic Proof: The New Holistic Solution to End Your Anxiety Forever, takes a fresh approach: instead of treating anxiety as something to be suppressed, she shows us how to understand it as the body’s way of signaling deeper needs. In our conversation, Nicole shares how her own journey through a personal crisis reshaped the way she thinks about mental health. We explore her framework of nine unique anxiety types, the powerful connection between the gut and the brain, and why your body often sends messages long before your conscious mind catches up. Along the way, she offers a simple three-minute practice to help you calm your nervous system, regain clarity, and begin healing from the inside out. This episode isn’t about erasing anxiety — it’s about learning to listen to it, work with it, and ultimately become panic proof.
The Nervous System and Why Logic Isn’t Enough We like to believe we can think our way out of anxiety. But the nervous system often has other plans. Dr. Cain explains that our brains evolved for survival, not happiness. When your salience network (primarily the anterior insula and anterior cingulate) flags something as “possibly important,” it routes that signal to fast threat systems. The amygdala and HPA axis mobilize the body, heart rate rises, breathing shortens, muscles brace, before the slower, reflective networks (prefrontal cortex) can fully weigh in. In that state, your “logic center” is partially offline. It’s like trying to run a board meeting during a fire drill. That’s why simply telling yourself “I’m fine” doesn’t calm the storm. To feel safe, you need bottom-up practices that convince the body it is no longer in danger.
What’s actually happening in a spike
Low road, then high road: A rapid, subcortical threat pathway acts first; the thoughtful, cortical pathway catches up later.
State gates story: Physiological arousal narrows attention and pushes catastrophic predictions. In other words, your state shapes your story.
Polyvagal framing: When the nervous system shifts out of “ventral vagal” (safe/social) into sympathetic fight/flight—or further into shutdown—cognition becomes rigid and literal. Conversation helps only after the state softens.
Nine Anxiety Types: One Size Doesn’t Fit All One of the most practical contributions of Dr. Cain’s book Panic Proof is her framework of nine anxiety types. Instead of lumping every struggle into “generalized anxiety,” she maps distinct patterns: thought anxiety, chest anxiety, gut anxiety, nervous system anxiety, endocrine anxiety, immune system anxiety, depression-anxiety, anger-anxiety, and trauma-anxiety. Why does this matter? Because different patterns respond to different tools. Talk therapy won’t stop reflux. Antidepressants won’t correct a thyroid imbalance. Precision matters. When you know your type, you can target interventions that actually work.
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