167: New Life Perspectives with Liz Larson and Bill McKenna - Episode 167167: New Life Perspectives with Liz Larson and Bill McKenna - Episode 167
UK Health Radio Podcast
Liz Larson explains why feelings are not the same as facts, linking trauma, anxiety and addictive patterns to the brain’s survival wiring. She describes how recognising this and using structured tools can help people reclaim choice over their reactions and identities.
45:16•29 Jun 2026
Feelings Are Not Facts: Rewiring Fear, Trauma and Addiction Patterns
Episode Overview
- Strong feelings are shaped by past experience and survival learning, so they do not automatically represent truth.
- The limbic system can place the body in chronic fight-or-flight, creating anxiety, trauma responses and addictive behaviours on autopilot.
- Many people define themselves by their worst experiences, allowing a single moment or period of trauma to script their identity for decades.
- Bringing awareness to the bodily sensation first (“my body just had a feeling”) can interrupt the automatic feeling–thought–action chain.
- Structured techniques like Cogno Movement aim to involve the whole brain so the nervous system can update old patterns and create new responses.
“"If you understand this one thing, that just because you have a feeling and a strong feeling about something, it doesn't mean it's true."”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety and emotional healing? This episode of UK Health Radio’s **New Life Perspectives** goes right to the heart of that question with a single, game-changing idea: *feelings are not facts*. Liz Larson breaks down how the limbic system and autonomic nervous system shape fear, anxiety, trauma responses and even addictive patterns like overeating, hoarding and compulsive behaviours.
Drawing on the work of neuroscientist Dr Joseph LeDoux, she explains that what feels like instinct is often a learned survival response, recorded years ago and then replayed on autopilot. You’ll hear how people can end up defining themselves by “the worst thing that ever happened” – for example, identifying first as an adult child of an alcoholic instead of as a parent, leader or friend.
Liz links this to how the nervous system stores trauma and how one intense moment can keep driving thoughts, relationships and choices decades later. A big theme is personal agency: if most reactions are automatic, is it possible to get real choice back? Liz argues yes – but only once you accept that a strong feeling doesn’t guarantee truth.
She shares a raw example of misreading an email while highly triggered, then using a Cogno Movement session to calm her system, see that she’d misinterpreted it, and recognise that much of the chaos she felt wasn’t even hers. For anyone in recovery from alcohol or other addictions, this conversation offers a fresh way to look at urges, panic and old stories.
Instead of assuming “this is just who I am”, Liz suggests asking, *“Is this really me, or is this my nervous system on repeat?”* If you’ve ever felt ruled by anxiety, trauma or cravings, could this be the perspective shift you’ve been waiting for?
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