Conversations
Anna the anxiety coach on surviving a roller coaster accident and healing her nervous system
23 Mar 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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When Anna Ferguson was 10 years old, she went with her family to the Melbourne Royal Show and went on a roller coaster ride there with her sister and her dad. There was an accident and after that, everything was different for Anna. For many years, she didn't understand why it was still so hard for her. Physically, she was okay, but emotionally, she was trapped feeling either angry or numb.
Chapter 2: What traumatic experience did Anna face during the roller coaster accident?
But then, Anna chanced upon Muay Thai fighting, which had an amazing impact on her well-being and led to her studying psychology. That's how Anna got interested in what happens to our nervous systems during trauma and stress, understanding the science behind how we shut down or go into overdrive and what we can do about it.
Anna is now a counsellor and mental health therapist who specialises in giving people practical tools to recover from anxiety, overwhelm and trauma. And recently, a crisis with her beloved husband Damien has meant that Anna's really had to draw on all the resources that she has to stay calm and regulated for him and their little daughter Scout.
Anna is the author of The Vegas Nerve Reset, and her new book is 21 Days to a Less Anxious You. Hi, Anna. Hi, Sarah. Where was your family living when you were 10?
We actually had moved to Woodend. So we were about 45 to an hour out of Melbourne. And so this was like a trip.
Chapter 3: How did Anna's emotional state change after the accident?
We used to go to the show every year. And so this was a very exciting year because I had had a bit of a growth spurt and I was actually able to reach the height, the minimum height to go on the roller coaster. So we'd made the trip down for this specifically.
And so who was in your family, Anna, who was going with you to the show that day?
So it was my whole family. It was a whole family affair. So my mum and dad and my two older sisters. So I'm the youngest of three girls.
And so you set off that day and you're finally tall enough to ride the roller coaster. What do you remember about standing in line? Anything?
I mean, I was nervous for sure, but I was also a pretty stoic kid, so I wouldn't let anyone know that I was actually scared of doing this thing that I had been so excited for. And so I just remember holding on to my dad's hand and just being like, God, I'm I'm so excited to do this, like trying to really pump myself up to get on that ride.
Because even getting strapped into the cart, I was like having second thoughts. I was like, do I really want to do this? It looks pretty scary. But I had already committed to it at that point.
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Chapter 4: What role did Muay Thai play in Anna's healing journey?
And that was generally my mindset was like, you've said you're going to do something, so you have to do it. There's no backing out.
And what sort of roller coaster was it at the Melbourne show? Like did it go upside down or what did it look like?
It wasn't that intense. It was called the Mad Max or the Mad Mouse. Sorry, my memory is a little fuzzy sometimes, but it was probably the biggest roller coaster. And it's one of the oldest roller coasters that they have at the Royal Melbourne Show. It's a rickety old roller coaster and there's lots of dips and you're going around corners very, very quickly.
And it was probably like the scariest one available.
Yeah.
And so you're pumping yourself up to go on it and commit to it. Who are you sitting next to as you were getting into the roller coaster?
Yeah, so in the carts you sat one in front of the other. So my eldest sister was behind me and then the cart behind mine and my sister's was my dad and my other sister. So we were all kind of in a row together but we were sitting one in front of the other so you couldn't see the person behind you but I was like right at the front of everybody.
And how quickly did something go wrong?
Relatively quickly. I mean, I had my eyes closed for probably most of the ride up into the point, but I had no reference point of what a roller coaster should be like. So when things started to shift in, like, how it was actually working, I... didn't actually fundamentally know something was going wrong.
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Chapter 5: How does Anna help others regulate their nervous systems?
you know, at that point I was like, that didn't feel good, but I was very confused. I didn't quite understand, was this part of the ride? Should I be like, woo, this is fun. And it wasn't until I kind of heard my sister moaning in the background in pain that I was like, something doesn't seem right. But I had already stepped into this kind of space where I was in a dreamlike state, right?
Like I was so confused. I was obviously hurt, but I hadn't realized it at that point in time. And I didn't really come to, I was just confused. Why was this happening? Why aren't we moving?
Chapter 6: What impact did Anna's husband's health crisis have on her?
Why is it all, what's going on? And it wasn't until my dad climbed down and I saw a space in front of me and he goes, hey, you okay? That my bubble kind of burst and I thought, okay. oh shit, I can't breathe, right? And that was when it all kind of came crashing in.
So this beautiful dreamlike state that had protected me for what felt like a really long time just burst and all this noise came rushing in, this moment of sheer panic of, I can't breathe, I can't get out, I'm completely trapped here, something is terribly wrong, but I don't know what it is. And so essentially what happened was upon impact, the seatbelt tightened around my chest. So
So for my sister, she was behind me. So her spine took all of that impact and she had a fractured spine. For me, it had caused kind of that blunt force trauma to my chest area. So I had a bruised heart. I ended up with a lacerated spleen, a dislocated shoulder, some broken ribs, and the real impact had impacted my heart. So the heart is basically the one muscle that can't
organ that can't repair itself so my heart rate had skyrocketed to about 240 beats per minute which is just kind of that end of the spectrum where you want your heart to be beating but also I was essentially being crushed by this seat belt.
Once your dad had managed to get out of his seat belt and get towards you could he take it off you could he release that mechanism?
No. So there was obviously a protection mechanism in place so that when things go wrong, the seatbelts don't automatically come off and people fall off the ride. So they essentially had to cut us out of the ride. And to do that, they needed to build scaffolding up to where we were because we were up quite high. And this took hours and hours.
And I was kind of slipping in and out of this kind of dreamlike state over this period of time. I remember a looking up and seeing a helicopter going past and being like, I wonder what they're looking at. And they were looking at us. And so it was just, even now it's very fuzzy to me, right? The memory, there's certain things that are very clear and I can feel them. They're very tangible.
There's other things that like the timeline of things feels very fuzzy still and foggy for me to kind of dip back into. But I do remember them passing me like the green whistle for pain relief. And I very quickly found out that I'm allergic to morphine in the hospital. I ended up having to have my stomach pumped because I was allergic to the pain medication.
So there was like a lot of firsts for me at 10 years old that I had no idea what was in store for me.
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Chapter 7: What insights does Anna share about the vagus nerve?
How did your physical recovery compare with hers in the weeks and months after that?
Yeah. So her injuries were obviously more structural in that she basically had to learn to walk again. She had a back brace. She still experiences chronic pain to this day. And she had a much longer physical recovery than I did. On my side of things, I mean... My physical recovery wasn't fast. I think you couldn't see my injuries the same way that you could see, say, my sister's injuries.
So my heart rate was the main issue that if it got too high, I was at risk of having a heart attack. And I was an extremely competitive and sporty kid. I had just gotten into national athletics and for high jump of all the things, I'm super short. So I was like chuffed that I had gotten into high jump. So I wasn't allowed to do anything.
I wasn't allowed to go back to school like for a full day because it was too intense. And so I would go for an hour and then come home. So not only was I like physically not able to do the things that I wanted to do, but I was also removed from my peer group. So I had weird school hours. So I was like the weird kid that almost died on the roller coaster accident who also can't come to school.
for the whole day either because it's too much for. And, you know, my heart rate is still elevated to this day. Like my resting heart rate is still elevated. I went back to the children's hospital every year until I was 18 years old. I used to have to have halter monitors and take them in school and put them in my pocket. I have all these like tabs on my chest.
And that was just something that became normal for me. And I was quite resentful of it as well.
And was that because of the pressure that had been put on the heart for that sustained period?
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Chapter 8: How can we effectively regulate our nervous systems in daily life?
Is that what had happened physically?
Yeah. So when your heart gets damaged, especially like a bruising, it doesn't repair. Say you get a bruise on your arm, it doesn't repair in the same way. So essentially your heart muscle is going to struggled to function the same way that it has. And it takes a really, really, really long time for it to kind of adjust to this new way of functioning. So I was on medication to lower my heart rate.
And also I think just it took a long time to build up my fitness in a new way so that I could exercise without it becoming overwhelming. But even still, like when I would do sports, a lot of the time my heart rate would spike and I'd just try and push through it. So I wasn't overly cautious as a kid on the real ramifications that could have happened.
So there were a lot of physical impacts of this accident, but I guess they get better over time or they're easy to discuss and point out and have a heart monitor and there's sort of evidence around them. But what about the sort of more intangible things like your character, your temperament? How, looking back, did that change after the accident, Anna?
I mean, it was immediate, right? I went from being, you know, I loved being the centre of attention. I would make friends with anyone that I came across. I would, I just loved life. I was a very energetic, very curious kid. When I had the accident, I became extremely volatile emotionally. I would cry almost immediately at anything and I hated that.
I thought it was a sign of weakness and I just was so angry at myself for not being in control of things. I also was extremely... rigid with myself. Hey, don't show that this has impacted you. Pull up your socks, keep going. Don't let anyone know that this has affected you. But I mean, it was pretty obvious that it had affected me because I was extremely angry.
Anyone who tried to help was seen as a threat. Anyone who tried to comfort me, I hated that. I I just felt completely disconnected from myself and my family as well, right? So I didn't have the tools and I also didn't have the language and I didn't have the understanding of like why now my life was so fragmented. Like, I didn't have the same flexibility that I had before.
Things had to be a certain way or I would get very upset. But alongside that, because I was feeling disconnected and numb, I also would push the boundaries a lot with my family. Like, I would sneak out. I would go out at night. I would not go to school. I would do all of these things to kind of feel something and to feel like I did have some control over my life.
So... Despite all this, or with all this, you managed to make it through high school. What were things like for you by the time you were 19, Anna?
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