Caitlin Moran: "I’m two years anxiety-free!” How I finally calmed my nervous system
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What early experiences sparked Caitlin Moran’s lifelong anxiety?
Hello, I'm Fern Cotton, and this is Happy Place, the show that looks for the little joys in life. And today I'm challenging.
To Catelyn Moran. I became so convinced that society was crumbling and that humanity was doomed, that I put in an offer and it was accepted in a remote farmhouse in Wales, where I intended to grow my own food, have my own water source, have goats, and thankfully the sale fell through. Then I was like, right, okay, I'm sane now. I need to stay here in my own life and make it better. And the first thing I did was litter picking. My street is a trash. I'm on the way to a railway station. Every morning my steps are covered in vapes and empty cans of monster. And I just took my litter picker and started doing it.
So normally this bit of the podcast I think I meant to say something interesting or something that Is helpful to everyone? But some days I don't I I mean a lot of days I haven't got I don't have a bloody clue. I don't have don't know what's going on. Um like the rest of you, I am muddling through life, through middle age, um, with varying degrees of success. Some days I feel like I've nailed it and I've done solo parenting well and I've done work well. And then other days I just think I might book myself a taxi to Heathrow and uh do a runner. Um and some days I'm somewhere in the middle. But what I will say is that wherever you sit on that scale of get me the fuck out of here to yay, go me, um this this episode I think will be very joyful for you to hear.
I mean number one, I fucking love Katlyn Moran. I d I love her so much. She is someone that I could listen to for hours and hours with complete concentration and I have n I have zero concentration span. I I have n none. She is someone that I I mean, this is such like a deeply embarrassing thing to admit, but she's someone That I really want to like me. How sad is that? But to me, she epitomizes all the things I feel I've not quite been over the years. Like she's naturally just so cool. She's insanely smart. I think that's the bit that really gets me. Like, I I want her to like me, because that makes me feel like, am I? A smarter than I believe I am? Um and I just want to be in her orbit. And it and also I am not, as you well know, listeners, I am not a mysterious person who you have to like work hard to read.
I just am what I am. And I often say too much and um can't help myself, I'm like overexcited. So I DM'd her about four billion times before she came on the podcast. Why am I such a bloody nerd? Um I kept DMing her because reading her book I had so many epiphanies and I kept underlining things, dog earing pages, screenshotting it, sending it to her. Oh my god, this bit really spoke to me like I'm too much. I don't know how to play it cool. I certainly don't know how to play hard to get. Not by playing hard to get with Catelyn Moran, but I don't know how To do that. I don't trust that people I will even come into people's brain space if I'm not g going like, Hey, I think you're great. Can we be friends? So that's my starting point with this chat.
This new book is called How to Be Hopeful. Catelyn sort of basically felt like she had reached peak despair, like that moment where you think, sod it, I'm gonna move to a remote island or go on an epic adventure. That'll be the only thing to help if I do something really drastic, um which is basically what I said about five minutes ago. But instead of doing that, Catelyn decided to change little things about her day instead, like just stuff she could control, reading local newspapers instead of doom scrolling through world events, and sitting on the bus without headphones, and rewilding a garden. And this was honestly a completely eye-opening chat for me about how we can all reclaim a little bit of hope and happiness when the world otherwise feels way too overwhelmed.
Right, to Catelyn in just a moment. But first, something I'm very, very excited about. Early bird tickets, I can't believe I'm saying this because we've just bloody done it. To both of our Happy Place Festivals, London and Taton Park, 2027 are available now.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What early experiences sparked Caitlin Moran’s lifelong anxiety?
0:01–11:43
2
How did Caitlin’s “litter‑picking” habit become the first step toward healing?
11:43–20:38
3
Why does Caitlin believe limiting news and social‑media intake eases anxiety?
20:38–30:00
4
What role did beta‑blockers play in calming Caitlin’s nervous system?
30:00–40:35
5
How does Caitlin describe the dread of meeting friends and social anxiety?
40:35–49:48
6
What practical daily actions does Caitlin use to stay anxiety‑free?
49:48–1:00:04
7
How does Caitlin turn personal hope into actionable steps for others?
1:00:04–1:10:47
8
What final message does Caitlin share about finding hope and joy in everyday life?
1:10:47–1:15:49
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Happy Place
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“I did things I’d never do sober” Consent concerns and social anxiety, with Millie Gooch
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