

Adult Child
Andrea Ashley
Adult Child dives deep into the lasting effects of growing up in dysfunctional families—unpacking complex and relational trauma, codependency, toxic shame, and addiction patterns with raw vulnerability and unapologetic authenticity.Hosted by Andrea Ashley, a recovering shitshow with 17 years sober, each episode shares unfiltered insights, expert conversations, and practical tools to heal your nervous system and break free from the cycles that hold you back.Whether you’re an adult child of alcoholics or from a dysfunctional family, navigating toxic relationships, or healing your inner child, this is your no-BS space for healing. New episodes every Wednesday & Saturday.And damn the join The Shitshow Healing Community for live support groups and connection with fellow cycle breakers.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 27, 2025 • 48min
SHITSHOW SATURDAY #184 - Christmas Debrief
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & Receive⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Our Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dec 24, 2025 • 1h 17min
211: Nate Postlethwait - Building a Life Your Nervous System Can Handle
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & ReceiveIf your life requires you to override your body to function… that’s not “success.” That’s survival. This episode is about creating a life that doesn’t require self-abandonment to keep up.Nate Postlethwait is a writer and teacher who shares trauma recovery and inner child work from a survivor’s perspective. In this conversation, he shares how burning out after 13 years in a demanding real estate career became a turning point — one that eventually led him into a new path of teaching and guiding others through healing from a survivor’s perspective. And as his work has grown, he opens up about what it’s looked like to make choices that protect his wellbeing — even when those choices go against what the world expects.✨ What this episode explores:▪️ Burnout as a Turning Point — Why high-functioning “success” can actually be survival mode, and how burnout forces a reckoning with what your body has been trying to say for years.▪️ Autism vs. Complex PTSD — How adult autism can be misread as CPTSD (and vice versa), and what shifts when you finally have the right framework for sensory overload, rigid thinking, and chronic dysregulation.▪️ Overstimulation & Sensory Survival — What it means to live with constant nervous system activation, and how creating low-stimulation environments becomes real trauma recovery▪️ Walking Away From Social Media — Why the healing space can become performative, noisy, and emotionally demanding and how to choose depth over visibility can be an act of self-protection (and integrity).▪️ Spirituality After Religious Trauma — Why “raise your vibration” advice can be harmful for trauma survivors, and what a grounded, non-dogmatic relationship with meaning can look like after spiritual abuse.Unlearning Worthlessness: Spiritual Trauma, Repressed Identity & Inner Child Work w/ Nate PostlethwaitNate's Retreat-----------------------⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dec 20, 2025 • 43min
SHITSHOW SATURDAY #183 - Navigating Safety Inside & Out
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & Receive⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dec 17, 2025 • 1h 38min
210: Dissociated & Disconnected - When Feeling Nothing Was How You Survived w/ Andy Carlson
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & ReceiveWhen childhood trains you to make yourself invisible, your body learns to go numb. And your mind becomes the place you live — because it’s the only place you can. This episode explores how to rebuild safety from the inside out.Andy Carlson is a trauma coach, LIFT facilitator, and co-host of Time with Tim Fletcher. In this conversation, he opens up about growing up in a home where strict control and chronic criticism made “aliveness” feel unsafe — and disconnection became his default. He shares how the collapse of his marriage became the breaking point that forced him to confront shame, codependency, and the long road back to feeling, agency, and self-trust.✨ What this episode explores:▪️Invisible Child → Numb Adult — Why dissociation and emotional shutdown can be the cost of learning “don’t be seen, don’t be loud, don’t be human” in a rigid or shame-based home.▪️Dorsal Shutdown + Sympathetic Panic — How CPTSD can swing between collapse and over-control, leaving you feeling “blank” in your body while your mind stays stuck in hypervigilant chaos.▪️State Precedes Story — Why your nervous system creates the conditions for spiraling thoughts, and how the brain builds a narrative to match dysregulation (instead of telling you the truth).▪️Somatic Reconnection That Doesn’t Overwhelm You — How slow, structured somatic practices rebuild body awareness when stillness feels unsafe, and why “just meditate” often backfires for trauma survivors.▪️Widening Your Window of Tolerance — How small, consistent “micro-doses” of sensation build distress capacity over time, so your system can feel more without slamming into numbness.▪️Agency, Boundaries & Healthy Aggression — Why fawning and shutdown often require reclaiming assertive energy, and how embodying a real “no” can rebuild self-trust from the inside out.-----------------------⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dec 13, 2025 • 37min
SHITSHOW SATURDAY #182 - Healing Your Inner Teenager
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & Receive⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dec 10, 2025 • 48min
209: How "The Body Keeps the Score" - Making Sense of Stored Trauma, Survival Mode & Functional Freeze
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & ReceiveYour childhood isn’t just a memory — it’s still quietly running the show inside your body. This episode unpacks how “The Body Keeps the Score” shows up in ways you might never have connected.Andrea joins us for a solo episode today, pulling back the curtain on how much of her childhood was still alive in her body long after she thought she’d “done the work.” She shares how a trauma-bonded relationship, nine months of functional freeze, and chronic neck and shoulder pain finally forced her to understand The Body Keeps the Score on a visceral level—not just as an idea. Through her story, she invites you to see your own stuckness, shame, and survival mode as evidence of unfinished trauma, not personal failure.✨ What this episode explores:▪️ Fragmented Memories & Emotional Flashbacks — How unprocessed childhood experiences get stored in your nervous system and why they show up as emotional flashbacks that feel way out of proportion to the present moment.▪️ Survival Energy That Never Shut Off — What it means to carry stored fight-or-flight energy in your fascia, muscles, and nervous system, and how that shows up as chronic hypervigilance, numbness, and living in low-grade survival states.▪️ The Hidden Faces of Functional Freeze — What it looks like when you’re stuck in functional freeze, whether you’re procrastinating endlessly, over-functioning for everyone else, or feeling emotionally numb and disconnected from your own life.▪️ The Long-Term Impact of Survival Mode — How staying in chronic survival states can lead to physical issues like muscular tension, autoimmune conditions, and chronic pain that are actually linked to stored trauma.▪️ Limbic System Healing — What it means to actually reprocess and integrate those fragmented memories at the limbic system level, and how this helps reduce emotional flashbacks and bring your nervous system out of survival mode.Trauma-Bonded No More: My Journey Through Shame, Regression & Finding My Way BackThe Many Faces of Functional Freeze: The Stuck & Shame-Filled OverthinkerThe Many Faces of Functional Freeze: The Over-Functioning FixerThe Many Faces of Functional Freeze: The Detached & Disconnected floater— — —⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dec 6, 2025 • 51min
SHITSHOW SATURDAY #181 - Tabitha W.
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & Receive⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dec 3, 2025 • 1h 17min
208: When Each Parent Leaves a Different Scar - From Attachment Wounds to Parenting Triggers, Rage & Repair w/ Amber Trejo
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & ReceiveWhat happens when one parent shatters you by leaving and the other wounds you by staying? This episode unpacks how two very different kinds of unsafe love can live in your body at the same time.Amber Trejo is an integrative trauma therapist who helps parents with C-PTSD untangle how their own attachment wounds and nervous system triggers show up in the way they love and raise their kids. She grew up with two alcoholic parents — a father who disappeared overnight and a mother who stayed but pulled her into parentification, emotional abuse, and way too much adult reality. It wasn’t until she fell in love and later became a mother herself that those early wounds surged back as paranoia, dread, and explosive reactions she barely recognized as her own.✨ What this episode explores:▪️Growing Up With Two Kinds of Unsafe — Why having parents who hurt you in different ways makes it harder to see your trauma clearly, easier to minimize it, and more confusing to sort out which wounds came from where.▪️Attachment Wounds in “Good” Relationships — Why safe, stable partners can still trigger paranoia, phone checking, and urges to run when your body learned that love and danger always showed up together.▪️The “I Can’t Get What I Need” Core Wound — How this belief quietly drives functional freeze, overdoing, resentment in relationships, and the feeling that everyone else’s needs matter more than yours, including your kids’.▪️When Parenting Feels Like a Trauma Relapse — When your child’s tantrums, needs, or clinginess send you into screaming, shutdown, or terror because they mirror the ages when no one comforted you.▪️Raising Kids While Healing Yourself — What real repair looks like when you’ve yelled, grabbed, or minimized, and how to own the harm without dumping your story on your child or drowning in shame.▪️Vicarious Sexual Abuse — What it actually is and what it can look like later in life-----------------------⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nov 29, 2025 • 46min
SHITSHOW SATURDAY #180 - Andrea A. (...but not me)
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & Receive⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Nov 26, 2025 • 1h 24min
207: The Messy Road of Long-Term Recovery — Codependency, Shame & Nervous System Triggers w/ Dr. Sarah Michaud
✨ Join Breathe to Heal: A 7-week Somatic Journey to Release & ReceiveLong-term recovery doesn’t mean you stop getting triggered — it means you finally see how deep the wiring goes. This episode explores how to navigate those ongoing invitations for growth without turning every setback into proof that you’re failing.Dr. Sarah Michaud is a clinical psychologist, author of Co-Crazy: One Psychologist’s Recovery from Codependency and Addiction, with decades of personal and professional experience in addiction and codependency recovery.She shares what it was like to be decades sober and still have her life upended by her husband’s relapse — and how that season forced her to confront layers of shame she thought she’d already outgrown. She also opens up about body-based triggers in a new relationship, the impact of covert childhood trauma, and the journey of self-forgiveness.✨ What this episode explores:▪️Long-Term Recovery Is Not the Finish Line — Why deeper layers of childhood trauma, CPTSD and codependent patterns can surface decades into sobriety and suddenly make you feel back at square one.▪️When Insight Doesn’t Equal Healing — How you can understand your trauma, teach this stuff to others, and still repeat old behaviors until your nervous system and body are actually part of the work.▪️Codependency as “I Can’t Be Myself” — What it really means to chronically over-help, manage or shrink around others and how that pattern keeps adult children of dysfunctional families from feeling safe.▪️When the Body Remembers Before the Brain — How sleep issues, anxiety spikes and body tension with safe people can be clues that covert emotional or sexual trauma is still stored in the nervous system.▪️Navigating Triggers With Self-Compassion — How naming activations, regulating before you react and reframing setbacks as invitations for deeper healing can shift you out of “I’m failing at recovery.”▪️Parenting After Addiction and Neglect — How guilt can turn sober parents into over-givers and why reclaiming boundaries with your kids becomes part of breaking generational trauma and codependency.-----------------------⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection👉 theshitshow.mn.co🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATIONGet the newsletter for community updates, healing insights & early access to workshops.➡️ Join here💁♀️ SUPPORT THE POD☕ Buy Me a Coffee – help Andrea (and her cats) eat🛍️ Shop Shitshow Merch💬 CONNECT WITH ANDREAInstagram → @adultchildpodTikTok → @adultchildpodYouTube → @adultchildpodSPONSORSCheck out Uncommon Goods: https://uncommongoods.com/adultchildCheck out Calm: https://calm.com/ADULTCHILDCheck out Happy Mammoth, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 15% off happymammoth.com.Check out SiderAL, Use Code ADULTCHILD for 10% off https://pharmanutra-us.com/Check out Bioma for 15% of your order gobioma.com/adultchildOur Sponsors:* Check out Happy Mammoth and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://happymammoth.com* Check out PharmaNutra and use my code ADULTCHILD for a great deal: https://pharmanutra-us.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy


