Adult Child

Andrea Ashley
  • 4.9 (1.9K)
  • Self-Improvement
  • Updated Biweekly

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.

  1. 4h ago

    243 - The Caregiving Trap: When the Parent You're Estranged From Becomes Your Responsibility w/ Katherine St. Claire

    You finally go no contact after decades of abuse. Then one day the phone rings, and suddenly you're legally responsible for their entire life. Katherine St Claire is a writer, abuse survivor, and cycle breaker who grew up in a home defined by violence, silence, and gaslighting. After four years of no contact, her father was arrested at 82 for trying to kill her mother, and within six hours she and her sister were his legal guardians. Since then Katherine has become an advocate for adult children of dysfunctional families who end up responsible for the care of the parents who harmed them. She's building caringforabusiveparents.org a site that pulls together the legal, financial, and elder care help available to someone in this position, all in one place. It goes live in September. Until then you can find her on Instagram at @katherinestclaire_writes ----------------------- Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com ----------------------- ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community 6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection 👉 theshitshow.mn.co 🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION Get 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 ANDREA Instagram → @adultchildpod TikTok → @adultchildpod YouTube → @adultchildpod Our Sponsors: * Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    243 - The Caregiving Trap: When the Parent You're Estranged From Becomes Your Responsibility w/ Katherine St. Claire

  2. 4d ago

    SHITSHOW SATURDAY #217 – Imposter Syndrome

    ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community 6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection 👉 theshitshow.mn.co Shitshow Saturday #127 🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION Get 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 ANDREA Instagram → @adultchildpod TikTok → @adultchildpod YouTube → @adultchildpod Our Sponsors: * Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    SHITSHOW SATURDAY #217 – Imposter Syndrome

  3. Aug 5

    242 - Imposter Syndrome Through the Lens of CPTSD: Confronting the Fraud Inside

    You feel like a fraud bracing for the moment everyone finally figures you out. And no amount of accomplishment or evidence ever changes that feeling that you're not who you say you are. For those of us with complex trauma, the imposter syndrome doesn't just live in your head. It lives in your body and your nervous system. Today, we're diving deep into why you feel like such a fraud so you can stop mistaking that feeling for the truth about who you are. ✨ What this episode explores Toxic Shame Fueled Imposter Syndrome — Why this version isn't about competence at all, but a belief that something fundamentally broken about you cancels out anything good you do. The Golden Child of a Narcissist — How a role that has nothing to do with you makes it impossible to own your accomplishments and success. Parentification Fueled Imposter Syndrome — How carrying adult responsibilities you should never have had to carry leads to feeling like a kid trapped in an adult body who has no idea what they're doing. Why You Never Do the Thing — How imposter syndrome shows up as avoidance, freeze, and procrastination to keep anyone from seeing you as a fraud. Feeling Like You Conned Everyone — How surfacing trauma can make you feel like you've deceived every person in your life, retroactively rewriting years of real connection as a lie. Imposter Syndrome About Your Own Trauma — Why the same mechanism that makes you doubt your accomplishments makes you doubt your pain ever counted. Imposter syndrome seems to plague us all, but for those of us with complex trauma, the imposter doesn't just live in your head. It lives in your body and your nervous system. And today, we're looking at this with a depth that helps you actually confront it. So you can stop mistaking it for the truth about you. ----------------------- Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com ----------------------- ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community 6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection 👉 theshitshow.mn.co 🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION Get 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 ANDREA Instagram → @adultchildpod TikTok → @adultchildpod YouTube → @adultchildpod Our Sponsors: * Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

  4. Aug 1

    SHITSHOW SATURDAY #216 – The Return of Haley

    ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community 6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection 👉 theshitshow.mn.co Shitshow Saturday #127 🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION Get 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 ANDREA Instagram → @adultchildpod TikTok → @adultchildpod YouTube → @adultchildpod Our Sponsors: * Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    SHITSHOW SATURDAY #216 – The Return of Haley

  5. Jul 30

    241 - Inside an Emotional Flashback: Recognizing One, Surviving One & What's Underneath

    Somebody doesn't text you back and suddenly you feel like you're going to die. You're not being pathetic. You're in a flashback. Welcome to the living hell of emotional flashbacks. Your reaction never matches the situation in front of you, and even when you know that in your head, it doesn't make you feel any better. This is the single most painful symptom of CPTSD. Today I'm taking you all the way back, from the very first emotional flashback I ever had at nine years old to the most intense one of my entire life just a few years ago. I'm not holding anything back. ✨ What this episode explores ▪️ Your Brain During a Flashback — Understanding the two separate mechanisms and childhood experiences that produce one, and why only one of them involves a memory at all. ▪️ When There's No Memory to Point To — How the small stuff repeated a thousand times encodes just as deep as one terrifying moment, so there's nothing to trace it back to and nothing to prove it "counts." ▪️ Walking a Kid Through Trauma — The exact steps a calm adult takes to stop a scary moment from wiring in for life, and why saying it out loud is what does the healing. ▪️ Recognizing a Flashback in Real Time — How to tell you're in one and not just upset, and the first move that starts pulling you back out. ▪️ Your Triggers Are Your Treasures — What the four categories of trigger reveal, including the ones you'd never suspect like success and praise, and why whatever sets you off is pointing straight at the wound. ----------------------- 🎧 If this episode resonated, you might also love: ▪️ Ep 201 | Trauma-Bonded No More: My Journey Through Shame, Regression & Finding My Way Back ▪️ SHITSHOW SATURDAY #164 | The Living Hell of Emotional Flashbacks Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com ----------------------- ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community 6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection 👉 theshitshow.mn.co 🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION Get 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 ANDREA Instagram → @adultchildpod TikTok → @adultchildpod YouTube → @adultchildpod Our Sponsors: * Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    241 - Inside an Emotional Flashback: Recognizing One, Surviving One & What's Underneath

  6. Jul 25

    SHITSHOW SATURDAY #215 – Things You Learned Were Normal That Never Were

    ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community 6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection 👉 theshitshow.mn.co Shitshow Saturday #127 🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION Get 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 ANDREA Instagram → @adultchildpod TikTok → @adultchildpod YouTube → @adultchildpod Our Sponsors: * Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    SHITSHOW SATURDAY #215 – Things You Learned Were Normal That Never Were

  7. Jul 22

    240 - Borderline or Abandoned? What Separates a Personality Disorder From Untreated Relational Trauma w/ Susan Anderson

    The Abandonment Trauma Queen is back on the pod, and today we're heading into uncharted territory: borderline vs. abandonment trauma. What truly separates the two, and why the BPD label gets handed out way too easily. Susan Anderson is a psychotherapist and a pioneer in the field of abandonment trauma, and she's spent the last three decades helping people heal. She's the author of The Abandonment Recovery Workbook (a book that truly changed my life) and Taming Your Outer Child. Having worked with thousands of people over the course of her career, she joins me to share what she's learned about telling the difference between BPD and CPTSD. ✨ What this episode explores ▪️What Actually Separates BPD From CPTSD — Why the dividing line isn't emotional intensity, but whether the pain distorts reality into a false narrative. ▪️Why Untreated Abandonment Escalates — How emotional reactivity compounds from one relationship to the next when the wound underneath is never addressed. ▪️Overthinking as an Abandonment Response — Why compulsive rumination is your brain searching for a lost attachment object, not actually solving anything. ▪️Why the Outer Child Fights Change — How the self-sabotaging part is persistent by design and actively wants to stay in charge. ▪️Self-Love as Behavior, Not Affirmation — Why the relationship with yourself is built through concrete action and written dialogue, not by deciding to love yourself. ----------------------- 🎧 If this episode resonated, you might also love: ▪️ Ep 47 — Abandonment Trauma w/ Susan Anderson ▪️ Ep 97 — The Outer Child & Abandonment Trauma w/ Susan Anderson ▪️ Ep 161 — Abandonment Trauma Expert Susan Anderson on Rejection and Equating Love with Insecurity ----------------------- ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community 6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection 👉 theshitshow.mn.co 🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION Get 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 ANDREA Instagram → @adultchildpod TikTok → @adultchildpod YouTube → @adultchildpod Our Sponsors: * Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    240 - Borderline or Abandoned? What Separates a Personality Disorder From Untreated Relational Trauma w/ Susan Anderson

  8. Jul 18

    SHITSHOW SATURDAY #214 – Lynda S.

    ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community 6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection 👉 theshitshow.mn.co Shitshow Saturday #127 🗞️ SIGN UP FOR SHITSHOW NATION Get 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 ANDREA Instagram → @adultchildpod TikTok → @adultchildpod YouTube → @adultchildpod Our Sponsors: * Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a great deal: https://www.omahasteaks.com Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    SHITSHOW SATURDAY #214 – Lynda S.
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Hosts & Guests

4.9
out of 5
1,861 Ratings

About

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.

Information

  • Creator
    Andrea Ashley
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    491
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2021 Adult Child
  • Show Website
    Adult Child

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