Notes From a Madwoman: Transforming Survival Adaptations to Healthy Coping

Thoughts or comments? Send us a text!Survival can make you brilliant at coping and it can also quietly steal your identity. We sit down with writer and trauma educator Lisa Lacy to talk about the gap between looking “high-functioning” and actually feeling well, especially for women conditioned to be good, productive, and pleasing even when they’re drowning inside. Lisa shares how repeated near-death medical crises and turning 50 forced a hard truth: you can’t keep going back to the old script and call it strength.We get specific about what “high-functioning survival” looks like in real life: caretaking, overperforming, polishing the image, and numbing emotions while your nervous system stays on high alert. We dig into trauma recovery and why mental health labels can help and hurt, including how diagnosis language can become an identity that keeps us stuck in blame and resentment. From there, we move into the practical work: radical honesty, choosing safe people to open up to, self-forgiveness that isn’t forced, and boundaries that protect your peace without shutting the whole world out.Lisa also breaks down identity masking, the way different versions of us show up at work, at home, and in relationships, and how healing can look like becoming congruent across every arena. Along the way, she shares grounded tools you can try today: replacing the inner critic with statements of fact, getting curious about “sticky” comments that rewound old childhood wounds, and processing emotions within 24 to 48 hours so pain doesn’t keep stacking.If you’ve been performing wellness, people-pleasing through burnout, or wondering who you are without the coping strategies, this conversation gives language and a path forward. Subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a quick rating so more listeners can find No Shrinking Violets.You can find Lisa HEREhttps://www.lisalacy.com/about-1Support the showBUY ME A COFFEE or SUPPORT ALFIE'S TREAT STASHLearn more about my book, Nature Knows: Grow and Thrive through the Wisdom of Plants HERE.Comments about this episode? Suggestions for a future episode? Email me directly at [email protected]. Want to be a guest on No Shrinking Violets Podcast for Women? Send Mary Rothwell a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/noshrinkingvioletsFollow me on Facebook and Instagram, and check out my website!