Anchor Moments

This week it's just me. Last Wednesday of the month means I drop one of my own anchor moments, and this one is on the lighter side, because anchor moments can be good ones too.I'm telling you about my two first loves. The first was a weird off-brand troll doll named Norfin that I got one Christmas instead of the troll I actually asked for, and then loved so hard he went grey, matted, and bandaged. He held me through every lonely night of a childhood where I felt unseen. The second was a blind prom date that started as a total disaster and turned into the man I've been married to for more than twenty years.It's a story about the things and the people that hold us together when no one else sees us, and about the slow, stubborn realization that it was never about the doll being pretty or the start being perfect. It was about being chosen.If you've ever had a blanket, a doll, or a person you couldn't let go of or never let go of you, you'll appreciate this feel good story. This week's question (come answer on Instagram): What was your Norfin? The doll, blanket, or worn-out thing that held you when you couldn't hold yourself yet. Tell me what it was and whether you still have it. @anchormomentspodA note before you listen: These are my stories and my reflections. Take what helps and leave the rest. My mom is an angel and did the best she could. My stuff is my stuff, and I've turned out pretty great, so no one needs to carry any of this on my behalf.Content note: This one is warm and chill, but we do touch on childhood loneliness, feeling unseen, abandonment feelings, and the loss of my dad. Nothing graphic or explicit. If today's not the day, that's okay. Take care of you and come back when you're ready.Support resources (always here):US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, 24/7.International: findahelpline.com (200+ countries) and Befrienders Worldwide at befrienders.org.Spread the word: Send this to the one person you thought of while listening. Then follow Anchor Moments wherever you're listening so the new episodes find you, and if you have a minute, leave a rating or review. Word of mouth is how this little show keeps going.Have a story to share? Everybody has one. Head to anchormomentspod.com, fill out the intake form, and get on the calendar. Or just say hi at [email protected] the show:Instagram: @anchormomentspodTikTok: @anchormomentspodWeb: anchormomentspod.comYou're part of someone's story, so carry that with kindness.

Jean doesn't look like her story. She's little, she wears pink, she's got these curls, and then she opens her mouth and you realize this is a woman who has buried almost everyone she loved and come out the other side as someone new.In this episode, Jean takes us from a strict, loving childhood in Staten Island to a college pregnancy that got her kicked out of her family, to the slow and graceful loss of her mother, the fast and brutal loss of her father, and then the sudden death of her husband in a hotel room a few states away, on what was supposed to be one of the best days of her life. What she found out after he was gone changed everything she thought she knew. There's grief here, there's a stretch that honestly plays like a crime show, and there's a red bird. We talk about betrayal, what it means to pour love back into yourself, and why she protects her rituals fiercely.This week's question: Jean had nothing left to lose, so she knocked on her late husband's drug dealers' doors and demanded her money back. No backup, no plan, just nerve. If you were that far past the edge, would you knock on the door, or find another way out? Come tell us on Instagram!Find Jean: Instagram @thewokewidow (https://www.instagram.com/thewokewidow/). She's writing a book and offers sound baths, breath work, and Reiki.A little disclaimer: The stories and views you hear on this show belong to the people telling them. They aren't always mine, and that's kind of the point. I'm not here to agree, correct, diagnose, or decide who's right. My job is to listen, to hold space, and to let each person's experience stand as theirs. Take what helps you, and leave the rest.Content warning: This episode includes discussion of the death of a parent, terminal illness and hospice, the sudden loss of a spouse, infidelity, addiction and substance use, and heavy grief. Please take care of yourself however you need to.If you're struggling, you're not alone:US: Call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7.International: Find a helpline in 200+ countries at findahelpline.com, or reach Befrienders Worldwide at befrienders.org.Love the show? The best way to help Anchor Moments grow is to share this episode with the one person who came to mind while you listened, and to follow or subscribe so the next story finds you too. If you have a minute, a rating or review helps more than you'd think.Come say hi: Instagram: @anchormomentspod TikTok: @anchormomentspod Web: anchormomentspod.com Got a story to share? anchormomentspod.com or email [email protected]'re part of someone's story, so carry that with kindness.

In this episode, I talk with Khushnum - a therapist and mentor - about what happens when your worth gets wired to your performance before you're old enough to know it's happening.Khushnum grew up believing she was only as good as what she could produce. She became a high achiever, a fixer, the one who reads the room before she had the words for any of it. And even with all the training, all the modalities, all the language for what she was doing, the pattern kept running underneath. It took her body stopping her - and a long stretch of sitting in the quiet she'd spent her whole life avoiding - to start asking who she was without the performance.We talk about over-functioning, the difference between healing and just collecting more knowledge about yourself, what it actually looks like to give something to yourself instead of checking a box, and why she's not afraid to get in the muck with the people she works with.Khushnum isn't standing at a tidy ending. She's still in it, a few steps further down the path. That's exactly what makes this one worth sitting with.A few things we get into:Worth that's tied to producing, and where that startsWhy "I exist, and I'm worthy" is harder to say than it soundsThe one small non-negotiable you give to yourself every dayBeing in it with people instead of handing down answersFind Khushnum: https://www.instagram.com/khushnum_stevens/Resources relevant to what was shared:If you're running on burnout or feeling like you've lost yourself somewhere in everything you do for everyone else, you don't have to sit in that alone.For mental health support and finding a therapist: SAMHSA Helpline: 1-800-662-4357 (free, confidential, 24/7) Psychology Today therapist finder: psychologytoday.comIf you are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741International listeners: findahelpline.com (200+ countries) befrienders.orgHave a story for Anchor Moments? [email protected] | anchormomentspod.com

Trigger warning: grief and the death of a parent, a serious medical event (stroke), and ongoing healing from trauma. This episode is lighter than Parts 1 and 2, but please take care of yourself. Resources are below.This is Part 3 - the finale. If you haven't listened from the beginning, start with Part 1 first. This story is worth hearing in order.She left. She got out. Her son was in the seat next to her.Part 3 is what happened after.Freedom doesn't mean the hard stuff stops. Maggie still carried the fear in her body - still said sorry too many times, still flinched when she spilled something. Fifty years of survival doesn't pack up and leave just because the circumstances change.But something else happened too. A man named Darrin showed up, patient in a way she had never experienced. Her son became someone she is endlessly proud of. And slowly, then all at once, Maggie started to find her way back to herself.Part 3 covers: starting over and watching her son thrive - what it felt like to be loved without conditions for the first time - losing her mother and the last phone call she almost didn't take - the morning in 2019 when she had a stroke at work and was airlifted to the hospital - learning to walk, talk, and think again - the grief, the arthritis, the art she came back to - and what she found, at fifty years old: peace. A self she actually likes."I would do it all again to be where I am right now."If you need supportCrisis/Suicide: 988 (US/CA) · Samaritans 116 123 (UK/IE) · Lifeline 13 11 14 (AU) · 0800 543 354 (NZ) | 988lifeline.orgDomestic Violence: 1-800-799-7233 (US) · 0808 2000 247 (UK) · sheltersafe.ca (CA) · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 (AU) · Women's Aid 1800 341 900 (IE) · Are You OK 0800 456 450 (NZ)Stroke Recovery: stroke.org (US) · stroke.org.uk (UK) · heartandstroke.ca (CA) · strokefoundation.org.au (AU) · irishheart.ie (IE) · stroke.org.nz (NZ)Mental Health: SAMHSA 1-800-662-4357 samhsa.gov (US) · Mind 0300 123 3393 mind.org.uk (UK) · crisisservicescanada.ca (CA) · Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 (AU) · mentalhealthireland.ie (IE) · mentalhealth.org.nz (NZ)Website: anchormomentspod.comInstagram: @anchormomentspodIf Maggie's story moved you, share it. These stories only do their work when they travel.

Trigger warning: emotional and financial abuse within a marriage, a false criminal accusation and arrest, suicidal ideation, and grief.This is Part 2 of a three-part series.At the end of Part 1, Maggie was alive. Angry about it. Not yet knowing what was still ahead.Part 2 is the long middle. And if you've ever lived through a long middle - the part where things are hard and slow and there's no obvious way out - you will recognize something of yourself in this episode.Maggie stayed in a marriage for nearly twenty years that slowly took everything: her money, her confidence, her voice. She knew something was wrong. But she had been practicing survival since she was small.And then her son was born. And everything shifted.Part 2 covers: almost two decades of financial and emotional control - finding her voice at work because it was the only place she had one - her son's birth and the turning point he became - the moment her twelve-year-old said he couldn't watch her cry anymore - being fired and falsely accused of embezzling at the same time she was facing a cancer scare - the arrest, the mugshot on the front page, and $$$ in restitution ordered for something she didn't do - why she pleaded guilty - forgiving her dying father - and the morning she packed everything into a little car and drove away while her husband was at work.He didn't even notice she was gone.All parts available now. Subscribe so you don't miss our next great story.Resources:Crisis/Suicide: 988 (US/CA) · Samaritans 116 123 (UK/IE) · Lifeline 13 11 14 (AU) · 0800 543 354 (NZ) | 988lifeline.orgDomestic Violence: 1-800-799-7233 (US) · 0808 2000 247 (UK) · sheltersafe.ca (CA) · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 (AU) · Women's Aid 1800 341 900 (IE) · Are You OK 0800 456 450 (NZ)Sexual Assault: RAINN 1-800-656-4673 (US) · Rape Crisis 0808 802 9999 (England/Wales) · 08088 01 03 02 (Scotland) · casac.ca (CA) · 1800RESPECT (AU) · DRCC 1800 778 888 (IE) · Safe to Talk 0800 044 334 (NZ)Pregnancy & Infant Loss: nationalshare.org (US) · Sands 0808 164 3332 sands.org.uk (UK) · pailnetwork.ca (CA) · Sands 1300 072 637 sands.org.au (AU) · alittlelifetime.ie (IE) · sands.org.nz (NZ)Mental Health: SAMHSA 1-800-662-4357 samhsa.gov (US) · Mind 0300 123 3393 mind.org.uk (UK) · crisisservicescanada.ca (CA) · Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 (AU) · mentalhealthireland.ie (IE) · mentalhealth.org.nz (NZ)Website: anchormomentspod.comInstagram: @anchormomentspod

Trigger warning: childhood physical and emotional abuse, sexual assault, pregnancy loss (including stillbirth), suicide attempt, and domestic violence. Resources are below.This is Part 1 of a three-part series.Maggie has a thousand stories and we're just scratching the surface here. Maggie grew up in a home ruled by fear. Her father was physically and emotionally abusive in ways that shaped everything that came after. Her childhood is mostly blank to her - not because nothing happened, but because her mind protected her from remembering too much of it. What she does remember, she shares here - unflinchingly, with humor and with grief.Part 1 covers: a childhood with an unpredictable, abusive father - her brother leaving when she was nine - being sexually assaulted at thirteen and her reputation destroyed before she understood what had happened - moving twenty-two times - leaving home at seventeen - the loss of her daughter Emily Grace at thirty-six weeks - and the night, a week after the funeral, when she took a whole bottle of pills.Maggie survived all of it. But in Part 1, she doesn't know yet what she's surviving toward.Parts 2 & 3 available now. Subscribe so you don't miss the next great story.If you need supportCrisis/Suicide: 988 (US/CA) · Samaritans 116 123 (UK/IE) · Lifeline 13 11 14 (AU) · 0800 543 354 (NZ) | 988lifeline.orgSexual Assault: RAINN 1-800-656-4673 (US) · Rape Crisis 0808 802 9999 (England/Wales) · 08088 01 03 02 (Scotland) · casac.ca (CA) · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 (AU) · DRCC 1800 778 888 (IE) · Safe to Talk 0800 044 334 (NZ)Domestic Violence: 1-800-799-7233 (US) · 0808 2000 247 (UK) · sheltersafe.ca (CA) · 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732 (AU) · Women's Aid 1800 341 900 (IE) · Are You OK 0800 456 450 (NZ)Pregnancy & Infant Loss: nationalshare.org (US) · Sands 0808 164 3332 sands.org.uk (UK) · pailnetwork.ca (CA) · Sands 1300 072 637 sands.org.au (AU) · alittlelifetime.ie (IE) · sands.org.nz (NZ)Mental Health: SAMHSA 1-800-662-4357 samhsa.gov (US) · Mind 0300 123 3393 mind.org.uk (UK) · crisisservicescanada.ca (CA) · Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636 beyondblue.org.au (AU) · mentalhealthireland.ie (IE) · mentalhealth.org.nz (NZ)Connect with Anchor MomentsWebsite: anchormomentspod.comInstagram: @anchormomentspod

The Quiet Keeper is who I've been. This episode is where she retires.No guest today. Just me answering the two questions that have come up more than anything else since we launched: why I say "who we are still becoming," and how we ended up homeless. Both answers are longer than I expected, messier than I wanted, and still not fully over. But you asked.A gentle heads-up: This episode includes mention of sexual assault, homelessness, a mental health crisis, family estrangement, and financial fraud. Resources are below. Please take care of yourself as you listen.ResourcesIf anything in this episode touched something real for you, please reach out for support.RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline - 1-800-656-4673 or rainn.org (US)988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - call or text 988 (US)Crisis Text Line - text HOME to 741741 (US)SAMHSA National Helpline (mental health and crisis support) - 1-800-662-4357 (US)National Homeless Shelter Directory - homelessshelterdirectory.org (US)Psychology Today therapist finder - psychologytoday.com (US and international listings)If you're outside the US - findahelpline.com connects you to crisis support in more than 200 countries. Befrienders Worldwide offers free emotional support at befrienders.org.If you don't feel ready to call anyone, even telling one safe person you're struggling counts.If this episode stayed with you Please follow, rate, and share. One text to one person is the single biggest thing you can do for a show this size, and it might be exactly what someone in your life needs today. Tag us on socials @anchormomentspod. If you have a story you think belongs here, reach out at anchormomentspod.com or email [email protected]'m Krista Patrick. This is Anchor Moments. You are already part of someone's story. Carry that with kindness.

Episode 0: Why This Show MUST Exist Before the guests. Before the stories. This one is mine. This mini-episode is dropping on my birthday. I mention in this episode that there was a point where I genuinely did not know how many more I would have. I thought it was appropriate to start here. Full episodes drop every Wednesday starting April 29th. Before anyone sits across from me and tells me the realest thing they have ever said out loud, I owe you the same. In this mini episode, I explain what Anchor Moments actually is - not the cleaned-up version, the real one. I talk about my own anchor moments: the childhood I have spent decades trying to understand, the year my family was technically homeless, and the rock bottom that was not metaphorical. I was struggling with suicidal ideation. I do not say that lightly. I say it because it is true, and I think there are people listening who know exactly what that feels like and need to hear that someone came out the other side. I made a list. Not a bucket list. Things to do with my kids. Financial goals I needed to meet to set them up. I taped it to the wall so I would see it the second I opened my eyes. Some mornings it was the only reason I stayed. Then something strange started to happen. Every item on that list turned out to teach me something I did not expect. What started as a reason to leave became a reason to stay. This show is on that list. I also explain what I mean by an anchor moment - why the anchor is often not the event itself but the response, the silence, the thing that did not happen. I talk about who comes on this show, which is not celebrities or experts or people who survived something so extraordinary that the rest of us can only marvel. It is everyone. The cashier, the refugee, the quiet neighbor, the parent who made choices they still cannot fully explain. Because I genuinely believe - not as a talking point, but as something I have lived - that it is impossible not to love someone once you know their story. If you are new here, start here. A gentle heads-up: This episode includes discussion of childhood sexual abuse, suicidal ideation, and homelessness. I share these things because they are true, and because I think someone listening needs to know they are not alone in them. Resources are below. Please take care of yourself as you listen. Resources If anything in this episode touched something real for you, please reach out for support. 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - call or text 988 (US) Crisis Text Line - text HOME to 741741 (US) Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline - 1-800-422-4453 (US) Psychology Today therapist finder - psychologytoday.com (US and international listings) National Homeless Shelter Directory - homelessshelterdirectory.org (US) SAMHSA National Helpline (mental health, grief, substance use) - 1-800-662-4357 (US) If you're outside the US - findahelpline.com connects you to crisis support in more than 200 countries. Befrienders Worldwide offers free emotional support at befrienders.org. If you don't feel ready to call anyone, even telling one safe person you're struggling counts. If this episode stayed with you Please follow, rate, comment, and share. One text to one person is the single biggest thing you can do for a show this size, and it might be exactly what someone in your life needs today. Tag us on socials @anchormomentspod. If you have a story you think belongs here, reach out at anchormomentspod.com or email [email protected]. I'm Krista Patrick. This is Anchor Moments. You are already part of someone's story. Carry that with kindness.

This is Part 2 of 2. Start with Part 1 if you haven't yet.When we left off, Tara had just made a decision. She picked up her phone, got on TikTok, and posted a video about her husband cheating on her. Millions of people watched what came next.In this episode: going viral without a plan, building a career from scratch with $500 and an in-home daycare, filing for divorce, dating after divorce, the shark-infested waters of healing in public, and what Tara means when she says she's learning to choose herself. She doesn't have a tidy ending. She is still in it. And that is exactly what makes this worth listening to.Find Tara: Instagram: @tara.divorce.healing.unhinged | TikTok: @tara.r0seResources:National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 | Text START to 88788 | thehotline.orgFinancial abuse resources: thehotline.org/resources/financial-abuseAl-Anon (addiction, partners + families): al-anon.orgSAMHSA Helpline (substance use): 1-800-662-4357, free + confidential, 24/7 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 International: findahelpline.com (200+ countries) | befrienders.orgHave a story for Anchor Moments? [email protected] | anchormomentspod.com

This is Part 1 of 2.Tara's story didn't start last year. It started with a dad who chose alcohol over her, and a pattern she repeated in every relationship that followed - choosing people she could change, staying longer than she should have, and telling herself it wasn't that bad.In this episode, Tara walks through two marriages, infidelity, a partner's addiction she had no idea existed, the moment a therapist named what was actually happening in her home, and the financial trap that made leaving feel impossible.Find Tara: Instagram: @tara.divorce.healing.unhinged | TikTok: @tara.r0seResources:National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 | Text START to 88788 | thehotline.orgFinancial abuse resources: thehotline.org/resources/financial-abuseAl-Anon (addiction, partners + families): al-anon.orgSAMHSA Helpline (substance use): 1-800-662-4357, free + confidential, 24/7988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 International: findahelpline.com (200+ countries) | befrienders.orgHave a story for Anchor Moments? [email protected] | anchormomentspod.com

Episode 0: Why This Show MUST Exist Before the guests. Before the stories. This one is mine. This mini-episode is dropping on my birthday. I mention in this episode that there was a point where I genuinely did not know how many more I would have. I thought it was appropriate to start here. Full episodes drop every Wednesday starting April 29th. Before anyone sits across from me and tells me the realest thing they have ever said out loud, I owe you the same. In this mini episode, I explain what Anchor Moments actually is - not the cleaned-up version, the real one. I talk about my own anchor moments: the childhood I have spent decades trying to understand, the year my family was technically homeless, and the rock bottom that was not metaphorical. I was struggling with suicidal ideation. I do not say that lightly. I say it because it is true, and I think there are people listening who know exactly what that feels like and need to hear that someone came out the other side. I made a list. Not a bucket list. Things to do with my kids. Financial goals I needed to meet to set them up. I taped it to the wall so I would see it the second I opened my eyes. Some mornings it was the only reason I stayed. Then something strange started to happen. Every item on that list turned out to teach me something I did not expect. What started as a reason to leave became a reason to stay. This show is on that list. I also explain what I mean by an anchor moment - why the anchor is often not the event itself but the response, the silence, the thing that did not happen. I talk about who comes on this show, which is not celebrities or experts or people who survived something so extraordinary that the rest of us can only marvel. It is everyone. The cashier, the refugee, the quiet neighbor, the parent who made choices they still cannot fully explain. Because I genuinely believe - not as a talking point, but as something I have lived - that it is impossible not to love someone once you know their story. If you are new here, start here. A gentle heads-up: This episode includes discussion of childhood sexual abuse, suicidal ideation, and homelessness. I share these things because they are true, and because I think someone listening needs to know they are not alone in them. Resources are below. Please take care of yourself as you listen. Resources If anything in this episode touched something real for you, please reach out for support. 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - call or text 988 (US) Crisis Text Line - text HOME to 741741 (US) Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline - 1-800-422-4453 (US) Psychology Today therapist finder - psychologytoday.com (US and international listings) National Homeless Shelter Directory - homelessshelterdirectory.org (US) SAMHSA National Helpline (mental health, grief, substance use) - 1-800-662-4357 (US) If you're outside the US - findahelpline.com connects you to crisis support in more than 200 countries. Befrienders Worldwide offers free emotional support at befrienders.org. If you don't feel ready to call anyone, even telling one safe person you're struggling counts. If this episode stayed with you Please follow, rate, comment, and share. One text to one person is the single biggest thing you can do for a show this size, and it might be exactly what someone in your life needs today. Tag us on socials @anchormomentspod. If you have a story you think belongs here, reach out at anchormomentspod.com or email [email protected]. I'm Krista Patrick. This is Anchor Moments. You are already part of someone's story. Carry that with kindness.

Every one of us have moments we can't stop being shaped by whether we want to be or not.Anchor Moments is a storytelling podcast about those experiences. Real people. Real stories. The moments that made us who we are, and who we're still becoming because of them.I believe it's impossible not to love someone once you know their story.New episodes drop April 25, 2026. Follow now so you don't miss them.

This is Part 2 of my conversation with Grace from Grace Filled Mama. If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, start there - you need that foundation before you come here.When we left off, Grace had just hit the lowest point of her Cinderella story. The dresses were gone. Her mom's words were still hanging in the air. In Part 2, we pick up right there - and we talk about what happened next. A suicide attempt at nine years old. What God said to her in that moment. The vision that kept her here. And then years later, the slow and honest work of actually healing.Grace also shares four of the most practical, grounded things I've heard anyone say about rebuilding yourself after a childhood like hers. I took notes. I think you will too.In this episode:The hidden dress and what it meant to her in the darkest momentsA suicide attempt at age nine and the experience that changed everythingThe vision of her future family that kept her hereMeeting her husband at sixteen and knowing immediatelyThe sexual abuse she experienced the night before her weddingEarly marriage - the hard years and what it took to stayHolding her first daughter and realizing for the first time she didn't deserve what happened to herGoing no contact with her entire familyHow the suicidal ideation finally stopped - and what actually made the differenceFour things Grace wishes someone had told her sooner:Thinking through hard things instead of toxic positivityWhat it really means to love your neighbor as yourselfA daily practice for healing from body shame and sexual abuseThe new door - why healing doesn't feel good yet, and why that's okayTrigger warnings:This episode contains a suicide attempt, sexual abuse by a parent, religious trauma, descriptions of early marriage difficulty, and detailed discussion of suicidal ideation. Please take care of yourself as you listen.Resources:United States:Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 | 988lifeline.orgRAINN (sexual assault support): 1-800-656-4673 | rainn.orgNational Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-7233 | thehotline.orgCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741International:Crisis Text Line (UK, Canada, Ireland): Text HOME to 741741Samaritans (UK and Ireland): 116 123 | samaritans.orgBefrienders Worldwide (international suicide prevention directory): befrienders.orgInternational Association for Suicide Prevention (crisis center directory): iasp.info/resources/Crisis_CentresConnect with Grace: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grace_filled.mama/Keep an eye out for Grace's personal development journal for husbands - she mentioned it's dropping soon and I'm excited about it.If this episode meant something to you, share it, leave a review, or tell one person. That is how people who need this find it. Thank you for being here.

Grace from Grace Filled Mama grew up as the seventh child in a family carrying more pain than they knew what to do with. When her mom began losing the ability to walk around the time of Grace's birth, the family's grief landed squarely on the one person least able to carry it - a little girl who spent years believing she was the reason for everything hard in her family's life.In Part 1, Grace takes us all the way back. We talk about what it felt like to grow up invisible in a crowded house, to be pulled out of her own education at age six, and to find ways to survive from the shadows. And then the packages started arriving - beautiful, mysterious dresses that kept showing up on her porch - and everything got more complicated from there.This is one of the most honest conversations I've had on this podcast. I think you'll feel that.In this episode:Growing up as the seventh child and the weight that came with thatHer mom losing the ability to walk and how that shaped the family's dynamicBeing pulled from her education at age six and learning to read on her ownMoving herself into the basement to take up less spaceThe first mystery package - and the pure joy that came with itHow her parents responded to the dresses, and what that taught her about herselfChildhood sexual abuse Suicidal ideation beginning around age sevenTrigger warnings:This episode contains childhood emotional abuse and neglect, childhood sexual abuse, suicidal ideation in a child, religious trauma, and descriptions of parental manipulation. Please take care of yourself as you listen.Resources:If anything in this episode brought something up for you, please reach out. You don't have to sit with it alone.United States:Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988 | 988lifeline.orgRAINN (sexual assault support): 1-800-656-4673 | rainn.orgChildhelp National Child Abuse Hotline: 1-800-422-4453 | childhelp.orgCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741International:Crisis Text Line (UK, Canada, Ireland): Text HOME to 741741Samaritans (UK and Ireland): 116 123 | samaritans.orgBefrienders Worldwide (international suicide prevention directory): befrienders.orgInternational Association for Suicide Prevention (crisis center directory): iasp.info/resources/Crisis_CentresConnect with Grace: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grace_filled.mama/Don't miss Part 2 - subscribe wherever you listen so it lands right in your feed.If this episode meant something to you, share it. That is how people who need it find it.

Taryn Thompson learned to make a sandwich when she was three years old, in case her mom passed out and wasn't there to feed her. That's where her story starts.What follows is thirty-something years of figuring out how to love yourself when the people who were supposed to show you how... couldn't. Taryn grew up with a mother deep in addiction and a father who was emotionally absent, and she spent most of her adult life not knowing how to be okay. Panic attacks in high school. A baby at 19. Weeks without electricity. A broken engagement that became her first real rock bottom. And a diagnosis of OCD and CPTSD that finally gave language to what she'd been living with all along.But this episode isn't about surviving. It's about what Taryn built on the other side of all of it. She runs a healing practice called The Happy Human. She's building a local community space called the Regulation Room, where anyone who's overwhelmed can walk in and just breathe.She got engaged in February 2026 to someone who waited six years for her. And she'll tell you herself - she still pulls over on the side of the road sometimes because a panic attack took the feeling out of her legs. She's still healing. She just knows now that healing doesn't mean it stops. It means you know how to stay.Taryn's anchor moment isn't one thing. It's a slow accumulation of choosing herself, over and over, until one day she named her business "The Happy Human" and realized: that's actually true.Trigger warnings: childhood neglect, parental substance abuse, abandonment, poverty, grief and loss, OCD, CPTSD, panic disorder, alcohol use, and family estrangement.

Episode 3 - Teresa: I'm a Damn Good MomThe step work she put down a hundred times. The words she finally let herself mean.When you first meet Teresa, you get warmth. You get someone who will talk to absolutely anyone, who FaceTimes her sister every single morning, who moves her body every day because she knows what happens when she doesn't. What you don't see is the years she spent just surviving - going to work, keeping the lights on, showing up in all the ways that looked right from the outside while quietly disappearing on the inside. She was a functioning addict for years while raising her girls. Nobody knew. She barely knew. The version of herself she was becoming in private was starting to show up in places she did not want it to, and the fear of rejection she had carried her entire life made it almost impossible to say that to anyone out loud.Near the end of our conversation, she told me she is a damn good mom. She said it like she had finally earned the right to believe it. She has.A gentle heads-up: This episode includes discussion of addiction and recovery, childhood family dynamics, parenting through an identity you are still figuring out, and the kind of guilt that does not leave just because you have changed. Resources are below. Please take care of yourself as you listen.Resources If anything in this episode touched something real for you, please reach out for support.988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - call or text 988 (US)Crisis Text Line - text HOME to 741741 (US)SAMHSA National Helpline (substance use, mental health) - 1-800-662-4357 (US)Narcotics Anonymous meeting finder - na.org (international)SMART Recovery (science-based alternative to 12-step, online meetings worldwide) - smartrecovery.orgPsychology Today therapist finder - psychologytoday.com (US and international listings)If you're outside the US - findahelpline.com connects you to crisis support in more than 200 countries. Befrienders Worldwide offers free emotional support at befrienders.org.If you don't feel ready to call anyone, even telling one safe person you're struggling counts.If this episode stayed with you Please follow, rate, and share. One text to one person is the single biggest thing you can do for a show this size, and it might be exactly what someone in your life needs today. Tag us on socials @anchormomentspod. If you have a story you think belongs here, reach out at [email protected]. I'm Krista Patrick. This is Anchor Moments. You are already part of someone's story. Carry that with kindness.

Episode 2 - Rohmel: Money is Just PaperThe stories of what happened to us, and who we became because of it.When Rohmel was fourteen, his mother died of cancer three months after her diagnosis. A week after that, the family friends who'd taken them in said it was time to go. He and his father - a once-celebrated chef who had simply shut down - ended up on a street with the highest murder rate in the country. Eight months. No car, no shelter, no plan. The only white kid on a block where Crips, Bloods, and the Mexican Mafia all wanted him gone. He had a knife fight his first full day.He's sixty-something now, starting a company named after his autistic stepson, training young entrepreneurs in honor of a friend's little boy who died running a lemonade stand. He says he doesn't feel fear. He also can't fully forgive himself for the divorce that cost him three years of his daughter's childhood. Both of those things are true at the same time.A gentle heads-up: This episode includes discussion of parental loss, childhood homelessness, gang violence and near-death experiences, and a parent's grief over time missed with their child. Faith is also woven throughout - as it was for Rohmel, then and now. Resources are below. Please take care of yourself as you listen.On faith in this episodeRohmel's faith isn't peripheral to his story - it's the lens he uses to look at everything in it. He names God directly and often. If that's not your language, his story still belongs to you. This show holds every guest's experience as their own, not as a prescription for anyone else. What I keep coming back to isn't the theology - it's the fact that a boy who should have died every day for eight months came home carrying both a fearlessness most of us will never know and a regret he still won't release. Both shaped who he is. And - not but - he's still becoming.ResourcesIf anything in this episode touched something real for you, please reach out for support.988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline - call or text 988Crisis Text Line - text HOME to 741741Psychology Today therapist finder - psychologytoday.comNational Homeless Shelter Directory - homelessshelterdirectory.orgSAMHSA National Helpline (grief, mental health, substance use) - 1-800-662-4357If you don't feel ready to call anyone, even telling one safe person you're struggling counts.If this episode stayed with youPlease follow, rate, and share. One text to one person is the single biggest thing you can do for a show this size, and it might be exactly what someone in your life needs today. Tag us on socials @anchormomentspod.If you have a story you think belongs here, reach out at [email protected]'m Krista Patrick. This is Anchor Moments.You are already part of someone's story. Carry that with kindness.