511 episodes
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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy 253 - Leaving a High-Control Religion: Breaking Free of the Shame That Binds You w/ Crystal Hamilton
10/21/2026 | 57 mins.She was told anyone who leaves the church becomes an addict and ends up miserable. She did become an addict. She isn’t miserable.
Crystal Hamilton is a counselor, 12 years sober, and the author of Drowning in Doctrine. She grew up the youngest of six in a Mormon home, where she learned early that her job was to stay quiet and not cause problems. This is a conversation about leaving a high-control religion, and why the shame it taught you keeps showing up long after you stop believing.
✨ What this episode explores
▪️ Shame in High-Control Religion - Why the blame always lands on you and never on the teachings, and why that’s the piece that takes the longest to unlearn.
▪️ Repeating Your Parents’ Patterns - How you can see exactly what your family got wrong and still catch yourself doing it, and why that realization is often where the real work begins.
▪️ Loving Someone in Active Addiction - How to hold firm boundaries with a family member who’s using while still supporting their recovery, and why you can feel hopeful and terrified at the same time.
▪️ When Your Partner Stops Growing - Why it’s so hard to tell whether the distance is your own avoidance or a real gap, and how far “live and let live” can actually go in a marriage.
▪️ Sibling Violence - Why violence between siblings so often gets dismissed as normal fighting, by parents and even by CPS, and what it teaches the kid on the receiving end about keeping the peace.
▪️ Lifespan Integration Therapy - How this offshoot of EMDR uses a timeline of memory cues to bring a younger you into the present, and why you can heal without retelling every detail of what happened.
🎧 If this episode resonated, you might also love:
▪️ Ep 103 | Religious Trauma & Abuse w/ Dr. Laura Anderson
▪️ Ep 217 | Good Kid, Quiet Wreckage: Relational Shame, the Silent Treatment & The War You Waged on Yourself w/ Maggie Nick
▪️ Ep 213 | The Truth About Estrangement: Boundaries, No Contact & Grief w/ Dr. Sharon Martin
-----------------------
⚓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
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy- ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community
6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection
👉 theshitshow.mn.co
🥩 Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a $35 off: https://www.omahasteaks.com
🗞️ 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
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy 252 - Toxic Guilt: Why You Feel Like You’re in Trouble When You Didn’t Do Anything Wrong
10/14/2026 | 48 mins.If you feel guilty for shit you didn’t even do, this one’s for you.
Toxic guilt isn’t feedback on what you did. It’s a verdict on who you are, and you can’t apologize your way out of a verdict. And today we’re unpacking all the ways it shows up in your life, the childhood experiences that wired it into you, and how to actually heal it through Internal Family Systems (IFS) and polyvagal theory.
✨ What this episode explores
▪️ Six Fears Behind Toxic Guilt - What each one sounds like in your head, from “someone’s going to be mad at me” to “it’s all going to go to shit,” and the behavior each one drives you toward.
▪️ The Inner Critic and Shame Cycle - How your inner critic, a young shame part, and your escaping parts keep each other going, and why you can’t break the cycle by silencing just one of them.
▪️ Shame as a Survival Response - Why slumping, looking away, and going quiet made you less of a target as a kid, and why your body still does it when you’re not in danger.
▪️ Guilt Over Rest and Pleasure - Why toxic guilt doesn’t need anyone else in the room, and how it makes resting, buying something nice, or having a bad day feel like something you’re getting away with.
▪️ Polyvagal Tools for Toxic Guilt - How naming the state instead of the story, doing the physical opposite of collapse, and reaching out for co-regulation start to tell your body something new.
🎧 If this episode resonated, you might also love:
▪️ Ep 190 | The Purpose of Our Pain: IFS Therapy to Heal Complex Trauma w/ Tammy Sollenberger
▪️ Ep 241 | Inside an Emotional Flashback: Recognizing One, Surviving One & What's Underneath
▪️ Ep 167 | Gaslighting, Imposter Syndrome & Emotional Attunement w/ Amelia Kelley
-----------------------
⚓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
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy- ⚓JOIN THE SHITSHOW — The Adult Child Healing Community
6 weekly Zoom support groups · Discussion boards · Peer connection
👉 theshitshow.mn.co
🥩 Check out Omaha Steaks and use my code BEEF for a $35 off: https://www.omahasteaks.com
🗞️ 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
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
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About Adult Child
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.
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