The Overwhelmed Brain is here to help you avoid dysfunction, handle toxic situations with grace and ease, show up authentically, and honor yourself with confidence.
Latest articles and episodes
What did you sign up for in the relationship?
When you sign up for a relationship, you sign up for who they are now. But are you signing up for who you hope they’ll be as well?
Are there expectations that should be met when it comes to a relationship? And if they aren’t met, do you have every right to demand they be met, “or else?”
Sometimes we need to revisit the contract we signed getting into a relationship and what it means for us if who we thought they were isn’t really who they are.
Carrying around the burden of someone else’s secret
What do you do when someone you care about tells you a secret that affects other people you care about? Do you follow your heart or your values? Does your moral compass activate and make you express the secret to those who should know?
A dilemma like this seems like it has no real good answer. But I’ll share what I went through and how I handled it.
Am I overreacting or are they just a jerk? And the woman who is the last to know about the family secret
Are you just too sensitive or is the other person really being a jerk? I read a follow-up email from an episode a few weeks back and answer a question about the difference between being triggered and someone’s bad behavior.
In segment two, I get serious and talk about child sexual abuse and what might happen when the family secret is found out.
People can change but what about when they don’t or won’t?
Sometimes we’re stuck with someone that doesn’t have our best interest in mind. Not only that, they may even have a not-so-pleasant plan to make us miserable.
What do you do with the toxic person that doesn’t want to, or can’t change? Is there hope when you’re in what seems like a no-win situation?
I try to answer that question in today’s episode.
When your top values aren’t being met, the rest of it falls apart
When your top level values are being met in your relationships, the rest of it usually works out. When they aren’t, you suffer and the relationship often fails. Every relationship, whether it’s platonic, romantic, or family, contains components that make up what we value.
Trust contains confidence and honesty whereas distrust contains fear and stress. I talk about that and read a few emails making for a variety show today.
When loved ones reject your reality and replace it with their own
Your mental health is too important to let those in denial ignore your suffering and invalidate your experience. The solution to someone’s ignorance could be to put the harsh truth in their face.
Or it could be to just accept that some people will always be blissfully unaware or in full denial. Acceptance that you can’t get through to everyone might be the one reality you can rely on.