Why Am I Like This? The High-Functioning Trauma Edition

Why Am I Like This? The High-Functioning Trauma Edition

This Might Be a Trauma Response: High-Functioning Trauma

Healing Is My Hobby | This Might Be a Trauma Response Series

What if the most common sign of trauma isn't falling apart — it's having it all together?

In this installment of the This Might Be a Trauma Response series, Jessica breaks down high-functioning trauma: what it is, why it's so easy to miss, and the four ways it most commonly shows up in everyday life. This episode is for the person who keeps going, keeps producing, keeps holding it together — and quietly wonders why something still feels off.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

  1. What high-functioning trauma actually is (and why it's not a character flaw)
  2. The four most common high-functioning trauma responses: hyperproductivity, perfectionism, hyperindependence, and fawning
  3. Why each of these patterns started as a survival strategy — and why they're still running even when the danger is gone
  4. The fourth trauma response that doesn't get talked about enough: fawning, or "fight, flight, freeze, or please"
  5. A simple but powerful grounding practice called Values Grounding to bring you back to yourself

This week's healing tool — Values Grounding:

Find a quiet five minutes and sit with these three questions:

  1. Who am I when I'm not performing?
  2. What do I actually value — deeply, quietly, before the world told me who to be?
  3. Is what I'm doing right now aligned with those values, or am I running a pattern that belongs to the past?

Write down 3–5 words. Don't overthink it. Trust what comes first.

If you've been listening to this series and want to go deeper on identity — who you are beneath the trauma and anxiety — Jessica's other podcast, Chasing Brighter (co-hosted with her sister Kelly), is dedicating the entire month of May to Identity and Expectations. Find it at chasingbrighter.com or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Stay connected:

  1. 📬 Sign up for the newsletter + read the blog: healingismyhobby.com
  2. 📩 Send a message: Contact Jessica
  3. 📸 Instagram: @healingismyhobby
  4. 🎥 YouTube: @healingismyhobby
  5. 🖥️ Clinical practice: jessicacolarcolcsw.com | @jessicacolarcolcsw

high functioning trauma, trauma responses, hyperproductivity, perfectionism, hyperindependence, fawning, people pleasing, fight flight freeze fawn, values grounding, healing, what is high functioning trauma, signs of high functioning trauma, trauma that looks like success, why am I always productive, perfectionism as trauma response, people pleasing and trauma, fawning trauma response, how to stop people pleasing, hyperindependence healing, why I can't ask for help, mental health podcast, healing podcast, women's mental health, therapy insights, self-awareness, emotional healing, anxiety podcast, trauma recovery, This Might Be a Trauma Response, Healing Is My Hobby

Avsnitt(36)

Identity Grief: Losing a Version of Yourself

Identity Grief: Losing a Version of Yourself

In this final episode of the April grief series, Jessica explores identity grief — the grief that comes not from death, but from losing a version of yourself. Whether it's a milestone birthday, a care...

20 Apr 14min

Ambiguous Loss: When You're Grieving a Person Who's Still Alive

Ambiguous Loss: When You're Grieving a Person Who's Still Alive

We're three weeks into grief month, and this episode goes somewhere that doesn't get nearly enough airtime — grieving someone who is still alive. Whether you've had to create distance from a relations...

20 Apr 8min

The Grief Nobody Validates

The Grief Nobody Validates

Episode SummaryIn this week's This Might Be a Trauma Response segment, Jessica takes the conversation about grief a layer deeper — moving beyond last week's broad definition of loss into a specific an...

13 Apr 7min

Grief Doesn't Always Look Like Crying

Grief Doesn't Always Look Like Crying

In this month's opening episode, Jessica introduces April's theme: grief — and challenges the widely-held belief that grief only belongs to death. Drawing on clinical definitions and her own therapeut...

6 Apr 6min

What Is Trauma, Really? Big T, Little t, and Two Experiments to Try Today

What Is Trauma, Really? Big T, Little t, and Two Experiments to Try Today

Your nervous system isn't broken. It's doing exactly what it was designed to do.But when the danger has passed and the responses stay — the numbness, the sleeplessness, the reactions that feel way too...

23 Mars 20min

Master Your Nervous System: 4 Steps to Calm Mild Triggers

Master Your Nervous System: 4 Steps to Calm Mild Triggers

What if your triggers weren't signs of weakness, but proof your nervous system is working exactly as designed? In this Therapy Is My Cardio workout, Jessica walks you through a four-step real-time reg...

16 Mars 9min

Trauma Explained: Big T, Little t, and the Nervous System

Trauma Explained: Big T, Little t, and the Nervous System

What if trauma isn’t defined by the event — but by how your nervous system experienced it?In this episode of Healing Is My Hobby, Jessica Colarco, LCSW, breaks down one of the most misunderstood topic...

9 Mars 23min

Populärt inom Utbildning

historiepodden-se
rss-bara-en-till-om-missbruk-medberoende-2
det-skaver
nu-blir-det-historia
harrisons-dramatiska-historia
not-fanny-anymore
rss-viktmedicinpodden
johannes-hansen-podcast
allt-du-velat-veta
rss-foraldramotet-bring-lagercrantz
sektledare
roda-vita-rosen
i-vantan-pa-katastrofen
sa-in-i-sjalen
rss-max-tant-med-max-villman
rss-sjalsligt-avkladd
rikatillsammans-om-privatekonomi-rikedom-i-livet
sex-pa-riktigt-med-marika-smith
rss-relationsrevolutionen
rss-pa-insidan-med-bjorn-rudman