Gifted Adults and High-Functioning Depression: Not Waving but Drowning (audio essay)

In this episode I sit down with Joey Remenyi, a vestibular audiologist, neuroplasticity therapist, and author of Sensing Ground and Rock Steady. Joey trained clinically at one of Australia's top vestibular clinics before building her own practice helping people with chronic and persistent sensory symptoms using neuroplasticity and somatic approaches.We talk about what is actually happening in the nervous system when highly sensitive people experience sensory overwhelm. Joey explains the pathway between the amygdala, insula, and prefrontal cortex, and how strengthening that connection can help people move from fear-driven reactivity to accurate pattern recognition. She breaks down how sound enters and travels through the body, and why the danger response can get stuck in a loop that cognitive approaches alone struggle to resolve.I share some of my own experience with hyperacusis and misophonia, and Joey offers her clinical perspective on what is happening in the auditory system and why fear of sound can become self-reinforcing. We discuss what the body might be trying to communicate through persistent sensory symptoms, and how learning to listen to those signals rather than fighting them can be part of the healing process.The conversation also explores psychological erasure, the experience of growing up with your inner reality dismissed or invalidated, and the distinction Joey draws between erasure that comes from the outside world and self-erasure, where we internalise that dismissal and stop listening to ourselves. Joey shares parts of her own story and how she developed self-trust through difficult early experiences.We get into the question of neurodivergent labels and diagnosis, and whether they help or hinder the process of coming home to yourself. Joey has a perspective on this that not everyone will share, and I think hearing it is valuable precisely because it invites us to examine our own relationship to the labels we carry.If you live with chronic sensory symptoms, identify as highly sensitive or neurodivergent, or are simply curious about the relationship between your body and your sense of self, I hope this conversation will bring you new information or insights! Joey’s Website: https://www.seekingbalance.com.au/Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

For the full essay, please go to: https://eggshelltherapy.com/guilt/Persistent guilt is what many intellectually and emotionally intense adults carry without knowing what to call it. It is the feeling of being haunted by a moral failure you cannot quite identify, of replaying conversations and decisions long after they should have settled, of being judged by a voice inside you. This essay traces where that voice comes from and offers some ways of loosening its hold.Table of Contents:Feeling Extreme Guilt Without Knowing WhyMoral Sensitivity, Existential Excitability, Silent PerfectionismEarly Wounds That Foreshadow Extreme Guilt- How a Child’s Mind Works- The Extreme Guilt of Outgrowing Your Roots- Simply Being Different- Parentification and the Gold Child Syndrome- Abuse and Neglect- When Rage Becomes Extreme GuiltReality Check and Consolations- The Bigger Picture- The Arrow and the WorkCarrying It DifferentlyEggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views and they reserve the right to change their opinions. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers/Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

Full text: https://eggshelltherapy.com/high-functioning-depression/(Recorded with human voice)We can think of the mechanism of high functioning depression this way: At some point in your life, perhaps because the mental burden on you had become overwhelming, your psyche created an internal split to cope.In high functioning depression, what develops is a division between your "high functioning part" and your "depressed part." The high functioning part is what you use to cope with demands from the world. It is what you carry to work and use to run day-to-day tasks. It appears strong and capable; It maintains the facade of being the person others rely upon, the responsible one who never falters, the good friend who always has time, the loyal worker who exceeds expectations, the loving partner who always meets their loved one’s needs. Meanwhile, running parallel to this competent exterior is your vulnerable and depressed part. It feels like a younger, more raw, unedited version of you. It is the aspect of self that houses all the suffering, all the despair, all the unprocessed grief, and overwhelming pain. It holds memories of the painful experiences you have endured, and because of that, most of the time, you would rather not get in touch with it, so it has been split off and hidden, even from yourself, in the dark corner of your psyche.  Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2026/04/22/bodyshadow/I recently had the immense pleasure of sitting down with Jungian analyst Erica Lorentz to discuss her profound new work, Body is Shadow: Jung’s Method of Embodied Healing. Many intellectually gifted and highly sensitive individuals often live very much “in our heads.” This conversation was a vital reminder of what happens when we bridge that gap between our soaring intellects and our physical, felt experiences. We concluded with the idea that wholeness requires us to bring the shadow into the light of our physical awareness. It was a reminder that for the highly sensitive person, your greatest vulnerability—your deep receptivity—is also your greatest path to healing. I hope this conversation encourages you to treat your body not as a secondary thought to your mind, but as a wise partner in your journey toward integration.  About EricaErica Lorentz, M.Ed., L.P.C. is a Jungian Analyst (IAAP) with forty years of clinical experience. Since 1988, she has lectured and taught classes and workshops throughout the US and in Canada. She has been a training analyst since 1998 (presently at the C. G. Jung Institute of New England). She does individual, couples, and group work. While she has a deep and varied clinical background, she is deeply interested in what dreams, emotions, physical symptoms, and the inner imaginal realms are trying to teach her clients. She believes that anxiety, depression, anger, compulsion, illness, PTSD, etc. are all the body/psyche’s way of drawing our awareness to how we need to grow. Erica’s training and personal experience with verbal and non-verbal/embodied processes enable her to facilitate access to and understanding of the conversation between our conscious and unconscious, and between our body/mind/soul.Erica’s Website: https://ericalorentz.com/The book: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Shadow-Method-Embodied-Healing/dp/1800134061Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

Time Stamps and more: https://eggshelltherapy.com/podcast-blog/2026/03/29/nadja/Many of the people I work with are highly intelligent, analytically sharp, and deeply uncomfortable with the idea of play. The word itself can feel faintly embarrassing, associated with self-indulgence. Doing something with no measurable output, no goal, no justification, tends to produce anxiety more than relief.Nadja Rolli is a child psychotherapist and author who has spent her career working with play as a clinical and developmental tool. She walks through a five-stage model of play development, sensory, attachment, constructive, fantasy, and competitive, and what becomes clear is that many adults, particularly high-functioning ones, were pushed into achievement-oriented, competitive modes long before the earlier stages were properly lived through. The things that follow from that, needing to justify rest, struggling to lose without it feeling like something larger, being uncomfortable with open-ended unproductive time, are not personality quirks. They have a developmental logic.We also get into how play connects to trauma repair, what attachment play looks like across a lifetime, why some people genuinely do not know what they enjoy anymore and what that points to, the historical reasons play came to be seen as dangerous or morally suspect, and what gets lost developmentally when children are moved too quickly into screens and competitive gaming before the earlier stages are inhabited.The question underneath all of this is not really about whether you should play more. It is about whether you have ever genuinely felt entitled to exist outside of what you produce, and what it would mean to recover that.Nadja Rolli is a child and adolescent psychotherapist based in London and the author of Can We Play Now?Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

 In this episode, I speak with integrative psychotherapist Joseph Pawson to explore the territory of his forthcoming book, Dependency and Denial, which examines what happens when our need for others gets exiled from awareness, and what it costs us to keep it there.We talk about why dependency is not the pathological clinginess most people associate with the word, but something far more universal, the very basis of how we relate to each other and to the world. Joe describes how, when early experiences of not being met are too painful, we can build an identity around self-sufficiency that works so well it becomes its own kind of trap, particularly for people with strong intellects or high emotional capacity, the very people who are most able to survive without letting anyone in.We get into what denial actually looks like in someone who is functioning well on the surface, the kind of person who can talk about vulnerability with real fluency but cannot let anyone carry anything for them. Joe speaks honestly about writing the book partly as a letter to himself, and about his own difficulty with needing others.We also get into a fear I hear often: the conviction that if you allow yourself to need someone, you will need too much and overwhelm them entirely. Joe's book Dependency and Denial is published by Karnac Books. He can be found at jpsychotherapy.co.uk.About JoeJoe Pawson is an integrative psychotherapist registered with the UKCP, with over ten years of experience. His approach draws on developmental, humanistic, relational, and transpersonal traditions.https://www.jppsychotherapy.co.ukThe book: https://www.karnacbooks.com/Author.asp?AID=26116Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

Full Transcript: https://eggshelltherapy.com/irritation/You send articles they never read. You explain things they forget by tomorrow. You correct them even when you know it will start an argument. And you cannot stop, no matter how many times it backfires. This piece is about why.Read by voice artist Theresa.Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

Full Text: https://eggshelltherapy.com/existential-depression/Sometimes, you have a lingering, niggling sense that says you are capable of more than your life currently reflects.Perhaps you wake up with a quiet, persistent hum that whispers you are in the wrong city, the wrong company, the wrong room. You function well on the surface, meeting obligations and appearing competent, but underneath there is a constant awareness that you are hemorrhaging meaning, that something essential remains unlived and unexpressed. You watch peers announce promotions, publications, and prestigious positions, and feel a burning mixture of longing and shame at your own reaction. Does that mean you are somehow a horrible person to be feeling a bit envious?Existential depression in gifted adults can come from sensing the gap between your capacities and what your circumstances allow. It is the warfare between the part of you that wants to unfurl toward something larger and the part that has learned, through years of correction and dismissal, that your brightness is dangerous.We shame ourselves for wanting recognition, for caring about prestige, for imagining ourselves in contexts that finally match our internal magnitude. But what if the pain is not pathological? What if it is developmental, a sign of growth, and the seed of your next breakthrough? Psychoanalyst Heinz Kohut wrote about our human need for mirroring, for having our inner reality reflected back accurately by our environment. For those whose complexity, intensity, and particular cognitive capacities were rarely recognized or understood, the longing for congruence between internal and external reality is not shallow vanity. Continue reading to understand why your envy is a messenger, how the lack of mirroring created your current distress, and what it means to hold the tension between who you are and who you might become without collapsing into either denial or self-destruction. Note: Existential depression as discussed here is not a clinical diagnosis in the DSM and can coexist with clinical depression. Please do not hesitate to seek psychiatric input if clinical depression is part of your experience.Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

Full text: https://eggshelltherapy.com/toxic-relationship/If you have been in a toxic relationship—whether with a partner, a friend, or a parent—with someone who repeatedly hurts you, gaslights you, or manipulates you, you may be familiar with the feeling of being stuck in a loop: betrayal, apology, forgiveness, then betrayal again. They repeatedly violate your trust in ways that leave you questioning reality itself, but then soon beg for your forgiveness with such raw vulnerability that your heart cracks open and guilt floods in. You stay because you think about your shared history, all that you are truly grateful for, and how good it would be if they could change. Then, within days or weeks, they betray your trust again. The shock hits deeper each time because the apology felt so real. The loop just repeats, leaving you increasingly confused, depleted, and emptied from your core.Most of us are so trapped in cultural stories of unconditional loyalty and forgiveness that we fail to see what truly lies within a toxic relationship loop. Even when you intellectually know that walking away is the right answer, that rightfully protecting yourself is not selfish, every time you try to walk away, you may feel haunted by guilt. We have all been shaped by years of cultural programming that tells us we are abandoning someone if they say they need us and we walk away. We are told that someone who tries their best should be free from blame. We are taught that love means endless second chances, that loyalty requires enduring pain, and that good people never give up on others. But ultimately, relationships without boundaries cannot nourish either side, and love without limits may simply be detrimental to both.If you have ever felt trapped or is contemplating walking away from something that is not working anymore, I hope this piece can help shift something.Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...

Full text:  https://eggshelltherapy.com/gifted-trauma/On the Gifted Trauma of Feeling HumiliatedToday's article is on the gifted trauma of feeling chronically humiliated, even when no one is trying to humiliate you.You know the feeling in your body before your mind can name it. The heat rising when someone begins explaining something you already know. The sickening sensation in your stomach when an authority figure talks down to you, even when they are someone you perceive to have no real authority at all. The strange shame of watching someone else present your insight as their own. The way your body contracts to brace itself.You may find yourself re-experiencing this sense of humiliation constantly, triggered by what seem like the smallest slights. And there is almost no socially acceptable way to talk about it. It feels like a taboo to say you feel humiliated when no one intended to offend. You can hardly be honest about the daily abrasion of being too bright and fast for your environment.But the feeling is real. And it did not come from nowhere.It was planted when you were trapped in a body too small for your mind, in a world that moved too slowly, explained too much, and understood too little. You were told in all sorts of obvious and not so obvious ways that your penetrative insights were dangerous, your directness was hurtful, and when you excitedly shared what you passionately knew, you made others feel small.The first wound was the humiliation itself.The second wound, perhaps the deeper one, was learning to participate in your own shrinking.You learned to start sentences with "I might be wrong, but..." and "It is probably nothing..." You shave off the sharp edges from your speech, just in case they hurt anyone. You have become so skilled at reading micro-expressions, at catching that flash of discomfort across someone's face, that you retreat before you have even fully arrived. What started as survival became something else entirely: a muscular apology you carry in your body, a chronic self-betrayal you barely notice anymore.But... maybe the second half of your life is asking something different of you. It is asking whether you are willing to finally inhabit your brightness without apology, to stop protecting people from your full self, to risk the possibility that some will turn away when they see you unshrunk. Whether it is time to stop investing in a facade that costs you, as Mary Oliver put it, your one wild and precious life.In this fuller version of a previous essay, I go deeper into this particular wound of humiliation: where it comes from, how it follows you into adulthood, and what it might look like to finally stay in the room as yourself.https://eggshelltherapy.com/gifted-trauma/Eggshell Therapy and Coaching: eggshelltherapy.com/Imi Lo:  imiloimilo.comSister Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Zcl8ZUsu4AePugDoWtXcgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/eggshelltransformationsNewsletters: https://eepurl.com/bykHRzDisclaimers: https://www.eggshelltherapy.com/disclaimers  Trigger Warning: This episode may cover sensitive topics including but not limited to suicide, abuse, violence, severe mental illnesses, relationship challenges, sex, drugs, alcohol addiction, psychedelics, and the use of plant medicines. You are advised to refrain from watching or listening to the YouTube Channel or Podcast if you are likely to be offended or adversely impacted by any of these topics.Disclaimer: The content provided is for informational purposes only. Please do not consider any of the content to be clinical or professional advice. None of the content can substitute professional consultation, psychotherapy, diagnosis, or any mental health intervention.  Opinions and views expressed by the host and the guests are personal views, and they reserve the right to change their opinions. The opinions of the guest do not reflect the position of this channel or Imi. We also cannot guarantee that everything mentioned is factual and completely accurate. Any action you take based on the information in this episode is taken strictly at your own risk.  For a full disclaimer, please refer to: https://www.eggshelltherapy.c...