1183: Guest Anna Runkle: The Crappy Childhood Fairy Part 1
The Anxiety Coaches Podcast
Gina Ryan
4.6 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2025
⏱️ 26 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today's episode, Gina interviews Anna Runkle, the Crappy Childhood Fairy! Anna reveals much about her often traumatic life history and shares some of her most helpful tools for re-regulating the nervous system to find more peace and calm. Finding stability for our brain and nervous system now can have a substantial effect on our life both now and into the future. Listen in for Anna's interesting story and invaluable advice, find more peace and calm today!
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Chapters
0:26 Introduction to the Crappy Childhood Fairy
2:38 Anna's Journey Through Trauma
6:19 The Impact of PTSD
13:13 Techniques for Healing
19:05 Finding Peace Through Writing
22:42 Embracing the Hand We’re Dealt
Summary
Anna Runkle, known as the "crappy childhood fairy," joins the Anxiety Coaches Podcast to discuss her journey of healing from childhood trauma and her innovative approaches to overcoming the adverse effects of such experiences. With a significant online following, Anna has dedicated over three decades to helping those affected by childhood trauma, enabling them to lead happier, more fulfilling lives. Her forthcoming book, "Connectability: Heal the Hidden Ways You Isolate, Find Your People, and Feel, at Last, Like You Belong," focuses on overcoming feelings of disconnection—a common issue both among trauma survivors and those with normal childhoods. Anna highlights that many individuals crave connection and understanding but often feel isolated, leading to loneliness and strained relationships.
During the discussion, Anna shares her personal background of growing up in a commune with a mother plagued by addiction, which subjected her and her family to violence, poverty, and neglect. Despite these challenges, she managed to remain a high-functioning student throughout her childhood and early adulthood. However, a series of traumatic events in her 30s, including the death of her mother, a serious heartbreak, and a violent attack, left her with profound psychological effects, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). At that time, the concept of PTSD was not well understood outside military contexts, leaving Anna feeling isolated and struggling with her mental health amidst overwhelming shame and fear.
In her conversation with Gina Ryan, Anna explains the significant misdiagnosis of childhood trauma symptoms, revealing her struggle with emotional dysregulation and her eventual journey to recovery. After initially finding therapy unhelpful, Anna serendipitously discovered effective techniques for managing her anxiety and depression through support from a friend who had also endured severe life struggles. These techniques, which included writing down her anxious and angry thoughts and feelings—effectively releasing them—and practicing meditation, became transformative tools for her.
#CPTSD, #ComplexPTSD, #ChildhoodTrauma, #TraumaHealing, #Dysregulation, #NeurologicalDysregulation, #EmotionalRegulation, #Connectability, #Disconnection, #Isolation, #AnnaRunkle, #CrappyChildhoodFairy, #AnxietyCoachesPodcast, #DailyPractice, #Reregulated, #ReRegulation, #TraumaRecovery, #HealingTechniques, #SelfHelp, #LifeSkills, #SocialSkills, #Meditation, #AnxietyRelief, #MentalHealth, #SelfCare, #PersonalGrowth, #HealingJourney, #InnerPeace, #Belonging, #GinaRyan, #ACP
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Your first great love story is free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.co. |
| 0:05.5 | com. |
| 0:05.5 | U.K. |
| 0:06.2 | slash Wondery. |
| 0:07.4 | That's audible. |
| 0:08.1 | dot code. |
| 0:08.8 | UK slash Wondery. |
| 0:14.7 | Welcome to the Anxiety Coaches podcast, a relaxing and informative show where we explore anxiety, panic, and PTSD, sharing how you can overcome them for life. |
| 0:34.5 | Aloha. Welcome back to the Anxiety Coaches podcast. I'm your host and coach Gina Ryan, |
| 0:41.7 | and I am so happy to be with you again today as together we can consider the many ways |
| 0:49.2 | to bring your mind and body back to its natural peace and calm. |
| 0:55.0 | Aloha, everyone. I am so excited to talk to you today because my guest today is Anna |
| 1:01.9 | Runkel. She's widely known as the crappy childhood fairy who has built a community of more |
| 1:08.5 | than a million followers across platforms, including over 922,000 |
| 1:14.7 | YouTube subscribers, and more than 78 million views. For the past three decades, she's been |
| 1:22.2 | helping people heal the lasting effects of childhood trauma so they can live happier, freer, and more fulfilling |
| 1:30.7 | lives. A survivor of childhood trauma herself, Anna teaches the very techniques that saved her own life, |
| 1:39.5 | methods that now bring powerful results to countless others. |
| 1:50.4 | Through her work, Anna has observed that one of the most common and overlooked effects of childhood trauma is a persistent sense of disconnection from others. |
| 1:55.7 | This challenge isn't limited to trauma survivors. |
| 1:59.4 | Many people, even those with relatively normal childhoods, |
| 2:04.0 | find that making friends joining groups or mending everyday conflicts can feel daunting, |
... |
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