A Wild Child’s Buried Trauma

Life Changing

BBC

Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.6 • 735 Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Sarah Fairbairns spent much of her life feeling she was a bit different. Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, she gained the reputation of a wild child – from travelling to India, to dancing on stage with the cast of iconic counter-culture musical Hair. And yet all the while, she faced bouts of sadness and depression, and a confusion as to why that should be. Later in life, Sarah made a discovery about a medical childhood trauma that changed the way she viewed the world – and wrote in to Life Changing to share her experience.

Now in her seventies, Sarah speaks to Dr Sian Williams about how confronting her past has provided belated but extraordinary relief.

Producer: Tom Alban

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.
0:05.4	My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.
0:10.8	The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.
0:17.5	With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to
0:22.4	helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put
0:28.3	together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,
0:35.0	check out BBC Sounds.
0:41.3	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. You're about to listen to the latest series of Life-Changing.
0:45.3	Episodes will be released weekly wherever you get your podcasts,
0:49.3	but if you're in the UK, you can listen to the latest episodes first on BBC Sounds.
0:56.1	Hello and welcome to the series that hears from extraordinary people who've experienced a moment that
1:01.7	transforms everything. There's a phrase from a 19th century philosopher that goes,
1:08.1	life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.
1:13.9	Our guest today will recognise that, a listener who lived life with intensity, a teenager in the era of Woodstock and Hare and Joni Mitchell.
1:22.6	She took drugs, dropped out, then married, had children, got divorced.
1:27.3	But it was only then that Sarah Fairbairns
1:29.9	looked back and understood her life-changing event was deep in her past. Hello Sarah.
1:37.2	Hello, Sean. Before we go there, that event in your past, I want to know more about those
1:43.1	wild hippie years of Sarah.
1:45.4	You were 16 and you got to go to the States on an exchange trip, didn't you?
1:50.8	I do.
1:51.3	What was that like?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.