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Adult Child

The Truth About Codependency: Why It’s Not Empathy, It’s Survival w/ Dr. Sarah Michaud

Adult Child

Andrea

Relationships, Health & Fitness, Education, Society & Culture, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.91.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You think you’re being helpful. Supportive. Loyal. But what if you’re actually just terrified of being abandoned? Codependency isn’t about caring too much — it’s about losing yourself to survive.

Dr. Sarah Michaud is a psychologist and author of Co-Crazy. Despite years of sobriety and a successful therapy practice, Sarah found herself trapped in a toxic relationship in recovery — a painful experience that finally forced her to confront the deep, unhealed trauma she didn’t even realize was still running the show.

🔑 Key Takeaways:

  • Codependency isn’t selflessness — it’s a survival response wired by emotional neglect, fear, and unresolved trauma
  • The myth of being “fine”: how high-functioning codependents stay sober, help others, and still avoid their deepest pain
  • Why we mistake fear-based caretaking for empathy — and how to finally tell the difference
  • The grief of healing: letting go of relationships that only worked when we didn’t express needs or take up space
  • What real recovery from codependency looks like — beyond insight, beyond sobriety, and deep into the body


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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

All right, shit show ladies, have you ever had those days where everything just feels so much

0:04.0

damn harder than normal and you can't figure out why? I already know the answer to that question is yes,

0:09.2

and boy, have I definitely had more than my fair share of those days and totally get just how

0:14.8

frustrating this can be. But recently, I've learned that sometimes it's not just stress,

0:19.9

lack of sleep, a dysregulated

0:21.3

nervous system.

0:22.3

It could also be my hormones at play.

0:24.1

And that is where Happy Mammoth comes in.

0:27.6

They offer a free two-minute quiz that can help you uncover the root cause of your hormonal

0:32.7

symptoms.

0:33.5

It's super easy.

0:34.7

Any shit show can do it.

0:35.7

Just answer a few questions about what you've been going through and where you're at in life. After taking this quiz, you'll get personalized recommendations to help balance your hormones and start feeling better. So I took this hormone quiz myself. The quiz suggested that my body may be overloaded with estrogen, which is affecting me in all kinds of ways. And one of the

0:56.3

recommendations that I got was to start taking hormone harmony, which helps with bloating,

1:00.3

chronic fatigue, weight gain, mood swings, and more. And after adding it to my routine,

1:05.1

I've definitely noticed a difference. Now, taking care of your hormones isn't just about

1:09.9

feeling good right now. It's also about

1:12.1

investing in our healing journey. And so by taking this quiz, you'll learn more about your hormone

1:16.7

balance, which will allow you to start making small intentional changes to support you on this

1:22.4

healing journey. Whether it's the hormone harmony or another Happy Mammoth product, the quiz helps

1:27.1

guide you

1:27.6

towards solutions that work specifically for you.

...

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