What happens when the thing you've been using to survive starts becoming the thing that's destroying you?

Joanne Kminsky knows what it means to keep functioning while everything underneath you is falling apart.

She lost her father young. She struggled with grief she didn't know how to process. She found ways to numb it. She kept working. Kept parenting. Kept moving.

From the outside, she was functioning.

Inside, something was very different.

Then one night, something happened with her daughter that forced Joanne to see what she could no longer look away from.

That moment changed the direction of her life.

In this conversation, Joanne and Michelle talk about grief, addiction, parenting, asking for help, and the identities we build around being the person who can handle everything.

They also go somewhere unexpected: into the classroom, the education system, and what happens when the work you once loved becomes a place where you can no longer recognize yourself.

Because sometimes the hardest part isn't knowing that something has to change.

It's admitting that you can't keep doing it this way.

This conversation is for anyone who's functioning on the outside while quietly knowing something has to give.

You don't have to know what comes next to know that this isn't working anymore.

If this conversation hit somewhere a little too close to home, don't just scroll past it join the Hot Mess Magic Community and keep the convo going.

Follow Hot Mess Magic wherever you listen to podcasts, and send this episode to the person who needs to hear it.

Because sometimes the conversation we need most is the one we keep avoiding.

Connect

Michelle - IG @michelleaburke

Joanne - FB @skypereadingtutor

This episode includes discussion of suicide, addiction, grief, and mental health struggles. If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction or mental health, please reach out to a qualified mental health or addiction professional or a local crisis/support service. You don't have to figure it out alone.