Episode 31

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Published on:

11th Nov 2025

Disaster Diaries: Birthday Feels, Caregiver Stress, and Ghosty Gremlins

It’s Sacha’s birthday, and the day lands heavy. She starts with a double-dose Miracle Morning focused on mental health, shares her own history with anxiety and panic disorder, and reflects on the hard reality of caregiving when a loved one insists they “don’t deserve care.” There’s honest talk about boundaries, compassion, and what “helpful” really means.

On the lighter—but still weird—side: mischievous house “spirits” keep poking at her tech (and the cat), because of course they do. Between editing sessions, a canceled meeting, and thoughtful birthday check-ins from friends and family, Sacha steadies herself, recommits to posting Life in the Bari Lane tomorrow, and invites bariatric patients—and fellow high functioners—to share their stories.

Mentioned today:

  • Miracle Morning (mental-health themed)
  • Anxiety & panic tools, medication that helps the anxiety (and therefore the panic)
  • Caregiver realities with Mom; upcoming medical appointments
  • Tech oddities and house “spirits” doing the most
  • Call for guests: bariatric journeys, or high-functioning lives that feel like a disaster behind the scenes

Support & connect:

🕯️ Shop Sacha’s Scentsy: sachasmells.com

💸 Tip jar: venmo.com/sachasmells

📧 Pitch your story (best way): see “Contact” in the show notes

🧭 Key Takeaways

  • Managing anxiety can prevent full-blown panic; tools + meds can work together.
  • “I don’t deserve care” is data—painful, but clarifying—for caregivers.
  • Boundaries protect everyone, including the helper.
  • Small wins (editing, outreach, birthday texts) still count on heavy days.
  • Your story matters; sharing it helps others feel less alone.

⚠️ Content Note:

Candid discussion of mental health (anxiety, panic disorder), caregiver stress, depressive symptoms in a loved one, and light references to spiritual/energetic experiences at home. Supportive, non-graphic, reflective tone.

✨ Connect with The High-Functioning Disaster:

Keywords

Disaster Diaries, The High-Functioning Disaster, Sacha Holder, Miracle Morning, anxiety, panic disorder, caregiver stress, depression, mental health tools, boundaries, self-regulation, nervous system, editing day, spiritual experiences, haunted house, tech glitches, bariatric surgery stories, Life in the Bari Lane, guest call, storytelling, authenticity, resilience, birthday reflection

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About the Podcast

The High-Functioning Disaster
High-functioning on the outside. Hot mess on the inside.
You’ve got the color-coded calendar, the competent job persona, the “I’m fine!” mask down to an art—and a mental load heavy enough to throw out your back. Meanwhile, life? That's a hot mess express—total chaos with zero chill and a full tank of emotional baggage. And what makes it even worse? Nearly no one’s talking about it.

Welcome to The High-Functioning Disaster, a podcast for people who are doing their best to hold it together while navigating burnout, grief, trauma, anxiety, caretaking duties, family drama, body image issues, and a to-do list that never quits.

Host Sacha Holder isn’t the disaster (neither are you!)—life is. And this show is about making space for that truth and giving ourselves permission to say it out loud. Every week, Sacha explores what it means to be deeply human in a world that keeps demanding more. Sometimes she’s flying solo, sometimes she brings along guests and friends—but the vibe is always real, raw, unfiltered, and grounded in radical self-acceptance and permission to be human.

We talk boundaries. Body image. Mental health. Emotional labor. The moments where everything feels like too much—and the ones where we catch our breath and keep going.

This isn’t a self-help podcast. It’s a self-permission podcast.
Permission to be exhausted.
To not have it together.
To be honest about what’s hard—without needing to package it as a “lesson.”

Because you don’t need fixing.
You need space to fall apart—and still be seen.
Because some of us are just trying to make it through the day.
And here? That’s more than enough.
New episodes every Monday. Come as you are. Seriously.
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About your host

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Sacha Holder

Sacha Holder is a project manager, podcast host, and bariatric patient who’s not here to pretend it’s all perfect. With over a decade of professional experience and a whole lot of lived experience, she creates podcasts that tell the truth about what it means to live, heal, and grow — through chaos, and curveballs, while keeping it together (mostly).

She’s the voice behind Life in the Bari Lane, a bite-sized bariatric podcast for real people navigating post-op life, and The High-Functioning Disaster, a show about showing up even when everything feels like too much. Through humor, honesty, and zero judgment, Sacha builds community through conversation — because no one should have to figure it out alone.