Episode 1

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Published on:

1st Sep 2025

Welcome to the Disaster

In the very first episode of The High-Functioning Disaster, host Sacha Holder pulls back the curtain on what it really means to look “high-functioning” on the outside while juggling chaos on the inside.

On paper, Sacha is a project manager with a wall of certifications, a color-coded calendar, and years of professional success. Off paper, she’s a wife, daughter, caregiver, bariatric patient, and survivor of mental, emotional, and sexual abuse who lives with anxiety, panic attacks, and the never-ending mental load that so many of us carry.

This isn’t a self-help podcast — it’s a self-permission podcast. Permission to be exhausted. Permission to let the to-do list go. Permission to admit you don’t have it all together.

In this short, solo introduction, Sacha shares:

  • Who she really is beyond her LinkedIn bio
  • Why she started this podcast after losing a job she loved
  • How she navigates overwhelm with her “glass, plastic, and rubber balls” framework
  • What you can expect from future episodes with guests who bring raw, unfiltered stories about burnout, grief, caretaking, trauma, and resilience

If you’ve ever smiled through anything while falling apart inside, this space is for you. Because here, life is the disaster, not necessarily you.

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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.