Healing at the Root

18. Why You Feel Like You’re “Regressing” Around Family (Holiday Triggers, Nervous System Science, & Eldest Daughter Wounds)


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If returning home for the holidays makes you feel like all your healing evaporates the second you walk through the door- this episode will make your whole nervous system exhale.


Today we’re breaking down why your body pulls you back into old patterns around family, especially if you’re the eldest daughter, a recovering people-pleaser, or grew up in a home where emotional volatility, silence, comparison, or pressure was the norm.


Inside, we cover:

  • Why holiday visits activate stored childhood survival patterns

  • How “regression” is actually your nervous system revisiting its origin story and not failure

  • Why triggers around weight, career, expectations, and tone-of-voice hit so hard

  • How parentification rewires your stress response and identity

  • Why your body shuts down logic and flips into amygdala mode around family

  • How to stop internalizing comments, criticism, and subtle emotional cues

  • Why sensitivity isn’t weakness and how it’s information your body learned to read for safety

  • How to honor your growth without abandoning the younger version of you


This is a mindset-heavy, nervous-system-informed episode that explains the actual psychology behind your irritation, shutdowns, defensiveness, people-pleasing, over-functioning, and emotional fatigue during the holidays.


If you’re a woman who grew up holding the emotional weight of your household, this episode will feel like someone finally put language to your entire internal world.


Work with me inside Regulate & Release (8-month nervous system healing program). First steps here


Connect with me:

Instagram: @dainwellness

TikTok: @dainwellness

Website: dainwellness.com

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Healing at the RootBy DAIN Wellness