Practical Solutions for PTSD | Anxiety Symptoms, Seasonal Depression, Isolation, Stress, Guilt, Boundaries, Loneliness

Do you struggle with anxiety symptoms, burnout, emotional exhaustion, people-pleasing, or guilt after setting boundaries?

In this episode of Practical Solutions for PTSD, Lori Owens shares practical tools to help you stop over-explaining, manage the emotional aftermath of saying no, and stay grounded when guilt, fear, or second-guessing try to pull you back into old patterns.

If you live with chronic stress, trauma, PTSD, depression, seasonal depression, isolation, avoidance behaviors, or relationship difficulties, boundaries can feel emotionally overwhelming. Many people replay conversations for hours, worry they upset someone, or feel responsible for managing everyone else’s emotions.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

You’ll also learn why guilt doesn’t always mean you did something wrong. Sometimes it means you’re making healthier choices for your mental health, relationships, and nervous system.

This episode is especially helpful for anyone struggling with:

Remember:

✨ From automatic yes… to intentional choice.

LINKS: 

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

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If you’ve been feeling emotionally exhausted, burned out, isolated, unmotivated, or like there’s “no flavor in life,” this episode explores how zest and enthusiasm can support healing from PTSD, anxiety, depression, and seasonal depression without pressure or forced positivity.

We discuss how trauma, chronic stress, hypervigilance, avoidance coping, guilt, loneliness, emotional shutdown, and nervous system overwhelm can disconnect people from joy, motivation, and engagement with life. You’ll learn how small moments of curiosity, connection, and participation can help regulate the nervous system, reduce anxiety symptoms, support emotional healing, and gently rebuild energy after trauma, caregiving stress, burnout, or prolonged overwhelm.

This episode also explores micro-engagements, boundaries and values, nervous system regulation, seasonal affective disorder (Spring SAD), isolation, difficulty focusing, relationship difficulties, and practical coping strategies rooted in Positive Psychology, faith-integrated healing, and natural mental health support.

If you’ve been functioning but barely, emotionally shutting down, doom scrolling to escape stress, or wondering why your old coping tools aren’t working anymore, this conversation offers practical solutions for PTSD, depression, anxiety, and stress recovery through small, meaningful steps toward re-engaging with life.

LINKS: 

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Get in touch! [email protected]

Take the free, Values in Action Survey and discover your Signature Character Strengths:

SERIES LINKS: 

Links to previous episodes

Previous episodes in this series:

57. Not Broken. Equipped: How to Stop Overthinking and Start Healing from Anxiety Symptoms and PTSD

61. Not Broken. Equipped: Understanding Your Mind to Ease Anxiety Symptoms, PTSD, and Seasonal Depression. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/61-not-broken-equipped-understanding-your-mind-to-ease/id1835492018?i=1000754826859

65. Not Broken. Equipped: When Anxiety Symptoms Says “This Will Never End” | Perspective for Emotional Overwhelm. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/65-not-broken-equipped-when-anxiety-symptoms-says-this/id1835492018?i=1000757473946

69. Not Broken. Equipped: The Bravery You Need in Chronic Stress, Anxiety Symptoms, and Seasonal Depression https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/69-not-broken-equipped-the-bravery-you-need-in/id1835492018?i=1000760440217

73. Not Broken. Equipped: Reframing Perseverance for Chronic Stress, Anxiety Symptoms, and Guilt https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/73-not-broken-equipped-reframing-perseverance-for-chronic/id1835492018?i=1000763230893

77. Not Broken. Equipped: How Honesty Helps Heal Anxiety Symptoms, Seasonal Depression, Burnout, and Emotional Exhaustion. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/77-not-broken-equipped-how-honesty-helps-heal-anxiety/id1835492018?i=1000766601388

Feeling exhausted, burned out, and stuck saying yes when you really don’t have the capacity? In this episode, we explore how PTSD, chronic stress, anxiety symptoms, seasonal depression, people pleasing, and nervous system conditioning can make automatic yeses feel safer than honest boundaries.

If you’re struggling with emotional exhaustion, guilt, isolation, avoidance, trouble focusing, relationship difficulties, or feeling “functioning but barely,” this episode will help you understand why your system reacts so quickly under pressure and how to begin changing the pattern.

Through Positive Psychology, nervous system regulation, and practical coping strategies, you’ll learn one simple skill that can start shifting everything: the pause. One breath. One moment of space between the ask and your answer. This can move you from the automatic yes to an intentional choice.

Because healing doesn’t start with becoming a different person overnight.

LINKS

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Get in touch! [email protected]

KEYWORDS

In this episode of Practical Solutions for PTSD, I share a moment from a walk by the river after recent flooding. The sunset over the water looked postcard perfect… until I looked down and saw the mud left behind on the grass. 🌅

That’s what comparison does. We compare our exhausted, overwhelmed real life to someone else’s highlight reel while never seeing the private pain, burnout, anxiety symptoms, trauma, depression, seasonal depression, relationship struggles, or emotional exhaustion they may be carrying beneath the surface.

On the other side, many of us minimize our own pain by thinking:

But pain is pain. Minimizing your struggle doesn’t heal it. It often deepens shame, isolation, avoidance, hopelessness, and the feeling of “functioning, but barely.”

In this episode, we talk about comparison, nervous system overwhelm, faith, healing, boundaries, and why God gives grace for the life you are walking through, not someone else’s. If you’ve been emotionally drained, burned out, struggling with anxiety symptoms, seasonal depression, PTSD, or feeling disconnected from yourself and your purpose, this conversation will meet you right where you are. 🌱

LINKS:

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Get in touch! [email protected]

KEYWORDS: 

In this powerful episode of Practical Solutions for PTSD, Lori Owens breaks down the hidden trauma response behind people-pleasing, overcommitting, burnout, resentment, and the inability to say no.

If you live with PTSD, anxiety symptoms, depression, seasonal depression, chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, or relationship difficulties, this episode will help you understand why boundaries can feel unsafe, guilt feels constant, and saying yes has become automatic.

You’ll learn how the fawn response wires the nervous system to seek safety through helping, fixing, overgiving, and avoiding conflict, often leading to overwhelm, isolation, avoidance coping, emotional shutdown, and feeling “functioning, but barely.”

This trauma-informed conversation blends nervous system regulation, Positive Psychology, faith-based healing, and practical coping strategies to help you recognize unhealthy patterns, rebuild self-trust, and begin creating healthier boundaries without shame.

You’re not broken.

LINKS: 

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Get in touch! [email protected]

KEYWORDS: 

If you’re living with PTSD, anxiety symptoms, depression, seasonal depression, burnout, emotional exhaustion, or chronic stress, honesty can feel complicated. Trauma often teaches us to suppress our needs, avoid conflict, over-function for others, or hide what we’re really feeling just to stay safe.

In this trauma-informed episode of Practical Solutions for PTSD, Lori Owens reframes honesty and authenticity as alignment and self-trust rather than self-criticism or perfectionism.

This episode explores how anxiety, isolation, guilt, loneliness, avoidance, and relationship difficulties can slowly disconnect us from ourselves, leaving us emotionally shutting down, functioning but barely, and unsure how to move forward. Through the lens of Positive Psychology, resilience, nervous system regulation, and faith-integrated healing, Lori shares practical coping strategies to help listeners recognize their feelings without judgment, communicate needs more clearly, build healthier boundaries, and rebuild trust in themselves one small step at a time.

If you’ve been struggling to control anxiety and depression, re-engage in life, reconnect with others, or simply feel joy and deep happiness again, this conversation offers compassionate insight and practical solutions to help you heal without shame or overwhelm.

LINKS: 

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Get in touch! [email protected]

Take the free, Values in Action Survey and discover your Signature Character Strengths:

Previous Episodes: 

Keywords: 

If you struggle with anxiety symptoms, burnout, people-pleasing, or feel overwhelmed by everyone else’s needs… this episode will challenge what you’ve been taught about boundaries.

Many of us have learned that being faithful means always saying yes. Always showing up. Always giving more. But that belief often leads to chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, isolation, loneliness, and deep guilt when we try to do something different.

In this episode, we walk through 7 powerful biblical examples of boundaries—including Jesus, Moses, Nehemiah, Esther, and the apostles—and what they actually modeled when it came to saying no.

You’ll learn:

Because boundaries aren’t unfaithful.

LINKS: 

Join our Facebook community: Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Get in touch! [email protected]

When you feel like you’re drowning in burnout, chronic stress, isolation, loneliness, anxiety symptoms, or seasonal depression after years of over-giving, it can feel almost wrong to even think about investing in yourself. Guilt shows up quietly and asks, “Is it too late for me?”

In this episode, Lori talks with Kathleen, published author and host of Novel Writing for Christians, about trauma, healing, and finding purpose after life has been reshaped by PTSD, caregiving overload, and long seasons of emotional survival. After childhood trauma, years of pushing it down, and later adopting four children with complex trauma needs, Kathleen found herself suddenly confronting her own old trauma patterns and stress responses she had lived with for years without realizing it. That journey led her into counseling, trauma recovery, and a new calling: writing fiction that helps others understand trauma in honest, human ways.

She also speaks to those over 50 who feel a loss of purpose after raising kids, homeschooling, or years of pouring into everyone else, now wondering if it’s “selfish” to start again. Her message is gentle but clear: your life is not over, and it is not too late to begin again. Trauma doesn’t follow one path, but healing can open space for felt safety, clarity, and a new sense of direction rooted in grace rather than guilt.

LINKS:

Kathleen's website: https://kathleenguireauthor.com/ 

Novel Writing for Christians with Kathleen Guire: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/novel-writing-for-christians-how-to-write-a-book/id1787164915 

OTHER LINKS: 

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Get in touch! [email protected]

Take the free, Values in Action Survey and discover your Signature Character Strengths:

If you struggle with anxiety symptoms, burnout, people-pleasing, or feel overwhelmed by everyone else’s needs… this episode is your starting point.

In this introduction to our boundaries series, we redefine what boundaries are—and what they’re not. When you’re living with chronic stress, seasonal depression, isolation, loneliness, and guilt, it’s easy to either over-give or shut down completely.

We explore the difference between walls and boundaries, why you may have learned to protect yourself by building walls, and how to begin creating boundaries as bridges—so you can have healthy, balanced relationships without losing yourself.

Because boundaries don’t push people away.

Next week, we’ll dive into why it feels so hard to say no—and what’s happening in your nervous system when you try.

LINKS

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Get in touch! [email protected]

If your to-do list feels endless and you’re stuck, avoiding, or emotionally shutting down—this episode meets you there.

We’re reframing perseverance through Positive Psychology and a trauma-informed lens. If you’re living with PTSD, anxiety symptoms, depression, or seasonal depression, you already know how to push through—but it may be driving chronic stress, burnout, isolation, loneliness, and guilt.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

If you feel burned out, unmoored, or disconnected, this will help you take small, manageable steps toward healing, re-engagement, and real relief.

Because perseverance isn’t about forcing yourself forward—it’s about moving with wisdom, compassion, and sustainable strength.

LINKS: 

Sign up for an Anxiety and Depression Breakthrough Coaching Session

Website: www.practicalsoluitionsforptsd.com

Become an Insider by signing up for the weekly newsletter: insider.grwebsite.com

Join our Facebook community: (1) Overcome Depression & Anxiety - Use Positive Psychology to Combat PTSD | Facebook

Get in touch! [email protected]

SERIES LINKS: 

Take the free, Values in Action Survey and discover your Signature Character Strengths: 24 Character Strengths List | VIA Institute

KEYWORDS