The Crappy Childhood Fairy Podcast with Anna Runkle
I’m Anna Runkle, also known as the Crappy Childhood Fairy, and I teach people to recognize and heal the symptoms of Childhood PTSD. Welcome to my podcast!I’m not a doctor or therapist; I know about childhood trauma because I lived it, and I discovered a radical approach to healing that focuses first on calming neurological dysregulation, which is common in people who grew up with abuse and neglect. In my podcasts, I teach about dysregulation – how to know if you have it, what it can do to your body, your thinking and your relationships, and what to do to master re-regulation. When I learned this, everything in my life got suddenly easier. I’ll also be teaching you to heal the life problems that so often develop after years of living dysregulated – feeling tired, isolated and unfocused, finding yourself always drawn to unavailable and inappropriate partners, and falling WAY short of your professional potential, for example. The thing about me is, traditional therapies never seemed to help me. When I found techniques that did work, my whole life changed. Only in the past few years has the trauma research caught up to explain why – why the techniques I use worked, why therapy didn’t, and why my healing journey was so unnecessarily long. I’ve been teaching what I learned for more than 20 years now. It started with friends who had noticed the quick and dramatic change in me, and gradually grew by word of mouth. In 2016, I had so many people seeking instruction that I made my first online video, and then an online course, and this is how Crappy Childhood Fairy was born. My techniques and principles are practical yet powerful – an approach anyone can use, whether or not you have access to professional help. In this podcast, I’ll be talking about the master of self-regulation, and teach the tough-love life-lessons that you may not have learned at home – like how to date so that stable love finds you, how to get ahead at work, and how to calm the negative hamster-wheel thoughts that block your ability to connect with other people. Today, almost half a million people follow my work and participate in my training and coaching programs. My mission is to change the paradigm of what’s possible for people like us, and to help you free yourself from the oppression of trauma wounds, and to become your full, happy and real self. I’m glad you’re here! Watch new videos on my YouTube channel every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and access my videos, courses and free tools at crappychildhoodfairy.com.
- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 34 minutes
- Episodes
- 495
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2025
"Waking Up" Out of Romantic Obsession: How to Heal
Limerence -- unrequited love that's obsessive and consuming -- can seize your mind and control your emotions. What happens when you "wake up" and realize you feel embarrassed about how your obsession…
You Long For A Great And Real Love Because You Are Meant to Have It
Your Childhood PTSD symptoms have likely created a lifetime of problems in relationships choosing unavailable people, clinging to bad relationships or avoiding intimacy altogether. But the reason you…
Narcissistic Abuse: These Characteristics Make You Vulnerable
When a partner manipulates and controls you, withholds love and demands fidelity -- these are signs of narcissistic abuse. In this episode, I respond to a letter from a woman struggling to finally cl…
CPTSD and The Aversion to Decent People Who Treat You Well
People who grew up in dysfunctional, neglectful families often find themselves attached to people who are LESS functional than themselves, and uncomfortable around people who are kind, decent, and li…
Emotional Intoxication vs Emotional Sobriety: How to Heal A Little Each Day
People who were abused and neglected as children sometimes struggle to stay emotionally "regulated." Part of healing is to learn to self-regulate; this is a skill that, in substance recovery programs…
How to Apologize Beautifully
You know how when people give you a bad apology it makes you feel worse? Here's how to apologize the good way, the way that actually makes things better.
Take my FREE Course or Quizzes: https://bit.…
CPTSD & The Toxic Love of Unavailable Partners: How to Get Free
When you were starved for love and attention as a child, it harmed you emotionally, psychologically, and neurologically, even if the wounds didn't show. Neglect can cause problems connecting with peo…
Childhood PTSD Makes It Hard to Discern Good Partners: Here Are Some Signs
Childhood PTSD can make all relationships seem frustrating and sometimes confusing, even when they're good. Is it your trauma symptoms, or is someone just not a good fit for you? In this episode, I r…
These CPTSD Treatments Don't Work. Here's What Does
When it comes to Complex PTSD, research has shown almost no definitive pattern of effectiveness associated with any particular approach to treatment. Thousands of practitioners and agencies claim tha…
Why I Quit Therapy
If I had it to do over again, I would have stopped going to therapy long before I did. Most commenters on this channel told me they felt the same way; a few were astonished and wanted to know more. I…
CPTSD Therapists - Here's What To Look For
So many people who endured abuse and neglect as children are STILL waiting to find real help for their trauma-related problems today. You hear people say “oh you should go to therapy --it totally cha…
LIMERENCE: To Heal Obsession, Heal Wounds of Neglect
People whose childhood emotional needs were neglected are often drawn into "limerent" relationships -- an infatuation or obsession with someone unavailable, uninterested, or unknown to you. This cons…
Magical Thinking Saved Your Childhood (But NOW It's Ruining Your Life)
As a child, you developed the ability to use "magical thinking" to cope with abuse and neglect, but NOW, as an adult, it just might be blocking you from ever escaping troubled relationships, finding …
LIMERENCE: Abandonment Wounds Cue Partners to Discard You
Any loss of a parent can leave an emotional wound on a child that affects them all their lives. How many times have you fallen for someone, only to find that you weren’t valued, your existence was a …
12 Common Symptoms of CPTSD from Childhood
You may have suspected that abuse and neglect in your childhood still affects you now, or that you developed Complex PTSD as a result of what happened. Here are 12 signs of CPTSD that you can compare…
Why Hurrying is a Major Trigger for People with Childhood PTSD
Hurrying is a huge trigger for CPTSD symptoms, amplifying dysregulation and all the other common side effects experienced by adults who grew up neglected or abused. Hurrying can increase anger and pa…
Trauma Causes Emotional Dysregulation: Here's How to Heal It
"You've got to learn to feel your feelings" is not always helpful advice for people who grew up with neglect and abuse. Emotional dysregulation is a common, normal, adult symptom of of complex PTSD t…
Accepting Crumbs in Relationships is a Survival Strategy from Childhood
Love is powerful: Even people whose parents exploited them still feel love, still long to be loved. Surviving abuse depended once on tolerating and fitting yourself to people who could not fully love…
These Dating Red Flags Mean STOP
People who were traumatized in the past can be blind to dating red flags -- or you see them but ignore them! Here are 12 signs that someone is either unavailable, not into you, or just plain BAD for …
12 Signs That Someone Could Be a Great Partner For You
You've heard of red flags, but what are the signs that someone might be a great partner? In this episode, I list what I call "green lights" - the signs that someone has what it takes for a good relat…