Andrea Ashley, a Bryn Mawr native and host of a popular podcast called “Adult Child” knows firsthand how unresolved childhood trauma can impact your life even as an adult, writes Julia Shipley for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Ashley, 34, is the daughter of an alcoholic and the granddaughter and great granddaughter of alcoholics. She started experimenting with drugs and alcohol herself in grade school, and by age 14, she was sent to the first of many rehab centers for drug and alcohol abuse.

Finally at age 19, she had her last drink and got high for the last time. She just celebrated her 15^th year of sobriety.

Her struggles didn’t end there though. Ashley found herself falling in love with men who struggled with alcoholism. The dysfunctional relationships would lead her into depression and anxiety.

Once she realized that her unresolved childhood traumas were causing her to recreate the same dynamics in her adult relationships, she decided to begin another 12-step program: Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families.

“The unresolved pain of my childhood was…the reason for all my present-day pain (including my broken man picker and dysfunction in relationships,” she said in an episode of her podcast.

During the pandemic she decided she wanted to start a podcast that takes “a deep dive into the impact of growing up in a dysfunctional family.”

Read more about Andrea Ashley and her podcast “Adult Child” in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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