Ep 118: When Avoidance Stops Working with April Day Garcia | Rethinking Alcohol |

About this episode

Anna Donaghey and April Day Garcia discuss the impact of avoidance and the journey towards self-discovery and healing.

What happens when the strategies we rely on to avoid pain, achievement, busyness and constant momentum stop working? In this powerful conversation, Anna Donaghey is joined by April Day Garcia, author of The Room to Be Brave: Sometimes the way forward begins with going back , to explore how avoidance can hide in plain sight, especially for high-functioning people disguised as success. April shares how chasing achievement and belonging led her further from herself, with alcohol acting as a quiet form of escape. When a period of forced stillness changed everything, she began the deeper work of healing, returning to the “rooms” where old beliefs began. This episode offers a hopeful reframe: avoidance isn’t failure, it’s protection and real change starts not with becoming someone new, but with coming home to who you already are. Here are the Highlights: 00:00 Intro: Rethinking avoidance with April Day Garcia 00:45 The art of avoidance and the illusion of achievement 02:27 April’s memoir mapping unravelling through literal rooms 05:11 Running from the pain, and chasing achievement 09:33 How avoidance can sometimes look like high performance 11:31 No room for vulnerability, linking…

People in this episode

Host: Anna Donaghey

Guest: April Day Garcia

Topics covered

• avoidance
• alcohol
• healing
• achievement
• vulnerability
• self-discovery

Keywords

• avoidance
• alcohol
• achievement
• healing
• vulnerability
• self-discovery
• mental health

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: The Room to Be Brave

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