Why I'm Taking a Summer Break: Burnout, ADHD, Grief & Healing in Midlife l EP 48

What happens when you've spent months helping everyone else heal... but realise you've forgotten to heal yourself?

In this deeply personal solo episode, I'm sharing why the podcast will be taking a short summer pause, why you'll hear replay episodes over the next six weeks, and what has been happening behind the scenes in my own life.

From my son's emergency surgery and navigating single motherhood, to receiving my ADHD diagnosis, being referred for an autism assessment, processing the end of a 25-year relationship, and recognising that I've reached burnout—this episode is an honest conversation about choosing rest before breaking completely.

If you've ever felt guilty for slowing down, struggled with people not understanding your neurodivergence, or found yourself constantly pushing through exhaustion, I hope this episode reminds you that healing isn't something we teach—it's something we have to give ourselves permission to live.

This isn't goodbye. It's simply a pause before Season 4 returns with incredible conversations, practical tools, and inspiring stories to support your own midlife awakening.

In this episode we discuss:

•  Why the podcast is replaying episodes over the summer 
•  Recognising the signs of burnout 
•  Receiving an ADHD diagnosis in adulthood 
•  Being referred for an autism assessment 
•  Navigating single motherhood and emotional overwhelm 
•  Healing after the end of a 25-year relationship 
•  Why rest is productive 
•  Creating a more sustainable life and business 
•  What to expect when Season 4 launches 

If this episode resonated with you...

Please follow the podcast, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs permission to slow down.

You can also stay connected throughout the summer:

•  Subscribe on Substack 
•  Join our Facebook community 
•  Follow on Instagram and TikTok 

Season 4 returns 3 September at 5:00 a.m. (UK time) with brand-new conversations, expert guests, and practical tools to help you navigate your own midlife awakening.

Transcript

The Midlife Awakening (00:00)
Hey guys, this is the Midlife Awakening Podcast with Odelia, and my name is Odelia and I'm your host. Now, if you're new to the show, welcome. I'm so glad that you've joined us. And if you are regular, welcome for coming back. Now, I just wanted to come on and explain a little bit about what's going to be happening over the next couple of weeks with the podcast so that you're not sitting there wondering what the heck is going on.

In the UK, we've just had all of the schools break up for the school holidays, and that's gonna be for the next six weeks. six weeks of juggling work with full time work, with childcare, with side hustle, which effectively this is my side hustle. and so that can be a lot to take on, especially as a single mother. And in the lead up to the school holidays, I have really started to feel worn down.

Now I've been working on this podcast relentlessly since January this year. Every day, most nights working till one in the morning because I've I've loved it so much and I've had such amazing guests on the show. And honestly, it's this is just my passion. But I have pushed myself really hard and I'm starting to feel it. And so I've decided that over the summer break I will be taking a short break.

But that doesn't mean that I won't be posting episodes. I will still be posting episodes. They will just be replays. and hopefully there are episodes that you haven't heard yet because there were maybe earlier episodes or an episode that you missed. or maybe it is an episode that you've heard and there's a reason you needed to hear it again, or you take something new away from the conversation that you didn't hear in the first the first instance when you when you listened to the episode.

So I hope that's okay. I just wanted to come on and explain explain that so that you understand why. Maybe it seems a little out of date, whatever we're talking about, the links or whatever, because I'm literally just going to be reposting conversations that I've already recorded and already released. and these are great conversations. These are will be some of the most popular conversations that we've had on the show in the last year. I can't believe we've been doing this for more than a year now.

And I just really need to take some time out, spend some time with my kids. I've had a a pretty rough couple of weeks since probably the middle of May. just to give a bit of context. so it started off with my son needing to be rushed to hospital for an emergency appendectomy. and that's basically meaning to get his appendix out. He's he was only seven at the time, he's eight now.

And that was a scary experience. And that happened a week before we were about to go on holiday for the very first time. And so that was extremely draining, extremely exhausting. We went on holiday, it was my first holiday with them, alone, technically, and trying to manage two small kids on your own is pretty difficult for a whole week.

So we had the ependectomy the very next week. I had them on holiday by them by myself, just me the managing okay, my mom was around, but she's not really the helping hand kind. Bless her. She's really great in other ways, but not really in that way. so it was a lot of the workload was on me. Which is fine. I love my kids. We had a great time and very fortunate that we were able to go and have that experience.

And since then it's just been a couple of things after one after the other, I've had an ADHD diagnosis come through. I am combined ADHD, so that's inattentive and hyperactive, which I kind of knew and kind of suspected anyway. So that was just confirmation for me. But it's still been a bit of a struggle because there's certain family members that don't believe it. And so that can be very invalidating.

when you go through this experience, especially when you know you've you struggle, you know your daily struggle, and people just look at you and they don't believe it and they think you're making it up. So that's been pretty difficult. and the other part of that was in the session I was recommended to go for an autism assessment, which I was not expecting. granted my son is autistic, but I always suspected that came from his father's side.

Because I suspect some autism within him. And there's nothing wrong with it, but it was just unexpected. That's all. And it sort of threw me for a loop, to be honest. And it has sent me on this journey of re-looking at my childhood, re-looking I mean everything we've discussed on this podcast, ladies, like I'm I'm living it right now, like looking back on my childhood and sort of piecing together, like that that would make sense because of this, and that would make sense because of this. And just

having that validation that there is nothing wrong with me, I just think in a different way. And so now I'm on this journey of sort of trying to find the motivation because I'm pretty much in burnout at the moment. So trying to find the motion motivation to now tackle that. And because I don't want to continue living feeling like I'm, you know, going through peanut butter. What's the saying?

Like a snail through peanut butter. I don't I don't wanna I don't wanna feel like that. I wanna thrive, you know, I wanna enjoy my life and I don't want every day to be a struggle. And now I feel like I have the tools to sort of move in that direction. And so I'm gonna be exploring that over the next six weeks. I've outlined a little program that I wanna do for myself and if if it's successful, I of course I'll share it with you with you lovely ladies, if you wanna give it a go.

But yeah, it's been a really tough couple of weeks and I've felt really exhausted. I've had some things going on at work and it you know, coming back to that ADHD diagnosis, like it's just made me rethink everything, rethink the work that I do, how I do it, and it's just been it's been an experience. I also haven't been in the best of health. I've had a couple of health issues come up and so I really think that this is a time that I need to take for myself.

To focus on my wellbeing, to do what I need to do for myself and put systems in place. Because the way I've been working with the podcast has not been sustainable for me. and I'm really grateful for the work that I put in because it's the fruits of my labor are showing. but in order for me to grow this podcast and to make it, you know, more successful, so we reach more women and we can have more amazing guests on.

And we can help more women. I I definitely need to make sure that I do this in a sustainable way. And so that's what I'm going to be thinking about over the summer. How do I make this more sustainable so that I don't burn out? And yeah. And there was something else I want to talk about. Yeah, and I mean, you know, to be honest, I've I've yeah I was in a long term relationship that ended in August last year. I moved out with the kids, and it

I've been using the podcast as a way, as a distraction really, to not deal with that. And there's a lot of heartbreak there. there was some betrayal. So there's a lot of heartbreak there that I need to deal with that keeps coming up and I keep ignoring and I keep pushing down. And again, coming back to like these are all things we discuss in the in the episodes every single week. And so I think because I've been working so hard on the podcast and interviewing the guests, I haven't had the time to integrate what I've learned.

And so I'd really like some time over the summer to just, you know, process what I've gone through, deal with the grief of the relationship, and hopefully start to move forward from it because it has caused a lot of depression in my life. I hope you don't mind me being very vulnerable right now. But it has caused some depression in my life and it's it's quite intense. I've never felt this way before. And

You know, it's understandable it was a long term relationship where you've been together twenty five years. And that that's really hard, especially when you've got two kids together. It's not so easy to just cut yourself off from the person. so I needed I need to do a lot of healing in that respect. I need to give my child myself a chance to feel the heartbreak and to be heartbroken and to grieve. Not only the relationship, but the you know, the future I always thought we'd have together, the life I always thought we'd have together, which

you know, became very clear it was never ever gonna happen. And that's that's hard. That's a hard pill to swallow. And it's very hard to deal with. But I feel like doing the show, having met all the amazing people that I've met and the advice that we've gotten. I feel like I have the tools. I just need the time to use them and integrate and work on my own healing. So

Yeah, so that's what I'm going to be doing over the summer. I will I might still be on social media. I don't know. I'm still deciding whether I'm gonna do a complete ban on everything. I might do some writing on Substack. I I'm not entirely sure at this point. right now I just need to focus on myself. But there will still be episodes, just bearing in mind they are replays, and so I just want to come on and explain that and share a little bit of where I'm at at the moment. And yeah, so

Thank you so much for listening. I'm blown away by the response to the podcast over the last what were we, seven months. it's been absolutely amazing. It's been so rewarding. I'm so grateful for all the lovely guests that I've had on. They've been amazing. And, you know, there's a lot of them that I feel like could be lifelong friends because we've just connected in such an amazing and impactful way. And

I'm just so grateful. I'm so grateful for all of you for listening and tuning in every single week. Thank you so much. I wish you a summer that is not too chaotic and a summer that is restful in some way. And hopefully you'll be able to do some work on yourself too. I hope you enjoy the episodes that I have lined up for the next couple of weeks. And I'm really, really, really super excited about season four launching in September when I will be back.

We I have so many interviews that I've got planned. It is we're gonna have a lot of fun. Let's just say that. So I will be back September 3rd, 5 a.m. UK time. And I'm just so, so excited. We've got I've got a whole host of guests lined up that are gonna give us the best tools ever to be able to work through our midlife awakenings, some amazing stories. So

Please do come back after the summer or stay tuned during the summer if you can. Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow so that you know when I'm back on, and we can continue this journey together. Now you can also join my Facebook group, or you can follow me on Substack if you want to stay connected and or on the Instagram, TikTok, you know, you know where to go, all those socials. yeah, so thank you so much again. I love you all.

And have an amazing summer. Bye for now!