Anxiety Ease | High Functioning Anxiety, Entrepreneur, Business Leaders, Neuroscience, Anxiety, Psychology of Mind, Resilience · Lisa L. Hartwell, PsyD,RN

High Functioning Anxiety: A Story of Strength with Heather Gaffney

·31 min·2 clips

Heather says her husband left, she lost her home, and her children lost their father.

1. Anxiety Ease features Heather Gaffney talking with Dr. Lisa Hartwell about high functioning anxiety, divorce, cancer, and recovery. 2. Dr. Lisa Hartwell is a Hawaii licensed clinical psychologist, anxiety coach, and retreat facilitator, and Heather Gaffney is a new podcaster, new YouTuber, and virtual assistant. 3. The episode asks how a single mother keeps functioning when fear, trauma, and medical emergencies all land at once. 4. Heather says her day job as a virtual assistant has included social media, customer service, newsletters, emails, editing, and work on Amazon bestsellers. 5. She says she has been doing virtual assistant work for nine years and has worked with several clients across the country. 6. Heather describes a long work history that includes security for the Baltimore Ravens, nannying, bartending, and teaching after earning a master's degree in education. 7. She says she taught for three years, then homeschooled her children after deciding school teaching was not what she wanted to do. 8. Heather says the shift to working from home started when she was recently divorced and trying to keep something stable for her children. 9. She links the choice to homeschool with the need for a flexible schedule that could still pay the bills. 10. Heather says her podcast Warrior Words began after what she describes as the Holy Spirit telling her to do it. 11. She says she was afraid of microphones and public speaking and used to sink down in the back of the classroom so the teacher would not call on her. 12. Heather says the podcast also grew out of a fictional manuscript based on her marriage experience with domestic abuse. 13. She frames the show as sharing stories and lessons from traumatic events so listeners can use those lessons to help someone else later. 14. Heather says high functioning anxiety showed up when her husband left and she lost her home. 15. She says her children also lost their father, and she kept asking how she would care for them and keep them safe. 16. Heather says 2020 added a breast cancer diagnosis, which brought new fears about survival and what would happen to her children if she died. 17. Heather says prayer helps her calm down, and she compares it to a mindfulness practice that quiets the mind long enough to hear answers. 18. Dr. Lisa Hartwell describes the conversation in a supportive, interview style that mixes clinical framing with personal testimony and practical steps. 19. People managing divorce, cancer, parenting, or trauma will likely relate to this conversation. 20. People looking for a light, surface-level chat will probably skip it.

As heard by us

A grounded conversation about anxiety, connection, and what helps it ease.

Heather Gaffney's story makes high functioning anxiety feel immediate, not abstract. A husband leaving, a home lost, and the pressure of keeping children steady give the episode its emotional weight. Dr.

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Why you'd press play

When your anxiety looks like competence on the outside, this one speaks directly to you.

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