Latest / Giving Pain Purpose with Lyndsay Soprano / Giving Pain Purpose with Lyndsay Soprano
Transcript
- Lyndsay Soprano (00:00.278) Mm-hmm. This is your pain game podcast, where we talk about the game of living in and with chronic pain and trauma. Getting to the heart of how to heal. I am your host, Lindsay Soprano. On the show, I plan on discussing with doctors, chronic pain patients, holistic practitioners, loved ones, and anybody that is interested in having their voice heard in the chronic pain and trauma world that we live in. Lyndsay Soprano (00:38.252) I was diagnosed with CRPS, which is called chronic regional pain syndrome, about 10 years ago. And it's hard to believe that it's been almost a decade of when my first pain in my right big toe began. And so began this crazy ass journey that I've been on for this decade here. And it does seem like a lifetime, you know, because when you live in chronic pain and you have chronic illness, a mental illness, PTSD, you name it, every moment. Sometimes feels like a decade. But what the past decade has shown me is that I truly am a warrior, right? Someone who hasn't given up. I'm also someone who almost did more than once. And that is unexplainably scary. The journey to where I am right now, sitting in my beautiful studio here in Southern California, has been riddled with traumas, failures, sadness, hopelessness. But also all kinds of wonderful joy, all kinds of gratefulness, all kinds of wonderful life experiences. But all of it brought me here to you to share the most intimate details of my life, where I have found that I trust you more than I have ever trusted most of the people that have been in my life for almost 50 years. I can't even believe that I'm saying almost 50 years, by the way. my God, save me. But you know why? Because you listen. You believe, you love, you care, and you too have faced traumas that no one understands as deeply as you do. We have opened up wounds, we've unearthed things together that we didn't even know were there, sitting, festering, boiling, just getting all twisty and disgusting, turning into illness and pain and suffering. And I am forever grateful for all of you because remember that the only way out is through. So here we are sitting in it together and moving through it together. So this limited series of the Pain Game podcast, which I've called the aftermath, ends with this episode here today. For this short series, I turned toward true crime, but not in a way that you might expect. This wasn't about sensationalized cases or shock value. I didn't want to retell the crimes. I didn't want to put my guest through the retelling of the crimes, right? Lyndsay Soprano (03:04.184) But there had to be a little bit of it. What I did want to do was talk to the people living in the aftermath, the survivors, the families of those lost, and the professionals. Hello, don't forget about them, who've walked through these stories differently. Those who've had to process trauma from the inside out. We talked about survival, chronic pain, chronic illness, grief, resilience, advocacy, and what it means to keep living after the unimaginable. Because behind every headline is a human story and pain that deserves purpose. But what I found was I didn't need a niche series to do the work of advocacy, to talk about the things that we talk about. Because we could talk about this whole limited series all the time during every episode of the Pain Game podcast. I just needed to do the work and build onto it. So if you haven't had a chance to listen to this series yet, you should. but here's a quick rundown, a little teaser for you, if you will, of what you may have missed if you didn't check into season four here of the aftermath here on the Pain Game Podcast. So I started this season sitting across from a gal named Erica Mahoney. She is a bad ass, a journalist who was six months pregnant when she lost her dad in Boulder, Colorado's mass shooting. We went there. Her chronic pain, grief, the kind of emotional wreckage that doesn't clean up easily. She talked about how storytelling and letter writing became her way through it, and how that eventually led her toward advocacy. That episode is called The Aftermath of Mass Shootings and Gun Violence, and it sets the tone for everything that follows. Then we come to sex trafficking, which actually came up twice this season, but from completely different angles. The first was with Elizabeth Gaines in the episode called Sex Trafficking When Helping Breaks You. Because not all trauma comes from direct experience, right? Sometimes it accumulates inside of you where you're holding space for others from caring so much for so long that it quietly destroys you. Elizabeth talked about the burnout, my God, the burnout that caught up with her, the nonprofit work that she was doing, and how functional diagnostic testing, which we talk about all the time on this show, helped her. Lyndsay Soprano (05:28.386) Finally understand what her body had been carrying. Then the other one was, my God, hands down, I gotta say it's one of my favorite episodes I've ever done in all of my seasons so far. Is Pimps and Pastors with Eric Robinson, former pastor, FBI agent, and one of the most grounded people that I've had on this show. He investigated sex trafficking and child abuse cases. And the stories he shared are the kind you don't forget. Pastors pimping out girls. To other pastors. Yeah, you heard that right. And that episode is a must-listen, full stop. Then I spoke with Doug Pfeiffer, who took me somewhere I honestly wasn't fully prepared for. In the episode called Sex, Drugs, and Killer Kink. We went deep into sexual deviancy, violent offender psychology, and the dark underbelly of crime in Alaska. And he wrote a book, it's called Fifty Shades of True Crime. And I read it before I did the episode with him. and I read it again. And it reads like fiction, guys, except none of it is. It is absolutely, you absolutely have to listen to this episode and read his book. So if you dare, of course. Then we have a gal named Heather Rovett. Her story is in the episode called Romance Fraud: Exposing a Predator. It's one of those slow burn revelations. Love that turned into confusion, control, and eventually the unraveling of who this man actually was. Her story is now part of the Amazon Prime documentary Rom Con: Who the fuck is Jason Porter? We talked about the gaslighting, the deception, the women he was conning simultaneously, and how Heather turned all of it into advocacy, once again, because the system doesn't always show up for victims. The way it should. Then I had the opportunity to speak with Justin Smith, who got gone girled by his ex-wife. And yes, you'll have to listen to the episode to understand exactly what that means. But in Gone Girl, Red Flags and Dating Safety, he walks us through the abuse, the red flags, and how nearly losing himself became the reason he built the app Cray. Because bitches be cray. And it is designed to help people identify danger early. Lyndsay Soprano (07:57.292) Before things just spiral out of control. But there's hope in it because you can date safely and you can take your power back. And then I was fortunate enough to talk with an Emmy Award-winning crime reporter, Beth McDonough, who became the story. So in when a crime reporter becomes the headline, she gets honest about what it looks like when alcohol stops doing its job, if it really ever does do its job, really. As a coping mechanism, and what's underneath it? The weight of a career spent inside other people's trauma, the shame, the family history behind it. This one is about recovery. But more than that, it's about learning to trust yourself again. There are also two bonus episodes that I presented for you on this season on transcending pain. And reprogramming the subconscious mind. Matt one was with Matt Johnson, who's here locally in Southern California, and also one with Soraya James on the other side in New Zealand. She's our little Kiwi and boy, is she amazing. Two completely different people, two completely different approaches, but both incredibly valuable. So make sure you take a listen to that because one of them just might land exactly where you need it and what you need to hear. And then there's my now soul sister. Annie Lisa in murdered but still alive. Annie got a phone call from her brother telling her that her sister was dead. And she was like, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. Like, you are crazy. Teresa is not dead. She did not believe him until she turned on the news and saw the police tape surrounding her sister's house. The neighbors, the newscasters, all of them describing a scene beyond gruesome. Her sister, her light, had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer in her own kitchen. And what followed was something Annie didn't expect signs, messages, a connection that didn't end with death. And you know, we talked about what she experienced, the science behind grief and healing, and the question that still hangs in the air who murdered her sister, Dr. Teresa Seivers? Lyndsay Soprano (10:17.11) It's in the stories that we tell here, guys, the secrets that we store, the pain we hold on to that affects our health and our lives, and we don't even know that we're doing it. And I don't know about you guys, but I am pretty fucking exhausted of the trauma that is still stuck within me. The stories that have been locked away, the chronic pain and illness that has come from it all. These conversations are a reminder that being strong. Does not mean being self-sacrificing. That healing requires boundaries, support, and the courage to choose yourself, even when you're used to choosing everybody else. And everyone that is listening to this show knows that I am the world's largest people pleaser. And this is one of the hardest things for me to do is choosing me over everyone else. But you guys have been here teaching me better ways of doing this. We are here together to change and to grow, to love ourselves and to be advocates. So thank you for being part of my journey and the journeys of my unbelievable guests in this limited series of the Pain Game podcast. But before we go, I have some big news. Like really big news for me, and really big news for those who have been listening for all of the seasons thus far. The Pain Game podcast is getting a name change. And there's a lot of reasons behind it, but everything else stays exactly the same. The conversations, the guests, the mission, the people. Well, the mission has been giving pain purpose, right? So starting in a few weeks, season five launches under a new name and new brand, the Giving Pain Purpose Podcast. It is a little tough to say. No, it's not. The Giving Pain Purpose Podcast is where it's at. So because that is exactly what it is. It's my why. My pain has a purpose. And it is my mission to help you find yours. I live in this pain every single day. And it has slowly been carving parts of me away. But it is in those shavings on the floor that I keep finding myself one conversation at a time. And that's because of you guys. So join me. Lyndsay Soprano (12:42.154) On the Giving Pain Purpose podcast. Together, we can be free from our pain and our illness, our sadness and our hopelessness, and replace that with blessings and gratefulness and hope and love. And like I've said throughout this whole episode, advocacy, because this is what we're here doing. Right. And then a couple more things. The Giving Pain Purpose shop is now live. We have merch. And it is so much fun and so spectacular. I can't even wait for you guys to get in there, buy some sweatshirts, get your hoodies on, get your t-shirts, get your mugs, and give pain purpose. Help us rep this show and rep this brand and rep this mission. So go to the giving pain purpose shop.com and take a look. And also this fall, I am launching something that I have been building with you in mind. And it's called the Pain Hub. It's an online community for women. Built by women. So go to thepainhub.com, sign up for our updates, and get early access to this incredible platform that I have been building for you. This one is just for you and also for the people you love and that love you back. And as always, you guys are exclusively invited to share this giving pain purpose VIP pain journey together. Let's get to the heart of how to heal with you by my side. Please follow the Giving Pain Purpose podcast wherever you digest your podcast content. We will be there. Visit us at giving painpurpose.com and follow us on all the socials. Thanks for listening, my little VIPs. Catch you on the other side.