Sometimes our family of origin is not the best place for us to be. Like with adoption, whether they like it or not, adoptees may lose contact with their original family or in some cases, they may not even know where they come from. And this can impact their mental health.
In the latest episode of the Mental Health and Wealth Show, I chat with Dannie Lynn Fountain about her being adopted as a teenager and how it affected her mental health and wealth.
Dannie is a passionate storyteller who helps companies focus on people. By day she’s a marketing strategist at Google and by night she develops communication strategies for clients. She is also an author, digital nomad, doctoral student, debt-free millennia, and founder of the #SideHustleGal movement.
Dannie shares her experience of being adopted as a teenager and her grounding techniques when she’s feeling the uncertainty and anxiety caused by the loss of her original family. She also discusses how she deals with anxious attachment and being estranged from a family member and why that can actually be okay.
Lastly, Dannie talks about re-inventing her life and how she paid off all her debt.
What You Will Learn From This Episode
- Effects of adoption on mental health and wealth
- Grounding techniques when you feel longing, uncertainty or anxiety
- How to deal with anxious attachment style
- Why it’s okay to be estranged from a family member and how to handle and talk about it
- Tips for getting out of debt
“The adoption itself was a trauma, but then the impact of making financial decisions was a trauma in and of itself too because I have lost the support system that was obligated to be there for me. And I still feel the effects of both of those separate traumas today in some ways.” – Dannie Lynn Fountain
“When you lose your original family system, you lose sort of the first anchor that you’re given. You feel like you’re floating, untethered and you don’t have a connection point holding you to one space and it can cause you to float away from whatever dreams, goals, ambitions that you might have had.” – Dannie Lynn Fountain
“Even now like 10, 15 years later, in trying to deal with those traumas and experiences, the first thing is finding a grounding space, something to attach myself to… Just retying myself up to some sort of anchor pulls away a lot of the uncertainty and anxiety that can come from something that brings up those memories and even in those early days trying to handle everything that was going on.” – Dannie Lynn Fountain
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Timestamps
3:00 – Dannie’s adoption story and its effect on her mental health and personal finance
6:00 – What it’s like to be adopted at her teenage years and her experience with her new family
8:17 – How Dannie deals with the longing, uncertainty, and anxiety caused by the adoption
11:28 – Dannie’s ongoing therapy and how she’s dealing with anxious attachment
15:00 – How Dannie reconnected with her siblings after more than a decade of no communication
18:20 – Why it’s okay to be estranged with a family member and how Dannie handles and talks about it with other people
21:44 – On re-inventing her life and paying off all her debt plus Dannie’s tips for paying off debt
24:31 – Dannie’s final advice for people dealing with adoption or family estrangement and getting out of debt
Resources
Connect with Dannie
Connect with Melanie
- mentalhealthandwealth.com
- melanielockert.com
- Contact: mentalhealthandwealthshow@gmail.com
- Attend our next Money Management Check-in Party
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