What if success isn’t the answer… but part of what’s keeping you stuck?

In this powerful episode of the Adult Child of Dysfunction Podcast, I sit down with therapist and Chrysalis Enterprises founder Jennifer Schrappe to explore the hidden connection between external success, food addiction, and unresolved emotional pain.

From the outside, Jennifer had everything together—but behind the scenes, she was struggling with compulsive overeating, shame, and the weight of unprocessed trauma. In this conversation, she shares her personal journey of recovery and what it really takes to break free from addictive patterns.

We dive into the deeper truth behind emotional eating, the role of childhood experiences, and why true healing doesn’t come from controlling behaviors—but from understanding the root of them.

If you’ve ever felt like you “should” be happy but still feel stuck, overwhelmed, or disconnected… this episode will help you understand why.

💥 In This Episode, We Talk About:

✔ The illusion of success and why it doesn’t equal fulfillment

✔ The connection between trauma, shame, and food addiction

✔ Why emotional eating is a coping mechanism—not a failure

✔ How compulsive behaviors are rooted in the nervous system

✔ The importance of self-compassion in the healing process

✔ Why support and structure can be key in recovery

✔ How to begin breaking free from cycles of shame and guilt

🔑 Key Takeaway:

You can’t out-achieve your emotional pain.

Real healing happens when you stop judging your patterns—and start understanding them.

💬 Connect with Jennifer Schrappe:

🌐 jennifershrapi.com

📸 Instagram: @jenniferschrappelpcc

📘 Facebook: Jennifer Schrappe, MA LPCC-S

💼 LinkedIn: Jennifer Schrappe

💛 Ready to Go Deeper?

✨ Book a Confidence & Clarity Call:

https://calendly.com/tammyvincent/clarity-and-calm-call

✨ Get your Complimentary Voice Scan:

https://calendly.com/tammyvincent/complimentary-scan-demo

Hey there, I’m so glad you’re here and tuning in! If this episode spoke to your heart, just know there’s even more support waiting for you.

Book Your Free Clarity and Calm Call: No Judgement, just a chat https://calendly.com/tammyvincent/clarity-and-calm-call

If you are curious about where you stand energetically, or just need a frequency boost, book your FREE biofrequency voice scan here: https://calendly.com/tammyvincent/complimentary-scan-demo if you want to take part in an amazing club, where you can get unlimited scans and free coaching every month, sign up here: $25 ($250 Value) Join For One Month Here https://workshops.tammyvincent.com/offers/JQz3QDrr/checkout

If you would like to ask a question, and hear the answer in a future episode, please leave your question here: https://www.speakpipe.com/Tammyvincentcoaching

Trials To Triumph: An Adult Child's Emotional Freedom Blueprint: Use code THRIVE25 for 75% off today. https://workshops.tammyvincent.com/offers/DSbcgrZZ/checkout

As an international inspirational speaker, NLP Practitioner, Trauma-Informed Coach, Neurofit Trainer, and Best-Selling Author, I bring both deep personal experience and professional training to the work I do. I believe in prevention, not just intervention — and use a body, mind, and spirit approach to guide others toward becoming the happiest, healthiest versions of themselves.

My holistic toolbox includes nervous system regulation, trauma-informed coaching, nutritional support, and natural healing strategies,

🔑 Start Your Healing Journey

Find ALL THE THINGS HERE: Anything that I have to offer is right here

✈️ Bonus for Travel Lovers!

Did you know I also offer access to an amazing travel savings program that can help you save up to 70% on hotels, resorts, cruises, and more? Let’s compare your next upcoming itinerary and see how much you could save.

👉 Try the Trip Check: https://calendly.com/tammyvincent/trip-check

📺 Subscribe to My YouTube Channel

👉 Adult Child of Dysfunction on YouTube

🌟 Book Me to Speak at Your Event

👉 Let’s connect: https://calendly.com/tammyvincent/speakers-event-chat

🫶 Let’s Connect

📩 Email: tammy@tammyvincent.com

📱 Text: 513-280-3555

🌟 If this episode helped you, please share it with a friend, leave a review, and hit follow. Every share helps break generational cycles and brings healing into more lives.

So before we even get started today, I wanted to just kind of talk to you real quickly because we've had a couple people on the podcast recently and I want to talk about how success.

Just because you look successful and you look like you're doing everything on the outside does not mean you are happy and you are not struggling on the inside because the, the high achieving, it doesn't always feel high achieving.

Right.

So if there's a shame, if there's shame, if there's addiction patterns, if there's old childhood trauma that you're going through, this is all those survival responses.

And so success does not automatically heal what was formed as survival, honestly.

So this is the work that I do every day helping people uncover those conscious patterns, regulate nervous systems and build lives that feel aligned, not just improved.

So today we have with us Jennifer Strappe, lpccs.

And I'll let her explain that she has been a therapist for over 20 years.

She is the founder and director of Chrysalis Enterprises, a counseling practice in Columbus, Ohio.

She is also a professional speaker and is developing a program for entrepreneurs who are in recovery from food addiction.

A significant part of Jennifer's story has been a lifelong struggle with compulsive overeating.

Navigating cycles of recovery, shame and resilience while building, building a business, helping others heal.

Welcome, Jennifer.

Thank you, Tammy.

It's great to be here.

Yeah.

No, it seems like the subjects keep coming around as people that are having successful businesses or, you know, entrepreneurs and they look so together and happy on the outside, but underneath there's still a lot going on and it just seems to be a constant theme.

I'm getting over the last couple weeks, so I know you struggled a lot in your childhood and it was with.

Was it always with overeating?

Yep.

That became my best friend.

It always made the problems feel like they were going away.

It always made me feel better.

So was it.

I mean, I'm just.

I don't know much about you.

It was.

I was the oldest kid in our family and our parents marriage was not doing well and I somehow interpreted that as being my fault because I wasn't perfect all the time.

And so obviously I had done something wrong and now I know that to be complete hogwash.

But you know, at that time, a seven year old, eight year old kid, it seemed completely reasonable.

And so then they, they split up and for my mom and siblings and me, that changed everything and it set us on a completely different course in life.

We moved across country so that all changed and I Wasn't seeing my father anymore and all the stuff.

And so I withdrew and went inside myself and felt like I had to be the second adult in the household to help my mom and to take care of my younger siblings.

And as far as my own pain, the food was there.

Yeah.

Yep.

I can remember, honestly, it's, and it's, it's just, it's that dopamine hit, it's that comfort.

I can remember when my parents used to fight, I used to grab a sleeve of Chips Ahoy or Oreo cookies and I would go hide under the drainage ditch and, and, and eat the whole sleeve because I figured it was about, that was about the timing that if I ate that I could just relax, I could calm down, I could, you know, rest.

I could be safe.

And then it was good timing to go back several years.

Well, like 40 years later when they were like, you know, you have a, a sugar problem, like you're a 1C.

And, and I was like, oh, no.

I was like, okay, so think Tammy.

Okay, it's time to let go of the six chocolate chip cookies and glass of milk every night before we go to bed.

That just, it became my comfort food.

And it is comforting.

And it won't say no, it won't reject you.

These hyper processed foods, which of course are the ones that in my experience, I go for.

I'm not going to binge out on broccoli.

So the, the hyper processed foods, I believe, have been engineered to have that great, you know, mouth feel and to have that great rush and whatever it is that they put into those products.

And so that helps to perpetuate the issue, perpetuate the patterns.

And it, in those, at least in those first few moments where the, the binge starts, man, it sure does bring relief.

Who doesn't want relief?

Especially in those moments, especially when you were suffering what you were suffering as a child and what I was suffering too.

Well, at the end of the day, you're going to do anything to yourself.

And it's, you know, it's funny that now there is so much more awareness around it because back then, you know, if you were, I mean, I'm sure you gained weight pretty quickly as a child then because you were eating the wrong foods, grabbing whatever you could grab.

Like you said, you're not going home and eating a head of lettuce with some balsamic vinegar on it.

When you're stressed out, you're grabbed.

You're grabbing whatever you can grab.

And it's always the potato chips.

It's it is, it's the things that give your physiological reward system that hit and then it becomes an addiction.

They might judge you if you are overweight, but they're not going to judge you if you're eating a cookie.

Where they're gonna judge you if you're happy.

Comfort thing is alcohol or drugs or something like that.

Gotcha.

You know what?

I'm right.

Yeah.

The stigma, like people.

If you're eating a cookie, people are not going to be like, look at her.

But if you're in the middle of the day, you got a little shot glass in your pocketbook and you're doing a shot real quick.

But honestly, it's feeding the same thing.

Right.

So, so talk about.

Because I know you talk a lot about guilt and shame and you talk about that and bringing that kind of into your adulthood.

What are some of the kind of mindset things you had to overcome from your childhood?

That I was the worst, that I was worthless, that my weight defined me, that it's best to keep everybody at bay and just be on my own little island, so to speak.

And it's, it's especially funny thinking about that considering that I'm married and I have children.

And so it can be at times hard for me to reach out for help from them.

And they're very loving and supportive and trustworthy.

But still, I can have this, you know, island, you know, keep everybody at bay mentality sometimes that I was worth the time and attention it would take to overcome this.

We need to be taking care of that and we need to take care of that person and we need to solve this problem.

And you know, at the end of it all, once all that is resolved, then maybe I'll get to me.

But all this other stuff has to be fixed first.

Right?

You can fix.

It's like alcoholism.

The alcohol is not the problem.

The alcohol is the answer for those, for people that are suffering with that.

It's.

It's what's inside that's the problem.

It's what the beliefs are that are keeping you to need to self soothe or self medicate or self eat, whatever, whatever it is, you know, but it's hard.

So what are some of the steps that you did to do that?

Some of the steps, gosh, it's been such a long process and I'm still figuring out pieces of it, but some of the steps were acknowledging that I couldn't fix it on my own, acknowledging that I needed something outside me, guidance, a program, support in that program.

And I did try different weight Loss programs, programs with different levels of success.

But the real issue was what was going on in here, right?

What in here was driving me to the food.

And so when I really started getting a good understanding of, of what all needed some attention, needed some loving care, needed some healing and like you said, you know, alcohol is a solution.

Well, in my case, food is the solution.

And so instead of berating myself for wanting relief in food, let's get curious and let's look at what feels so awful that it seems like food is the only fix, the only way to get some resolution.

So relearning those patterns.

And then for me what it really took was getting into the bright line eating program, which cuts out sugar, cuts out flour, wheel wheels.

Meals are weighed and measured.

So meals are weighed and measured.

And for those who have a history of binging, you can add, you can kind distribute your food so that there are also some snacks in between the meals so that you can better avoid a binge.

And those are weighed and measured too.

And then in between meals and snacks it's water, it's non caloric drinks, and that is, that's the regimen.

And it's set up that way because for somebody who is addicted to food, which I am for, for somebody who has a long history of binge eating, which I do, we need that kind of regimen.

And it's not like the rules protect us, the rules protect a person like me.

Those guidelines, that's why it's called bright line eating.

Because a bright line is a line that you don't cross.

I guess it's a legal term.

And so it's these lines that you don't stray out of because that's going to get you in danger.

And so learning to work with professionals who can help to unpack what's driving these patterns and to come up with healthier patterns with self compassion.

So not like you know, you must do this or you're the worst and you suck and all that.

But instead, okay, what's going on here and what can we do about it compassionately, right?

And just in general, when you look at things with curiosity instead of judgment, it's going to soften you by, by default, you know, if you can go to grab that and you want that cookie or you want that ice cream so bad and you know, and you're like, instead of being like, oh my God, Jennifer, why do I always do this?

You know, just be like what happened today?

So why don't I grab, I mean, I don't know how you do it.

But I know with like the whole other part of it, the drinking and stuff, it was like, why?

What am I doing?

Like, let me think.

Let me think through this.

And while I'm thinking through this, let me grab a glass of water, you know, and.

And really.

But being curious just does.

It just softens the whole situation because it's not anger, it's.

And because that.

You get into that guilt and that.

That shame spiral, I call it, you know, like.

Yep.

And I know my, you know, my sister struggled.

She struggles with.

Still to this day, struggles with binge eating.

And we don't talk about it so much, but she.

I don't know what program she was on or whatever, but I.

When I was at her house, it was very specific, like, thing.

Everything was portioned because she said, even if it was yogurt, which is good for you, but still a lot of sugar, she's like, if I bought my yogurt in a thing this big, I would eat the whole thing, even though it was something that was good for me, you know?

And so she portioned everything.

That's literally one of the first things she did is it was like, kind of like, I call it the nip it in the bud.

Like, as soon as you hear that inner critic or that, that shame voice being like, what's wrong with you?

Which is.

I think that sentence, what's wrong with you?

Should be taken out of the vocabulary to begin with.

Do you have any suggestions for people that find themselves?

Because I'm sure there's a lot of people out there that struggle, especially with the food, because it is.

It's accessible, it's.

It's there for the taking.

It's like I said, people don't necessarily in the beginning especially judge you because you're just eating a little too much or, you know, you eating under the table or whatever it is.

What are suggestions?

Like, if you thought, God, I really need this cookie, this ice cream, what would be your thought pattern going forward with that,.

If I'm having those thoughts?

Well, ideally I would be working through, because additional step that I have taken is to get involved in Overeaters Anonymous, where I'm dialing into phone meetings, getting a sponsor and going through the steps.

And of course, OA has tons of materials online and there are books you can get, and there are phone meetings, meetings over video, in person meetings.

There are so many ways to get help in oa, and as long as the meeting is run the way it's supposed to be, it'll be a Compassionate, safe place.

And so in those moments, ideally I would have been working a strong enough and consistent program where those thoughts don't have the same weight that they would before.

Where it's like, oh, well, I've had this thought.

It's not, you know, whether or not I'm going to start eating, it's when and how much and what am I going to eat.

So it, it empowers a person to have more of that kind of built up support.

Right.

So it's a big aspect of it and a huge thing to remember is that whatever unhealthy coping mechanism we may have, whatever critical voice or imposter syndrome or shame that we may be experiencing, in a twisted way or another, it's trying to achieve something good for us.

The inner critic is often trying to achieve self perfection by reminding us of all the things that are, that need to be fixed so that we fix them and then we'll be perfect.

Well, I mean, at the end of the day, it is trying to protect us because it's our subconscious programming.

It's, it's the thing that when we were seven years old and we were being bullied, you know, they, our brain said, okay, don't go out in public, don't be seen in big groups, don't do this, don't do that, because it will protect you.

And, but now it's like, okay, now we have to, we have to move forward and we have to move out of those, those patterns and those protective mindsets.

So talk about when you started your business, because you did say there was a lot of shame wrapped up in what was going on with you.

What were some of the, you know, having a food addiction?

What were some of the setbacks in.

Business when the stress would come?

Food was so often my coping mechanism.

And I could be getting that obsession with a client who is talking about, you know, the unhealthy ways that he or she deals with stress.

And maybe that included something in the addiction realm.

And I would be counseling that client and that client would leave and then I would get worked up about something instead of start stuffing my face.

Yeah, we're our own worst clients, aren't we?

Oh, for sure, for sure.

And so I noticed that as the business grew, as things got more complex, then of course the stress level rises, the, the responsibilities rise.

Of course, that's natural.

But the coping mechanisms which had not been realigned into something healthy was, were also continuing and worsening.

And under a lot of that was this shame based imposter syndrome that you're telling me that I didn't deserve to have a thriving business.

The best I could hope for would be one that was just kind of skating along the edge from day to.

Day.

In danger of completely imploding, which it never has been.

But that's what this imposter syndrome part would say.

And that at best, at best, I am getting my bills paid with maybe a little bit left over, but don't count on that for long.

And being in that.

And I see so many people in that thing because what's the underlying message?

You're not good enough.

You don't deserve enough.

Don't deserve it.

Yeah, you're just not, you're not worthy.

And you said being an entrepreneur, as your business grows, as you become more successful, the stress level goes up in different ways.

It comes at you different ways.

You know, it's really having to have that underlying belief that I do deserve to thrive and I do, you know, so that I, when the stress things come, it's like, let's handle this so we can move up, you know, not, let's do whatever we have that's right to survive this.

And you know, something interesting and this, I mean, this is interesting, but it also fits.

I just have this automatic assumption that any other business owner I meet that their business is doing great and of all these people I'm getting to know, mine is the only one that's struggling.

You're not the only one in the times of struggle.

And then that translates.

I mean, it's still part of the, that isolating, shame based thinking.

And I share this next one to make you laugh.

I have this assumption.

And when I noticed it, I thought, wow, that's kind of insane that this particular OA meeting that I call into this phone meeting, so obviously we're not seeing each other, but I was falling under this assumption that I was the only overweight person on that call, that everybody else had already lost their weight and they're just looking to maintain and support others.

And I'm the only overweight person on the call.

And for the people out there listening, this is a perfect example of what we talk about where we say, you're right where you need to be.

Like where you are right now is the, the spot to move forward.

Like, don't wait until you have it figured out to come on here and tell people I'm, you know, like that.

I guess that's what I'm trying to say is don't wait until you've mastered something.

Like, we're all In a process.

It is a lifelong process and you're going to get smarter and learn more and the things will get easier and those things will fall off and just continue to move forward is really the big picture.

It's like going to an AA meeting and being like shamed and being like, oh, I got a dui.

And they're like, yeah, we all did.

I'm here for six.

I'm here for two.

Like, oh, yeah, okay, got you.

And so, Tammy, that's why.

That's why I started the Unburdened Entrepreneur, which right now it's a series of workshops getting, getting the word out to other business owners who may feel a little crazy like I do at times if they are in recovery from addiction and they find that that recovery is a lot harder when you throw running a business into the mix, which will jack it up every time or really any kind of emotional recovery.

Let's say that there's been a lifetime of anxiety or a lifet shame to overcome those things will jack up running a business as well.

And having walked that out and fallen plenty of times and gotten back up and figuring it out and learning a lot along the way, I have a great desire to help other business owners who suffer with the same.

So your course is.

I know you said a program was coming out, so you've got the foundation of it.

You've got the workshops and stuff going on.

Is the program right now it's in.

The form of workshops.

I'm thinking that I'll eventually put together a cohort, but all of this can be found on my website, Jennifer Shropi dot com.

Okay.

Sounds absolutely amazing.

I'd love to check it out.

And I know a lot of people out there.

It's a question.

We all think that our story is so unique and that it's never happened to anybody and that, you know, you can't get out of this.

Guys, it doesn't matter where you are or where you've come from or how bad it got even.

There's always a way forward.

You just have to believe in it and you have to believe in yourself and you have to find those tools that can get that into your conscious programming that you are worthy and you are enough.

So jennifershrapi.com is exactly where everybody would go.

Yep.

Okay.

And I'll put that in the show notes for you and then we'll.

When your whole course launches and comes out, we'll do a big.

Another big thing.

Maybe come.

Have you come back on.

Just talk about your course because I think that is.

What's it called?

The unburdened.

The unburdened entrepreneur.

I love it.

So if you have any questions for Jennifer, reach out to her.

And before you leave, I want you to give the listeners one piece of advice.

Something.

A tip, a trick, something tangible to take with them to make their day a little better.

What would it be?

Whatever is coming at you on the inside, it's trying to avoid a feared outcome.

So it's not based in complete truth.

It's.

It's coming at you from a place of fear.

So keep that in mind and get curious about what that fearful part or inner critic or imposter syndrome or whatever it may be, how that force may be driven by fear, and he'll reach peace a lot more quickly.

Amen.

And is there anything else you want to tell the listeners?

Sounds great.

Thank you so much for coming on.

Thanks for having me.

This has been great.

Yeah, you're very welcome.

And for everybody else out there listening, you heard it.

You are so, so worth it.

I mean, you guys hear how I end the end of every single podcast.

You are way, way more than enough right here, right now.

But also know there's so many resources out there to make your day a little brighter, to make things a little easier, and to get a little more of that inner peace that we owe.

So you guys have a blessed week, and we will see you back.

Thanks.