Addiction isn’t just about substances—it’s about the ways we cope with pain, stress, and unmet needs. In this episode, Chip Dodd and Leanne unpack how behaviors like emotional eating, over-exercising, workaholism, and social media addiction follow the same addictive patterns as substances. They explore the difference between coping mechanisms that help us heal versus those that keep us stuck, and how the brain wires itself for addiction. If you’ve ever felt caught in a cycle of numbing or self-sabotage, this episode will help you understand why—and what you can do about it.

Visit Chip's website at: ChipDodd.com

You can order your copy of Chip's book, The Voice of the Heart: A Call To Full Living HERE.

Listen to the Living With Heart Podcast HERE.

HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @leanneellington

To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.

Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mylaina is 22 years old. And she just did what most women wish they'd done decades earlier.

She was a psychology student getting certified in nutrition and wellness. She knew intellectually how to take care of her body, how to eat, how to work out. But mentally, she was destroying herself.

Every morsel of food was tracked. Most foods were off limits. She was the one not licking the spoon after weighing the peanut butter. She preached balance but lived in fear and control. And the more she tried to control, the more she lost control.

It was a constant war—between her and her plate, between her and her body. The cycle was relentless: intense perfectionism would swing into binges, then came the shame, then the "start again Monday" promise. And every restart just pushed her deeper into the spiral.

From the outside, it didn't look extreme at all. But inside, she was white-knuckling her way through life, secretly hating her body, treating it like an enemy that wasn't cooperating. Her worth was completely tied to her physical appearance, and she was exhausted.

In June 2025, Mylaina hit her lowest point. She was hopeless, quietly desperate, and alone in her apartment when she finally cried out to God: "You need to meet me here. I don't even recognize this life I've built."

That's when she found Stressless Eating.

And at 22 years old, Mylaina made a decision that most women don't make until their 30s, 40s, 50s, or beyond. She decided she wasn't going to carry this struggle into her future. She wasn't going to spend decades fighting the same battle. She was going to heal it now.

In this powerful case study, Mylaina shares how her life was completely reconstructed from the ground up. How food became just food—fuel, fun, enjoyment. How movement became a celebration of what her body can do, not how small she can be. How she finally surrendered the last area of her life she'd been unwilling to give to God: her body, her food, her self-image.

She stepped into the posture of daughtership—learning to live from a place of being loved instead of trying to earn it. And for the first time, she realized: daughters don't have to strive for belonging. We already have it.

Today, Mylaina is fully free. Her nervous system is at peace. She's showing up as the daughter and friend she always wanted to be. And she's living proof that you don't have to wait until you've wasted decades to finally choose healing.

If you've ever thought, "I wish I'd figured this out sooner," or "I don't want to still be struggling with this in 10, 20, 30 years," Mylaina's story is for you. Because healing isn't about how long you've been stuck. It's about the decision to stop recycling the same pain and finally do the work that sets you free.

And you don't have to wait. You can do it now.

HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @LeanneEllington // @theteenagerbrain

To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.

Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What if you didn't have to manage your anxiety, your trauma, your patterns for the rest of your life? What if you could actually repair the root problem—and move on?

In this final episode of our series, Dr. Lee Warren and I talk about the solution. The shift from "holding pressure on the wound forever" to actually stitching it up and letting it heal. The shift from symptom management to root repair. The shift from spending years in therapy just managing to actually becoming the surgeon of your own mind.

Dr. Warren explains the consent-to-automate sequence—the missing piece that most mental health approaches don't teach. It's the moment your brain asks for permission to automate a thought, feeling, or reaction. And once you learn to spot that moment, you can withhold consent and install a better automation instead. The brain rewires in seconds to minutes—not years.

But here's the key: it's not just about changing your thoughts. It's about rewiring your self-image—the subconscious beliefs that are running the show. Because if your self-image undermines what Scripture says about you, you'll keep defaulting to the old patterns no matter how hard you try.

We tie it all back to Ephesians 4, where Paul talks about being "renewed in the spirit of your mind." He wasn't saying "manage your old self forever." He was saying "put on the new self"—an actual identity-level transformation. And that's exactly what Self-Brain Surgery makes possible.

This episode is the hopeful one. The practical one. The one that shows you how to stop managing and start repairing. If you're ready to move on with your life, this is the conversation you've been waiting for.

GUEST: Dr. Lee Warren // wleewarrenmd.com // @drleewarren
Listen to Dr. Warren's Podcast here.
Order Dr. Warren's New Book, The Life-Changing Art of Self-Brain Surgery.

HOST: Leanne Ellington // StresslessEating.com // @LeanneEllington // @theteenagerbrain

To learn more about Leanne, head over to www.LeanneEllington.com, and to share your thoughts, questions, feedback, or guest suggestions instantly, head on over to www.WhatsGodGotToDoWithIt.com.

Follow Leanne on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leanneellington/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.