What am I actually protecting myself from when showing up online feels so f*cking hard?

After intentionally posting online again for the first time in a long time, I started wondering whether some of what I've called avoidance has actually been protection.

That question takes me back to 2024: a joke during a continuing education training that turned into a complaint against my counseling license, another person sending screenshots from a private Facebook group to the board, and the months I spent wondering whether something I said could change my entire career.

I'm talking through what that experience did to the way I show up publicly, all of the shoulda-woulda-coulda that came afterward, and the weird contradiction I'm sitting in now: I want to show up authentically, I need people to actually see the work I'm creating, and I also know firsthand that I can't control what someone does with what I say.

So maybe the question isn't how to stop caring what people think. Maybe it's how we let our work be seen without letting other people's responses decide whether we keep showing up.
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🧠 A Quick Therapist-y Disclaimer
Becca Ferguson is a Licensed Professional Counselor, but Professionally Messy is not therapy, and listening to this podcast does not create a therapist-client relationship. This podcast is for educational and informational purposes and includes Becca's personal experiences, opinions, and general professional knowledge. If something here makes you think, “Well shit, maybe I should talk to someone about that,” that's probably a conversation worth having with your own qualified healthcare or mental health professional.