Don’t People-Please Your Way Into Ignoring Your Gut (or Fleeing Mexico Like I Did)

November 12, 2025

You can’t heal from your trauma unless you talk about it.
And, ideally, not while fleeing Mexico.

I wasn’t wanted by the law or anything. I just felt like I was.

Here’s what happened.

Imagine paradise: turquoise water, fruity drinks, resort butlers.
Now imagine me, sweating, anxious, and convinced a lizard might drop from the ceiling—or that the universe was trying to warn me.

Spoiler: both were true.

I’d gone to Mexico for my best friend’s birthday even though my gut screamed, Don’t go.
But my people-pleasing trauma brain said, We’re fine! She’ll be disappointed if you don’t go!
So I went.

No air-conditioning. Ninety-degree heat.
Dinner sweat. Lizard on the head.
PTSD flashbacks from “team reward” resort trips with an old boss who believed working from the beach was “good for morale.”
If you’ve ever cried in paradise, I see you.

Two nights in, I snapped.
I told my friends my husband was violently ill (he wasn’t), booked the first flight out—through New York, because trauma makes logistics optional—and fled the country.

Then I threw up in a hotel lobby, called 911, and spent three days paying $800 a night for a hotel room while waiting out a storm in New York.
All because I was too scared to tell my best friend:

“I have a bad feeling about this trip, and I’m not going.”

Ten out of ten do not recommend.

The Moral

Your gut doesn’t lie.
Your trauma brain just learned to ignore it to keep people happy.

Don’t people-please your way into ignoring yourself.
Listen. Leave. Or at least book refundable flights.

If your gut has ever screamed “NOPE” and you still went anyway—drop a ✈️ or 💀 in the comments.
We can laugh about it together, and maybe next time, we’ll listen to our guts before the lizard falls.