How to Stop Worrying About Your Adult Children: Letting Go of Control and Trusting Their JourneyHow to Stop Worrying About Your Adult Children: Letting Go of Control and Trusting Their Journey
Recover Your Soul: A Spiritual Path to a Happy and Healthy Life
Rev. Rachel Harrison reflects on how chronic worry and control over adult children can soften into trust in each person’s soul journey. She shares her own family story and spiritual tools for moving from fixing and rescuing to acceptance, boundaries and inner peace.
36:01•3 Aug 2026
Stopping the Worry Spiral About Adult Children and Trusting Their Path
Episode Overview
- Worry often reflects a parent’s discomfort with their own fear more than their child’s actual situation.
- Labelling children as broken reinforces shame and blocks their capacity to trust themselves.
- Seeing each person as a soul on a unique journey helps parents release control and judgement.
- Offering guidance works best when adult children ask for help, rather than being constantly directed.
- Supporting kids only to the level they support themselves encourages responsibility and self-respect.
“We have been labelling people as broken, and I think what’s happening in spirituality is we’re remembering that we are actually all whole.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This episode centres on a different kind of recovery challenge: learning to stop worrying about adult children and to trust their path, even when their choices look risky, messy, or completely unfamiliar. Rev. Rachel Harrison speaks as a mum in her mid‑50s with two adult sons and a grandchild, so parents of grown-up kids will probably feel seen straight away.
She talks openly about how her old pattern was to label one son as the “problem child” and how the family poured their energy into trying to fix him.
As she puts it, “We have been labelling people as broken… and we’re remembering that we are actually all whole.” You’ll hear her describe the heartbreak of watching a sensitive child struggle with labels like ADHD, depression and anxiety, and how her own control addiction and codependency fed into constant monitoring, managing and rescuing.
Over time, through her spiritual recovery work, she shifted from trying to save him to respecting his “soul’s journey” – including the right to fall down and learn from consequences. Rachel shares practical examples of how parents can move from interrogation (“Did you do this? Have you done that?”) to genuine connection, and how stepping back doesn’t mean abandoning your child.
She talks about helping her kids only to the level they’re helping themselves, letting go of financial and emotional over-functioning, and holding a quiet inner belief that “no one is broken”. This conversation is aimed at parents, carers and anyone whose peace is tangled up with someone else’s choices, especially where addiction, mental health or long-term struggle are involved.
If you’re tired of sleepless nights and constant worry, could it be time to trust that your child has their own hero’s journey too?
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