Showing titles in Dysfunctional Families

In her memoir, Monica, 54, tells the story of her childhood, when her mother, Betty Mount, forced her head under running bathroom taps and tried to strangle her. She had previously tried to kill Monica as a baby. Monica was taken into foster care, where her new parents ran a brutal regime. To the outside world, the family was devoutly religious and respectable, but behind closed doors, Monica was physically and sexually abused.

Kay Douglas is a registered psychotherapist. She specialises in abuse and trauma recovery and anger change. She has worked with women and men for over 27 years. She is the author of six books. Because Kay has worked extensively with both men using destructive behaviour, and women who live in abusive relationships, her writing is realistic and insightful.

Gaslighting is usually used by psychopaths and narcissists, who are people that have a personality disorder. Psychopaths, in particular, are characterized by a lack of remorse for others and increased antisocial behavior. These personality traits allow psychopaths to easily manipulate others without feeling guilty or ashamed. For this reason, this book will also analyze how to read body language in order to recognize manipulators and in this way, avoid painful situations.

Using this workbook, you'll learn practical skills grounded in proven-effective dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) to help you heal and move forward after narcissistic abuse. You'll find targeted exercises for specific trauma symptoms to help you rebuild your shattered self-esteem and confidence, learn how to trust again, and make certain you can recognize red flags in the future. You'll also discover essential and easy-to-apply mindfulness skills for developing self-compassion, setting healthy boundaries, and managing negative thoughts.

If you have a family member who suffers from mental illness, but refuses to seek treatment, you may feel like you're caught in a trap. If you try making life easier for your loved one, you wind up perpetuating dependency and entitlement. If you push for treatment, you are met with resistance or outright animosity. And when you reach out to professionals for help, you are told that nothing can be done unless your family member is ready to change. So, how can you escape the "family trap?"

My mother was bipolar, mentally ill, a sociopath that not only got pregnant by my 15-year-old father but went on to abuse me in every way imaginable. This is my story. People have a hard time believing that women, especially mothers who are supposed to protect their children, can be molesters and pedophiles, but my mother was one. I am not only telling my story for my own recovery, exposing the sins of the mothers in our family, but to help others to see that if this happened to them, they are not alone, and they can recover and have healthy, reasonably happy lives.

Once upon a time, Martians and Venusians functioned in separate worlds. But in today's hectic and career-oriented environment, relationships have become a lot more complicated, and men and women are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress. To add to the increasing tension, most men and women are also completely unaware that they are actually hardwired to react differently to the stress.

A brutal and touching account of the life of Bridget ’Tipperary Mary’ Larkin. She faced poverty, bereavement, cruelty and abandonment many times over - yet never lost the heart to pursue true love. Returning to rural Ireland in 1938 and a young girl full of hope and expectation, A Song for Bridget recounts a series of tragic events that eventually bring her to Manchester and Birmingham - and a desperate daily struggle to survive. Bridget’s haunting story, told in the words of her daughter, is a perfect example of both the fragility and resilience of the human spirit.

Drawing on the mind-body techniques of somatic therapy, The Healing Sexual Trauma Guided Journal offers insightful writing prompts to help you explore your emotions, overcome internalized shame, and heal your traumatized nervous system.

The patriarch, C. F. Seabrook, was hailed as the "Henry Ford of Agriculture." His son Jack, a keen businessman, was poised to take over what Life called "the biggest vegetable factory on earth." But the carefully cultivated facade—glamorous outings by horse-drawn carriage, hidden wine cellars, and movie star girlfriends—hid dark secrets that led to the implosion of the family business. A compelling tale of class and privilege, betrayal and revenge three decades in the making, The Spinach King explores the author's complicated family legacy and the dark corners of the American Dream.

Do you feel held captive by manipulation? Are you looking to recover your sense of self and break free from narcissistic abuse? The truth is, millions of people are dealing with the pain of having been a victim of a narcissist. They may have been lied to, manipulated, cheated on, and controlled.

In June 2005, Kristin Mitchell was killed by her ex-boyfriend 20 days after her college graduation. Kristin’s family was faced with a decision: Concentrate on healing themselves - or take their experience and help others who might face a similar situation. When Dating Hurts is the detailed account of what the Mitchell family learned the hard way, beginning with a call from detectives.

Did you grow up with a parent who has borderline personality disorder (BPD), or you suspect they did? Was your parent's behavior unpredictable or scary? Did it seem like they were angry one minute and happy the next? Were your basic needs ignored? If so, it wasn't your fault. This compassionate guide offers a trauma-informed approach to help you recover from your toxic childhood and discover the person you were truly meant to be. You'll learn how to identify emotional and developmental wounds, and discover why interactions with your parents were so harmful to your sense of self.

As far as Jennifer can remember, her father was abusive but her mother wasn’t always. She remembers a time when she felt loved by her mother. All that changed when Jennifer was 11. Her mother snapped and became a monster like her father was. Then they turned on her. Jennifer fought to become who she wanted to be, and not who her parents were trying to make her be. She refused to allow the torture change her, like it changed her mother. This is the story of Jennifer’s past, how she got through it, and how she survived it all.

Born to Korean immigrant parents, Hyeseung spends her early years in the sugar cane fields of Texas, caught between her father's "get rich quick schemes" and her beautiful, domineering mother who is skeptical of Western idealism. With her parents constantly at odds, Hyeseung learns more Korean words for hatred than for love. When the family's fake Gucci business lands them in bankruptcy, Hyeseung starts at a new school where she's immediately singled out with the question, "Can you speak English?"

‘The Grip of Childhood Sexual Abuse’ tells the story of our healing journey to overcome the impacts of our abuse. Tragically victims unknowingly accrue many syndromes and disorders as a direct result of enduring sexual abuse over a long period of time. We believe we can help victims by sharing what we've learned. Through recognizing our own strengths, we can encourage others to shed the self-limiting beliefs trauma survivors often unconsciously own.

Escrito por uma das maiores especialistas no assunto, esta obra é um guia prático e sensível para curar as feridas causadas por relações narcisistas – seja com pais, filhos, amigos, chefes ou parceiros. A questão é aprender a identificar padrões de relacionamento prejudiciais e mudar a forma de encarar as atitudes de alguém que você ama, mas que está prejudicando sua saúde emocional. Quando fazemos isso, lançamos luz sobre o problema e descobrimos como parar de sofrer com ele. Este audiolivro é para todos que já se relacionaram com narcisistas que deslegitimaram seus sentimentos.

The American mental health system is in crisis, and those affected by its shortcomings are drowning without the tools and resources they deserve and need to thrive. In Born into Crisis, author Kenneth Nixon shares his story of growing up with a mother with severe mental illness and a family stuck in an enduring cycle of trauma. He knows firsthand the impact trauma can have on a person's life. Kenneth not only takes you on a powerful journey through his stories, he provides cogent and practical strategies for creating lasting change in our mental health system.

Most of us are only starting to become aware of how our foundational years contribute to who we are today. Our childhood environment shapes the foundation for our sense of self, how we feel about the world, and how we relate to others. If we experienced trauma or dysfunction along the way, it likely disrupted the pathways to these fundamental structures. Understanding our trauma is not about blame, but about understanding, learning, and growing. In most cases, our caregivers did the best they could with the tools they had, often while dealing with external or internal stressors as well.

In this compelling and heartfelt memoir, writer Molly McAleer chronicles the discovery of her father's addiction and subsequent death, how true love saved her life and how she kind of sort of got tricked into going to rehab. She knows you'll probably never believe her side of the story, so she also interviews friends, ex-friends, and her acupuncturist about her history of substance abuse, flailing through her twenties and what kind of person she really is.