Dysfunctional Childhood

Ezra Hamilton hasn't felt the warm spurt of blood flow through his fingers or the indescribable feeling of pushing a knife deep into someone's flesh in a long time. Too long. He's been watching a man stalk women, curious as to what he's doing with them. Ezra's never encountered someone with similar dark tendencies before, and what starts off as genuine curiosity turns into much more when Kaspian turns the tables on him. As their chemistry builds, so does the mistrust. They both know they can't trust a killer, but their inner demons call to each other anyway.

THERE’S SOMEONE WHO WILL GUIDE YOU LIKE NO OTHER—AND YOU’VE KNOWN THEM YOUR WHOLE LIFE It's Your Inner Child Before the shame. Before the hiding. That child holds the key to a deeper level of spirituality than you've ever known. The moment you feel them, everything begins to heal. Wounded Angels isn’t a self-help manual. It’s not some tale with a heroic arc. It's a lived record of spiritual transformation after a lifetime of quiet despair. David Deane Haskell spent 40 years buried in guilt over his mother’s tragic death. Therapy didn’t help. How-to books couldn’t touch it. ...

"A brilliant and brilliantly different" (Kiese Laymon), wrenching and redemptive coming-of-age memoir about the difficulty of growing up in a hazardous home and the glory of finding salvation in geek culture.

When Claire Hoffman's alcoholic father abandons his family, his desperate wife, Liz, tells five-year-old Claire and her seven-year-old brother, Stacey, that they are going to heaven - Iowa - to live in Maharishi's national headquarters for Heaven on Earth. For Claire's mother, Transcendental Meditation - the Maharishi's method of meditation and his approach to living the fullest possible life - was a salvo that promised world peace and enlightenment just as their family fell apart.

More than just a book full of the latest information, this is a dynamic, interactive, and personalized journey of recovery for those impacted by adverse childhood experiences (ACES). Finally, they can put their past behind them where it belongs! For those who have grown up in a family with addiction, mental illness, or other adverse childhood experiences (ACES), the heartache and pain doesn't end when they grow up and leave home.

This latest volume by best-selling author Peg Streep picks up where her acclaimed book, Daughter Detox: Recovering from an Unloving Mother and Reclaiming Your Life, leaves off with 110 answers - all of them founded in science or expert advice - to the most pressing and common questions daughters on the road to recovery from childhood experiences ask. A unique and valuable tool, the Question & Answer Book is divided into 11 focused chapters, each with its own introduction that establishes the context and illuminates why these questions are important.

“An often poignant and resonant rumination on the enduring effects of abuse and what it takes to overcome, survive, live, and love again.” —Kirkus Reviews Grandson of a Ghost explores how a family’s unspoken, festering grief impacted a boy born 25 years after the suicide of his grandfather. It follows the struggle of Scott as he grows up but fails to see how abuse from his mother clouded his perception of the world, and fueled his self-destructive behavior as an adult. Following a tumultuous childhood, Scott moves from northern New England — driven by his demons — to New York in...

At age four, Diana manages her family's banking, grocery shops alone, and befriends the town drunk. Her father is too busy chasing skirts and throwing fits to notice what she does. And her mom is too mentally absent to properly parent. While Diana's narcissistic dad terrorizes and exploits her, she works harder to please him. Estill, an award-winning humor author, shares an honest and comedic look at her dysfunctional childhood. As an adult, she struggles to reclaim her power while caring for her dementia-impaired dad.

You’re not broken, you’re battling a childhood script that was never yours to begin with. Until you reconnect with your inner child, your adult self will always be chasing peace it can’t find. The main reason you haven't realized your true potential and accomplished your dreams is that you have a poor relationship with your inner child. You’re split off from this little person that was you many years ago. When you divide yourself this way, you’re never really whole, and these two parts of you are always working against one another. You think you’re an adult, guiding your life ...

Her Last Death begins as the phone rings early one morning in the Montana house where Susanna Sonnenberg lives with her husband and two young sons. Her aunt is calling to tell Susanna her mother is in a coma after a car accident. She might not live. Any daughter would rush the thousands of miles to her mother's bedside. But Susanna cannot bring herself to go. Her courageous memoir explains why.

This guide by Dr. Lawrence L James, an expert in alcoholism and trauma, offers not just knowledge but a shared understanding of the lifelong impact of adverse childhood experiences. Drawing from personal and professional experiences, Dr. James delves into the heart of the emotional and psychological turmoil faced by adult children of alcoholics.

In Born in a Living Hell version 2.0, Darlene J. Clark courageously unveils the haunting realities of her tumultuous childhood, marked by abuse, betrayal, and unimaginable hardship. This raw, unflinching memoir not only recounts the painful moments of her past but serves as a beacon of hope and resilience for those who have suffered in silence. Through her story, Darlene calls for understanding, awareness, and the courage to stand up against abuse, reminding us all that survival is not only possible it’s a triumph. For those seeking a tale of strength amid adversity, Born in a Living Hell...

If you or someone you love grew up with an emotionally unavailable, narcissistic, or selfish parent, you probably struggle with residual feelings of anger, abandonment, loneliness, or shame. For anyone who endured a nightmare or a wasteland instead of a nurturing childhood, The Toxic Parents Survival Guide will offer you the clinical insights and the day-to-day tools so you can break the chains of toxicity that bind you in a mess you didn't create.

Bestselling recovery author Karen Casey looks at stories of people who grew up in dysfunctional families and "the good stuff" that can, ironically, come from the experience. She interviews survivors who emerged from the fires of turbulent households affected by abuse, addiction, or other problems, and reveals how they came to process their often-harrowing personal trials and, against the odds, triumph over their difficulties—using skills they honed in response to their childhoods.

What does it take to finally strip off masks of attempted perfection? Is exposing the pain and chaos in your heart and getting real with yourself and others worth it to find true freedom? Jackie Brewer Van Dyke yearned for a fairytale family. Promising herself to never end up like her violent father and overly timid mother, the young girl morphed into “the fixer" in her household, believing she alone could put an end to the cycle of abuse. Determined to conceal her pain and feelings of inadequacy, she hid behind the façade of perfectionism. Though she resolved to never expose her ...

When adult Levonne Gaddy returns to the rural North Carolina community where she was born and raised to attend her mother's funeral, the director bars her entry to the viewing room, assuming she is white and therefore not related to the “colored” woman in the coffin. A sad, funny, and poignant story of childhood emerges as memories surface of racism and of the dysfunctional family life she left behind. Turmoil during the 1960s' racial integration of southern schools fill her mind, as do the challenges of her first job, at age 11, as the live-in caregiver for an elderly white woman.

It isn't every day a sexy demigod throws a pissed-off Cupid onto psychologist Matilda Schmidt's couch and informs her the fate of the world depends on her ability to get him off his diapered ass and back to helping people fall in love. But first she'll need to convince a seductive hit man he's snatched the wrong woman before he convinces her he might be the right man - for a night.

Unspoken Wounds: Healing Childhood Trauma Through the Lens of Culture, Identity & Belonging is a powerful, affirming book for listeners who never saw themselves represented in traditional healing narratives. Written for people whose trauma was shaped by cultural silence, family loyalty, systemic oppression, or generational pain, this book offers a deeply compassionate path toward healing. If you grew up in a home where emotions weren’t safe, where love had conditions, or where survival came before softness, this book will speak to your soul.

"What if the key to healing your life... is finding the pieces of your soul you didn’t know were missing?" Depending on your experiences in life, your soul can become totally lost. It's as if a part of you has faded over the years or completely disappeared. Although it's true that the soul isn't a physical thing and is made up of pure energy, it can still become fragmented. When it does, you might experience depression, anger, anxiety, hopelessness, or feelings of loss even if you aren't sure why. Too many of us struggle with self-confidence, are unable to speak up for ourselves, or know ...

Sally grew up in a dilapidated house by the sea where men were forbidden, her childhood world filled with mystery and intrigue. Hippies trailed through the kitchen looking for God - their leader was Aunt Di, who ruled the house with charismatic force. When Sally’s baby brother vanished from his pram, she became suspicious of the activities going on around her. What happened to Baby David and the woman called Poor Sue? And where did all the people singing and wailing prayers in the front room suddenly go?