{"product_id":"i-got-tired-of-pretending-how-an-adult-raised-in-an-alcoholicdysfunctional-family-finds-freedom-9781539901211","title":"I Got Tired of Pretending: How An Adult Raised In An Alcoholic\/Dysfunctional Family Finds Freedom","description":"This book is about the experiences I had, the lessons I learned, and the tools I used in order to set myself free from the prison constructed for me by my parents when I was a small child. This book is not about blame. It's about finding out who's responsible, although yelling, screaming, and blaming, even though directed at an empty chair, was a very necessary part of my gaining freedom. This book is about doing my family-of-origin work. Which, simply stated, means I went back and found out what really happened to me when I was a child, and how it has affected my life as an adult. Then, once past the initial rage, anger, and sadness over that information, I went back wherever possible to find out what happened to my parents when they were children. This information gave my heart something to work with when I started the process of trying to forgive my parents. This book is also about feelings. My feelings. The feelings that began to surface while I was in the process of finding out why, ever since I can remember, I have felt something was wrong with me. That somehow I was flawed and different from other people. No matter what the situation, no matter how cool I appeared, the truth was that on the inside I knew I wasn't enough. I lived with the nagging fear that someday, somewhere, somehow I would be publicly exposed. A great deal of my energy went into avoiding people and places where exposure was a possibility. This book is about the front line issues of adult children of alcoholics, adult children from dysfunctional families, and co-dependence. They are, for the most part, the same issue. The book tells the story of a desperate, frightened, inadequate man meeting a small, frightened, distrustful boy and the two of them doing together what neither of them could do alone. They ride the great, wild, life-changing horse called truth, down the road to freedom.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Createspace Independent Publishing Platform","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50903603708178,"sku":"9781539901211","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_a9d0c465-693d-45fc-8e3b-584d3fb6abf9.jpg?v=1738498938","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/i-got-tired-of-pretending-how-an-adult-raised-in-an-alcoholicdysfunctional-family-finds-freedom-9781539901211","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}