Taming Your Turbulent Past: A Self-Help Guide for Adult Children of Alcoholics - Softcover

Geared to people who grew up in alcoholic families, this is a sound, psychologically grounded book that "is about getting free from the resentments and anxiety and painful emotional memories adult children of alcoholics continue to carry from childhood into adulthood." In simple, direct prose, Rosellini and Worden discuss the tendencies adult children of alcoholics have: often they are perfectionists who are never satisfied, they neglect themselves while caring for others, they pretend to be invulnerable but constantly feel pain, they have low self-esteem, they have inordinate fears, and they overeat and abuse addictive substances (from tobacco to drugs). Among the many solutions offered, the authors counsel that readers must forgive their parents. ("Forgiveness does not mean you have to like what happened to you.") It would be overly optimistic to expect that one book would help a confused adult untangle a lifetime worth of emotional distress, but this work points the way to solutions.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.