St. Martin's Essentials / Sounds True – serie

From the leading expert on adult children of addicts, an essential guide to healing wounds of growing up with addiction and family dysfunction"Required reading for understanding the full picture of recovery, repair, and reclaiming our true selves."-Aimie Apigian, MD, author of The Biology of TraumaApproximately 76 million adults in the U.S. share a family history of addiction. In this urgently needed resource, Dr. Tian Dayton draws on decades of expertise to help adult children of addicts (ACAs) recover from family trauma, reconnect with themselves, and heal relational wounds. If you've grown up with a parent's addiction, it can leave a profound imprint on your development. Its ripple effects reach into every corner of adulthood-how you partner, parent, work, and form friendships. "Relational trauma weaves into the fabric of your life, shaping how you see yourself and the world," writes Dr. Dayton. "It can leave you questioning your worth, mistrusting intimacy, and feeling disconnected from your inner world." But it doesn't have to stay this way. This book helps you explore the illness that shaped your family, understand the imprint it left on you, and set out on a path towards inner and relational recovery. "Healing begins with learning to distinguish real danger from old, outdated alarms," writes Dr. Dayton. "It requires tuning into your nervous system, tracing your automatic reactions, and gently questioning the distorted beliefs and fear states your wounds left behind." Throughout the book, you will learn how to:* Process attachment wounds and cognitive distortions caused by gaslighting and denial* Reawaken and reconnect with your body in ways that feel safe and grounding* Understand your emotions and regulate them when they feel out of control* Grieve unspoken losses and let your inner child find its own, authentic voice* Heal from long-term CPTSD and codependency and find post-traumatic growth Grounded in research, enriched by client voices and narratives, and filled with experiential processes, light a path unearthing buried pain and transforming it into meaning and purpose. This book empowers you to flourish in recovery, break the chain of intergenerational dysfunction, and create a compassionate and connected future for yourself and those you love.

An empowering new take on codependent behavior, revealing the underlying reasons we struggle with doing it all-and the path to recovery and freedom.Are you the person everyone comes to when they're in a jam?Do you regularly accommodate others' needs and preferences?Does it feel like chaos will ensue if you don't handle the travel plans, divvy up the check at group dinners, sort out your friend's latest crisis, and so on?If these questions resonate, the odds are good that you are one of the over-giving, over-extending individuals struggling with what psychotherapist and boundary expert Terri Cole has termed high-functioning codependency (HFC).When you hear the word codependent, you might think of the traditional enabler framework involving a hapless victim and their selfless rescuer. Terri certainly did. But after years in her therapy practice, she realized that many of her clients were presenting codependent behaviors that fell outside of the classic model.The ironic truth with HFC is that the more capable you are the more codependency doesn't look like codependency. In Too Much, you'll discover how to identify your HFC blueprint (or why you relate to others the way you do), the source of the attraction between codependents and narcissists, and how to cultivate emotional resiliency, practice real self-care, and much more.Each chapter includes tips, self-assessments, and exercises to help you transform how you see yourself and the world, avoid relapses, and stay centered in your own experience so that you can relate to others in a healthier way."How you feel, what you think, what you want matters. In fact, those things need to matter to you the most," writes Terri. "By choosing the path of healing and recovery, you are coming home to yourself." Here is a book for making the shift "from too much to just right," so you can live a life that's full of authenticity, freedom, and joy.