When I was growing up, besides bathing me, my mom did everything for me until I got married and moved out of her house at age 21.
She brushed/fixed my hair, did my make-up, picked out my clothes... the list goes on and on.

She also never really allowed me to think for myself. When someone asked me what I liked to eat,
my mother would speak up before I had an opportunity to answer and she would answer the question
for me as if I was not in the room ("no, she doesn't like that." , "yes, she likes that") I was never given the opportunity
to make decisions for myself... they were always made for me. I just went along with it, because it was all I knew, so for me, it was normal.

I really believe her heart was in the right place. She probably just wanted to protect me because I was 1) a girl 2) her only child and...
and she had lost a son two years earlier and 3) disabled

Was this some kind of unintentional abuse?
The way I was treated growing up has affected me so much.
I often feel like a frightened little girl, I don't have any idea who I am,
I don't know how to do most of the things that girls were taught to do
at a young age (i.e. the things they need to do to take care of themselves), I have no voice...