I am determined to share my story but I must take it slow, in baby steps. My now deceased parents were both alcoholics and I was an only child. There were always people yelling and a lot of verbal abuse going on nearly every night. Seriously, they were drunk every night. Mom did make my dinner but then I always took it to my room to eat alone. Even to this day I have trouble eating in front of other people. They were also physically aggressive with each other and with me. I saw a lot of violence that no one knew about. We lived in the hills and the houses were far apart. No one knew people were getting hurt. Once my mom was super drunk and she tried to strangle me. I had to grab her by the forearms to get her off me. She bruised easily so the next morning she woke up with bruises. All she could remember was that I assaulted her so she called her friend and told her how I beat her up, My God! I'm not the abusive type at all but I got labeled. I can remember many more stories but it's getting painful to discuss so I will stop here for now. More to come I am sure. Sorry -