I'm the product of emotional, mental and physical abuse. I was getting whippings as soon as I learned to walk because I was a "naughty" baby and always "getting into things"- like what a baby does.

Others kept getting us in trouble. Always getting screamed at and beatings by both parents and told it's because "they love me" by mom. Huh? My father hated me, never told me that he loved me. I was ignored until he got pissed off drunk. All I remember is a scowl on his face.

Always called "stupid" and told "won't you ever learn?", I had a "bad memory" then, too. I'd get "disciplined" over something that I did, switch, and do something else to get "disciplined" for. Sure I deserved disciplines, but to the extreme I had to endure was ludicrous.

My parents were bullies, especially my father who ruled by an iron fist for 18 years till I escaped away. I do remember trying to crawl away and bouncing off of walls, both when a teen and a kid.

I was a shell of a person, withdrawn and scared of life that lasted till I was about 25 where years of getting liquored and drugged up helped pull me out of my shell. I had no people skills, so I also got picked on and bullied at school, too.

I had no safe place but inside and in books.

We all stayed hidden out of fear. Everyone got a taste of it.