Toxic:

A Compassionate Companion and Guide to Overcoming a Traumatic or Abusive Childhood

Jackie Poet

For those of us who had a distressing or abusive childhood, this book validates our experience. It understands us. It is honest and powerful.

Exploring and explaining why and how our younger selves learned ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving, it compassionately considers:

• The impact of our upbringing and how this affects us today.
• Our options for building a better tomorrow.

We are all different. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to life’s problems, and no single path to a contented future. In an optimistic way, this book faces the reality that life can be complex and hard, while also looking at a world of opportunity for personal progress and change. It empowers us to find our own route to destinations of our choosing.

Parts of our lives that have the greatest impact are explored. How can we learn to trust? Should we forgive? How do we recognise healthy relationships and unhealthy relationships, narcissism, codependency, and gaslighting?

The book describes a wide range of strategies, tools, and techniques to help us. This includes sections on the traditional approaches of psychotherapy and counselling. New ways toward healing including mind–body medicine are considered. Everything from cold water swimming, dance and drama therapy, through to martial arts, boxing, and kickboxing are described.

Ways to think more helpfully avoiding thinking traps and errors, processing emotions, and our personal goals are covered. Above all the book is a friend and companion on our journey. It gifts us with the opportunity to change when and if we choose to do so in a way that works best for us.

*This book was previously published as Parents Can Really F*ck You Up: A Compassionate Companion and Guide to Overcoming a Traumatic, Abusive, or Unfair Childhood by Jackie Poet*