January 8, 2026
This is the first in a series of 24 posts with guidance for people suffering from childhood family trauma. I discovered in my own life in recovery and in my work with many people that the roots of many widespread Read more…
January 5, 2026
Recovery goes on for life, but we don’t always have to work so hard. A time comes when we realize we’re living freer, happier, and more fulfilling lives. We recognize we’ve gone beyond the limits of our childhood environments and Read more…
January 4, 2026
In this post, I discuss the importance of careful discernment in relationships so you can avoid entering those that set back your recovery. Unlike a biological child who is under your care for approximately 18 years, the child within is Read more…
There’s still more to do in recovery because enduring emotional adjustments still detract from the quality of our lives. It’s difficult to leave addictions behind and change self-defeating life patterns fully until we face and overcome the unresolved childhood emotions Read more…
December 30, 2025
Self-defeating life patterns originate with our childhood attempts to survive and meet our needs in troubled families. We needed recognition, affection, autonomy, attention, and accountability. If we become compulsive achievers, we probably needed parental recognition. Those of us with co-dependency Read more…
The Transformation Process What did we really want and need when we developed our childhood survival patterns? We usually needed things like stability, affection, self-worth, and support. You’ll find constructive ways to provide these things to yourself during recovery, maybe Read more…
December 29, 2025
Preparation and Training Make a Huge Difference You began your recovery when you sought information about changing your life. You’ve gathered additional information from this website and other sources. You may recognize yourself in the survival patterns described. Understanding and Read more…
December 24, 2025
Childhood Self-Comforting Strategies can Lead to Addiction This post describes how addictions develop from our childhood coping mechanisms. As human beings, we naturally seek changes in consciousness. Achieving a satisfying and lasting state of mind and body is a basic Read more…
How Self-Defeating Life Patterns Develop “I won’t make the mistakes my parents made,” many of us say to ourselves as we launch into adulthood. With the natural optimism of youth, we apply our energy and strength to achieving “success” and Read more…
December 20, 2025
In this chapter I describe three important dimensions of the continuing adult impact of Family Trauma Syndrome for those of us who grew up in troubled homes: Enduring Emotional Adjustments from Childhood: (1) unstable self-worth, (2) unresolved emotions and post-traumatic Read more…
December 19, 2025
Ingenious Childhood Solutions to Impossible Situations This post explains the ingenious strategies that children develop in order to survive in troubled homes. We find the roots of our problematic adult behavior in the ways we adjusted to our limiting childhood environments. Read more…
Where Survival Strategies Originate This post gives you an overview of how our childhood trauma and survival strategies in troubled families where we may have experienced insecurity, distrust, volatility, criticism, conflict, and distance. In many families, problems were hidden or Read more…
Family Resources In this post I cite the work of Dolores Curran who beautifully describes the characteristics of a functional family and I describe a family I admired while growing up. Families and communities that enhance children’s abilities to meet Read more…
Basic Human Needs Another useful way to understand how we coped with our childhood environments is our ability to meet basic human needs, a concept introduced by Abraham Maslow (Motivation and Personality). When we can’t fulfill our basic human needs, Read more…
December 18, 2025
Resilience Resources for Youth The National Health Service of Wales in 2018 conducted a major study of family and community conditions in that country to assess the extent to which resilience resources available to youth offset the long-term risks for Read more…