Design A Will Online

Will I Ever Be Good Enough?: Healing the Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers

Description

The first book specifically for daughters suffering from the emotional abuse of selfish, self-involved mothers, Will I Ever Be Good Enough? provides the expert assistance you need in order to overcome this debilitating history and reclaim your life for yourself. Drawing on over two decades of experience as a therapist specializing in women's psychology and health, psychotherapist Dr. Karyl McBride helpsyou recognize the widespread effects of this maternal emotional abuse and guides you as you create an individualized program for self-protection, resolution, and complete recovery.

An estimated 1.5 million American women have narcissistic personality disorder, which makes them so insecure and overbearing, insensitive and domineering that they can psychologically damage their daughters for life. Daughters of narcissistic mothers learn that maternal love is not unconditional, and that it is given only when they behave in accordance with their mothers' often unreasonable expectations and whims. As adults, these daughters consequently have difficulty overcoming their insecurities and feelings of inadequacy, disappointment, sadness, and emotional emptiness. They may also have a terrible fear of abandonment that leads them to form unhealthy love relationships, as well as a tendency to perfectionism and unrelenting self-criticism, or to self-sabotage and frustration.

Herself the recovering daughter of a narcissistic mother, Dr. McBride includes her personal struggle, which adds a profound level of authority to her work, along with the perspectives of the hundreds of suffering daughters she's interviewed over the years. Their stories of how maternal abuse has manifested in their lives -- as well as how they have successfully overcome its effects -- show you that you're not alone and that you can take back your life and have the control you want.

Dr. McBride's step-by-step program will enable you to:

(1) Recognize your own experience with maternal narcissism and its effects on all aspects of your life
(2) Discover how you have internalized verbal and nonverbal messages from your mother and how these have translated into a strong desire to overachieve or a tendency to self-sabotage
(3) Construct a step-by-step program to reclaim your life and enhance your sense of self, a process that includes creating a psychological separation from your mother and breaking the legacy of abuse. You will also learn how not to repeat your mother's mistakes with your own daughter.

Warm and sympathetic, filled with the examples of women who have established healthy boundaries with their hurtful mothers, Will I Ever Be Good Enough? encourages and inspires you as it aids your recovery.

Reviews

Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-09-03
Summary: "One of the most helpful books on this topic"

This book is written with tremendous empathy that could only have been someone who went through the trauma of living with a narcissist. It is almost too lifelike with the words and phrases being only too familiar making it a very emotional read. Thank you Karyl for the tremendous help and insight this book gave me.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-08-30
Summary: "Will I Ever Be Good Enough?Healing the Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers"

My mother was Narcissistic and this book helped put everything into persepctive for me. Growing up with a mother like this....I always thought I was wrong, did not matter,and could never be good enough to get her approval. It took me until adulthhood to realize she was Narcissistic. I could never find anything to read on healing myself from the effects of growing up with a mother like mine.
I first looked at this book at Amazon on line, then reviewed the table of contents and read a couple of pages and I knew this one was for me. I have not been disappointed. This book has been very helpful for me and I hope it will helps others too.
Rose

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Rating: 5 / 5
Date: 2010-08-24
Summary: "A Fountain of Gold"

I have been working on codependency for over three years now, having read every book there is from Pia Mellody to Medlody Beattie along with working with a wonderful therapist.
Until this book, I was unable to remember or point to certain parts of my childhood that are still sharing my life with me at age 65.
I sent each of my daughters their own copy and even my son-in-laws. My oldest daughter said yesterday, I don't see much of you on the back cover, Mom, but I do see Dad.
I have another to give to my therapist tomorrow. At another therapist's office, both the doctor and her receptionist wrote down the title.
Even thought we mothers try our best, we have to remember sometimes our response is just a habit we learned and didn't know it.
Finally there is a key to help us connect with our past. What if everyone in just one town or city read this book. Can you imagine the world we would be creating?

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-08-19
Summary: "Very Inciteful Book"

Until I read this book, I understood very little about why my decisions were based on whether or not mom would approve. This book has given me a lot of insite as to why I believe, feel and act as I do.

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Rating: 4 / 5
Date: 2010-08-06
Summary: "Help for our modern-day psychological plague......"

I happened across this book and this subject when, after yet another insane barrage of my worthlessness from my mother, I typed into Google: 'Mothers who Bully Their Children'. Now, I am acquainted with narcissistic personality disorder (I've been surrounded by a good number of narcissists in my life), but i never saw that the first one was dear old Mum.

I like how accessible this book is. I also like the questions posed to help one determine whether one is dealing with simple human narcissism, or a full-blown pathology. Turns out me Mum matched all 33 qualifiers. It's an immense relief to know that this is a topic that is being spoken about, and that there is support specifically for 'Daughters of Narcissistic Mothers', as we DO have special challenges (as opposed, say, to marrying the first one you come across).

Carol McBride has made helping women like us her life's work. Her website is a wonderful source of support and encouragement. For, we all know how isolated we become when dealing with this pathology. And her focus isn't on 'blame Mom'; she helps you release the blame by realizing it's an illness (like alcoholism) that the narcissist cannot help. She then gives practical exercises to assist us in working on ourselves (the only ones, of course, we can control).

I highly recommend this book, along with Ms. McBride's many other fans.