The author had a heartbreaking childhood. She was neglected by her mother and abused from an early age by her mother�s lover, who she later discovered to be her biological father. Hooked on prescribed tranquilisers from her teenage years, she battled to break free for most of her adult life, and through two difficult marriages. Today she is a happily married woman, with a loving and supportive husband and three children. She runs her own practice as a counsellor and psychiatrist.