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What do you hope your obituary will say about you? That I was a loving wife and mother, and that both children and animals suffered less because I was here.
Where do you get your inspiration from? My journal; I knew half way through it that if I published it I could prevent other children from suffering as I did. Also, I realized that I see many children with the disease I had and very few doctors are aware of its danger or how to treat it. I am sure that once one of those brilliant minds reads this, they will find a way to diagnose it early and how to treat it. Body Dysmorphia IS a deadly disease. The only reason nobody knows that is because the autopsy will always read, “suicide,” or “overdose,” not knowing the initial disease that led to the death.
What is hardest – getting published, writing or marketing? Marketing, for sure!
What marketing works for you? I let you know when I find one!
Is your family supportive? Do your friends support you? My parents are supportive; they knew I had to do it. My siblings and extended family were mortified, ashamed, embarrassed for me. I don’t know why; I wasn’t. But I guess you learn who’s got your back once you write a controversial book. I have to give Kudos to my husband. Of all the people that had any reason to be against this book, he is the only one. He not only supported me, and loved me through the writing of the book, he helped me with the computer end of it, brought home dinner the days I was working on it. I must have done something right to deserve him.
What other jobs have you had in your life? I was a Registered Nurse but when the hospitals all went to computer charting, due to the brain damage caused by my head injury I was unable to comprehend the system. I recall everything I learned from before the accident, but have trouble learning new tasks. I was a yoga instructor for a few years, but my favorite part of yoga is turning off the brain, so now I’m a substitute instructor. I highly recommend yoga for all of you like me, who have a “monkey mind,” where thoughts jump from one to another like monkeys swinging from tree to tree. Yoga is great in getting that under control.
Author Samantha Barrett says that Memoirs of a Sex Addict was initially written to help heal herself. It is her sincere hope that it will also benefit others who have suffered as she has with Body Dysmorphic Disorder, a disorder which led directly to sex addiction and many of the reckless adventures recorded in this book. For her, BDD was a very rough ride, so some of the language and emotions in these pages are also rough. It had to be that way, she says, in order to tell the true story. The betrayals were many, including of her husbands, and there was never a shortage of men willing to take advantage of her. Even a counselor in an inpatient addiction hospital found her to be easy prey. Of course, the greatest betrayal was of herself. Some of what she did will come across as wild, reckless, even self-indulgent, but the common theme with alcohol and drug addicts is that she couldn’t stop herself.
Dr. Irvin Milowe, MD, and professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami, calls Memoirs of a Sex Addict “a very thoughtful trip into an addiction, that also shows the route out.” And while Ms. Barrett is indeed eager to help others avoid her plight, she doesn’t hide the details of her excursions.
For Samantha Barrett the journey into addiction began during her childhood, with being bullied in the home in what might seem a benign way. “The media,” she says, “has been telling us about bullies at school and on the internet, but we rarely hear of bullies living under the same roof. We assume that parents will prevent anything hurtful to their children. But what if they are not aware? What may be “harmless teasing” for one child, could be devastating to another.
A child may be hiding the pain. I was told that I was ugly, that no man would ever marry me. This led to a disease called Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BDD, a disease that distorted the way I saw myself and led me to obsess over flaws that may not have even be present. We hear tragic stories of drug and alcohol addiction. My addiction was different. Sex was my “drug of choice.” Only sex could take away my pain of feeling “ugly.” As soon as a man was on top of me or giving me attention, I felt beautiful. Often, alcohol went along with this behavior, but sex was the one I had no control over. Hopefully, the stories in this book will encourage parents, teachers and caregivers to be more aware of what is being told to or heard by their children.”
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Genre – Biographies & Memoirs / Self-Help
Rating – R
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