Book Description
You Were Never Broken.
You Were Surviving.
What if the anxiety, guilt, shame, self-doubt, addiction, toxic relationships, people-pleasing, emotional exhaustion, and fear you have carried for years were never evidence that something was wrong with you? What if they were intelligent survival adaptations created by growing up inside an emotionally unsafe home?
In My Mother The Sociopath, internationally bestselling author Slavica Bogdanov shares the deeply personal story of growing up with a narcissistic mother whose manipulation, emotional contradictions, psychological control, and unpredictable behavior shaped every aspect of her identity for decades. More than a memoir, this is an in-depth exploration of trauma bonding, emotional conditioning, addiction, shame, emotional incest, parentification, toxic attachment, nervous-system survival, and the long journey back to psychological freedom.
Through remarkable honesty and psychological insight, the book explains why survivors often attract narcissistic partners, struggle with boundaries, experience chronic hypervigilance, overthink relationships, fear abandonment, sabotage themselves, and continue abusing themselves long after the original abuse has ended. Patterns that once felt like personal flaws begin making perfect psychological sense when viewed through the lens of trauma.
Unlike many books that offer simplistic empowerment slogans, this work explores the emotional complexity of recovery with depth, compassion, and clinical insight. It helps readers understand not only what happened to them, but why healing feels so difficult—and how lasting recovery actually becomes possible.
This is ultimately a story of rebuilding identity after years of psychological abuse. It is a reminder that healing does not begin by becoming someone new. It begins by finally understanding that you were never crazy, never weak, and never beyond repair. You were surviving exactly as your nervous system learned to survive.