Let Your Privates Breathe: Breaking the Cycle of Addiction and Family Dysfunction-A Memoir

By Melissa Steussy

There is another way-though Melissa never would have found it on her own. At 21, sitting in the back of a police car in handcuffs, she faced a painful truth: she had become what she swore she never would-just like her alcoholic mother.

Raised in a chaotic home marked by poverty, instability, and trauma, Melissa grew up in low-income apartments on welfare, with an incarcerated father she never knew, a mother lost to alcohol, and the presence of abuse at every turn.

Her arrest for DUI was the turning point. Court-ordered to treatment, she began to unravel the deep roots of addiction and slowly found her way to recovery-healing her mind, body, and spirit. She eventually built a life she once believed was impossible: a stable, loving family of her own.

For anyone raised in an alcoholic or dysfunctional home, Melissa's story will resonate deeply. The chaos of childhood hardwires our nervous systems for survival, not peace. We learn to be hypervigilant, afraid to relax, needing substances to numb the pain we never asked for. But avoiding that pain only deepens the wounds-until we face a choice: jail, institutions, death... or something different.

At eight months sober, Melissa got pregnant. Still reeling from trauma, abandonment, and a deep mother wound, she was emotionally still a child herself. Sobriety wasn't easy, and healing wasn't linear-but she stayed the course. Not drinking and not using became the foundation for the life she longed to live: the life of a present mother, a loving wife, and a woman connected to something greater than herself.

With a perfect score of 10/10 on the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) scale, Melissa committed to breaking the cycle. She found tools to regulate her overwhelmed nervous system, to stay grounded through the chaos, and to show up-imperfectly, but consistently-for her children and herself.

This is a memoir about what's possible. It's a celebration of the messy, miraculous journey of recovery. Of rising again, no matter how many times you fall. Of rewriting your story-one day at a time.

There is hope. And Melissa is living proof.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1508579539
• ISBN13: 9781508579533
• Release Date: August 2023
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
• Length: 212 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"