The Giving Trap

By Simone Ashford

You're the one everyone calls first in a crisis - and no one checks on afterward. If you give constantly to partners, friends, family, and coworkers while quietly running on empty, you're not "too generous." You're caught in the giving trap.

The Giving Trap is a clear-eyed, no-nonsense guide to understanding why you overgive, what it's actually costing you, and how to build a different relationship with generosity - one where your yes is chosen, not compulsive, and your no doesn't require an apology.

This book traces chronic overgiving back to where it actually starts (often childhood conditional love or a parentified role), then hands you concrete, adaptable tools: scripts for family, friends, and work; a method for disarming guilt-trips in real time; and a "reciprocity audit" for finally seeing which relationships are genuinely mutual and which have been quietly one-sided for years.

What's Inside:

The real difference between generosity and compulsive overgiving - and how to tell which one is running your lifeWord-for-word scripts for a "clean no" with family, friends, and colleagues, without over-explaining or apologizingHow to recognize and disarm guilt-tripping the moment it happensA practical Reciprocity Audit for mapping who gives and who takes across your closest relationshipsA 30-day, week-by-week boundary practice for turning insight into an actual habitGuidance for caregivers, exploitative relationship dynamics, and rebuilding trust in your own judgment

Perfect for the chronic people-pleaser in your life, an adult child managing aging-parent care alone, or anyone who's ever been called "too generous" and quietly wondered why it felt so exhausting.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 7784269625
• ISBN13: 9787784269625
• Release Date: September 2026
• Publisher: Simone Ashford
• Length: 110 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.2" x 6.0"