Behind Closed Doors

Behind Closed Doors: The Addiction To Power And Control, is the prequel to my first book, The Anatomy Of A Woman Abused: One Woman’s Journey. It answers in more detail, the question I am most frequently asked during book signings, Why did you stay after the first time? 'The Anatomy' is loosely based on my 'twelve-year' struggle to survive an abusive marriage. Behind Closed Doors, shares details of how early events in my life impacted my life choices. For most of my life I searched for a male figure to replace a father who loved me unconditionally and died suddenly when I was ten years old. My relationship with my father was the only example of a functioning relationship that I had known, up until his passing. I had the pre-conceived notion that all men would be like him. It took me years to stop adjusting my life, my thinking, my values, to force love and happiness with individuals who themselves grew up in loveless disfunction and had nothing to offer me but pain and suffering. The film version of Behind Closed Doors, is now in pre-production. It offers a gripping view inside the lives of couples from various ethnic backgrounds and tells how each family deals with the abuser’s addiction to the power the victim has given them over their lives. The stage play, The Anatomy Of A Woman Abused, is now touring the U.S. I hope that my story, told through each of these vehicles, stage, film and books, will reach and encourage those who suffer in silence, and move them to seek the power within themselves, to take back control of their lives. I am encouraged myself, that the laws are finally catching up with this 'Black Eye' on our country’s value system'. - Jaisun McMillian