Am I In Kansas Yet?: Surviving Dangerous Loved Ones Paperback 1484196945 9781484196946 Cassi Janzek

This "Cinderella Marries Prince Jekyll-Hyde" doesn't happen in the Land of Make Believe, but right here where Cassi's life was as endangered as Snow White's. Cassi speaks for the children and intimate partners who didn't have her luck to live to tell their stories. In Am I in Kansas Yet?, Cassi Janzek describes the terror such victims face, and explains why abused men and women don't "just leave." Not all two-year-old girls live the life of a protected princess. Cassi survived to marry her Prince Charming only to have him abuse her and threaten her life. This true story relates harrowing experiences from her childhood and marriage. Her inspiring narrative-driven memoir's lively, humorous voice aspires to save others from needless unhappiness: surviving isn't enough. Without blaming, simply revealing her pain and confusion, she relates what happened that led to tragedy. Cassi's is a social, spiritual, intellectual, and sexual journey that documents her movement through trauma towards health through her own efforts, and illustrates how mental illness reaches through generations to destroy lives. Cassi explores sexuality in a serious, dramatic way, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders comes alive as she describes dealing with disturbed, narcissistic people. Although Cassi has BA and MA degrees, her unique qualifications are her perspective of a child whose mother never wanted her, and the consequences for the unwanted baby when the angry mother has control of her, and her close escape from death from her husband. A Penn-State-scholarship student, she meets and marries a seemingly adoring suitor from a wealthy family, but this fairy-tale ending soon turns into a nightmare when Prince Jekyll-Hyde reveals his explosive temper and relentlessly controlling nature. Cassi explains why she didn't leave as she poses questions about abusive spouses and toxic families. Their backgrounds, collaborating with cultural circumstances of the times, made for a disastrous union. Her life matches millions of others who have experienced child and intimate-partner abuse, but she shows that you don't have to be trapped in trauma. She rediscovered the openness, the curiosity, the passion, joy, love, and authenticity she had as a child that had been suppressed for so long.