The nurturing power of dysfunctional families

Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
--Leo Tolstoy

It is important, if you grew up in a dysfunctional family, to take time to reflect on the competitive edge it has given you. People from happy, harmonious homes may feel healthy and well-adjusted, but they're fixed on one family model which they try to emulate the rest of their lives. If you grew up in a dysfunctional family, however, you may be deeply damaged, but you've acquired a broad repertoire of negative models to outgrow. As you go about your adult life, you should be thankful to your parents: they have given you the kind of education that happy children, through no fault of their own, never receive.

My parents taught me everything I need to unlearn.