What is your favorite quality about yourself? I am no longer afraid to speak up for myself, my friends or my family. I always tell the truth, and when you have the truth on your side, there is no reason to be afraid.
Can you share a little of your current work with us? Yes, my book “Memoirs of a Sex Addict: A Jersey Girl Bares All, by Samantha Barrett, was written to hopefully prevent any other children from feeling the way I did as a child and growing up too fast because of it. It is a book for adults; parents, teachers, psychiatrists letting them know some of the signs that your child may be suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder.
Is there a message in your novel (memoir) that you want readers to grasp? My biggest message is to parents. I want them to be careful what they say; not only to children, but in front of children. They also need to know that you can NEVER compliment your child too much. Telling them how beautiful they are, how smart they are everyday won’t make them conceited if you raise them right, it will just make them confident. Finally, I want parents, teachers, cafeteria workers, principals and anyone else who works with children that “harmless teasing” isn’t harmless to every child. It can be devastating to some.
How much of the book is realistic? The entire book is true, some parts seem unreal, but it’s all true.
Have you included a lot of your life experiences, even friends, in the plot? The book is filled with my real life experiences, both good and bad. Many friends and family members are mentioned in the book.
Where do you see yourself in five years? A production company wanted to make a movie out of my book, so probably watching that movie; Very exciting!
Do you have any advice for writers? You need patience, which initially, I was lacking!
Author Samantha Barrett says that Memoirs of a Sex Addict was initially written to help heal herself. It is her sincere hope that it will also benefit others who have suffered as she has with Body Dysmorphic Disorder, a disorder which led directly to sex addiction and many of the reckless adventures recorded in this book. For her, BDD was a very rough ride, so some of the language and emotions in these pages are also rough. It had to be that way, she says, in order to tell the true story. The betrayals were many, including of her husbands, and there was never a shortage of men willing to take advantage of her. Even a counselor in an inpatient addiction hospital found her to be easy prey. Of course, the greatest betrayal was of herself. Some of what she did will come across as wild, reckless, even self-indulgent, but the common theme with alcohol and drug addicts is that she couldn’t stop herself.
Dr. Irvin Milowe, MD, and professor of psychiatry at the University of Miami, calls Memoirs of a Sex Addict “a very thoughtful trip into an addiction, that also shows the route out.” And while Ms. Barrett is indeed eager to help others avoid her plight, she doesn’t hide the details of her excursions.
For Samantha Barrett the journey into addiction began during her childhood, with being bullied in the home in what might seem a benign way. “The media,” she says, “has been telling us about bullies at school and on the internet, but we rarely hear of bullies living under the same roof. We assume that parents will prevent anything hurtful to their children. But what if they are not aware? What may be “harmless teasing” for one child, could be devastating to another.
A child may be hiding the pain. I was told that I was ugly, that no man would ever marry me. This led to a disease called Body Dysmorphic Disorder or BDD, a disease that distorted the way I saw myself and led me to obsess over flaws that may not have even be present. We hear tragic stories of drug and alcohol addiction. My addiction was different. Sex was my “drug of choice.” Only sex could take away my pain of feeling “ugly.” As soon as a man was on top of me or giving me attention, I felt beautiful. Often, alcohol went along with this behavior, but sex was the one I had no control over. Hopefully, the stories in this book will encourage parents, teachers and caregivers to be more aware of what is being told to or heard by their children.”
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Genre – Biographies & Memoirs / Self-Help
Rating – R
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