Many of you know that I was brought up in a large Sicilian Roman Catholic family and that the only way to be heard above the roar was to yell. Yes, I come from a long line of expert yellers. When I first met my ex-husband’s family they were also yellers and screamers.

In my world yelling and screaming was the way you showed someone how much you cared for them. In fact, my ex-husband told me once he yelled at me because he cared for me and for years I bought that. 

I now know that “yelling” is not a normal way of being and it took years of therapy and living on my own to realize that yelling does not mean caring.