My Mother, Munchausen's and Me Audiobook By Helen Naylor cover art

My Mother, Munchausen's and Me

A True Story of Betrayal and a Shocking Family Secret

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My Mother, Munchausen's and Me

By: Helen Naylor
Narrated by: Helen Naylor
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About this listen

There was a time when I loved my mother. It’s shocking to imply that I stopped loving my mum because mothers always love their children and always do their best for them. Mothers are supposed to be good. But my mother wasn’t good.

Ten years ago, Helen Naylor discovered her mother, Elinor, had been faking debilitating illnesses for 30 years. After Elinor’s self-induced death, Helen found her diaries, which Elinor wrote daily for more than 50 years. The diaries reveal not only the inner workings of Elinor’s twisted mind and self-delusion, but also shocking revelations about Helen’s childhood.

Everything Helen knew about herself and her upbringing was founded on a lie. The unexplained accidents and days spent entirely on her own as a little girl, imagining herself climbing into the loft and disappearing into a different world, tell a story of neglect. As a teenager, her mother’s advice to Helen on her body and mental health speaks of dangerous manipulation.

With Elinor’s behavior becoming increasingly destructive, and Helen now herself a mother, she was left with a stark choice: to collude with Elinor’s lies or be accused of abandoning her.

My Mother, Munchausen’s and Me is a heartbreaking, honest, and brave account of a daughter unravelling the truth about her mother and herself. It’s a story of a stolen childhood, mental illness, and the redemptive power of breaking a complex and toxic bond.

©2021 Helen Naylor (P)2021 Thread, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.
Abuse Child Abuse Dysfunctional Families Dysfunctional Relationships Parenting & Families Relationships Health Mental Health
Powerful Memoir • Validating Account • Brilliant Narration • Impactful Story • Courageous Perspective
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Growing up with a mother that has munchausen’s and narcissistic personality disorder is too insane to believe. Every chapter revealed a deeper darker twisted cave that this woman grew up in. And reading how it doesn’t stop just because she’s grown… A very enlightening book that can hopefully be a cautionary tale for those in need. ♥️

Touching memoires

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Helen Naylor delves deep into her own thoughts, memories, and feelings in order to catalogue her experience dealing with her mother’s narcissism and FDIS. It is well-told, engaging, and deeply distressing. Helen is a brilliant narrator and is able to add extra weight to the story with her powerful voice.

An incredible account of a misunderstood disorder.

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Brave words and observations about how this behavior persists, and why it is so hard to address. Last, an honest account of what it feels like when the truth is finally revealed.

Alternate Reality and Impacts on Others

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This was a audiobook that kept me hooked all the way through. Helen as an adult looks back on her life as a child, teen and into adult years and how everything was centred around her mom. And when things weren’t about her, how she would act to get the attention back.

I found it really interesting that Helen’s mom kept journals detailing each day in a couple of lines. When sections were read during the book you could feel the detachment from situations and the excitement if a medical professional gave her attention.

This book publishes November 25th. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and @bookouture for the advanced audio copy.

True story but reads like a thriller 😱

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I have heard quite a bit about Munchausen's by Proxy over the years, but not much about Munchausen's itself. In this memoir by Helen Naylor, we learn how her mother's decades of fake illnesses finally led to her death, and how this all had a devastating effect on Helen.

Elinor's illnesses were self-manufactured. But she kept diaries. Dozens and dozens of them over the course of fifty years. As Helen begins reading these diaries she learns so much about her mother, but even about herself as well.

Helen's life was tragic. Her mother was always ill in bed, leaving Helen to fend for herself for days at a time. This was when she was a young child. As a teenager, things became much worse for Helen. As an adult, Helen began reading these diaries and is more than determined never to ever become like her mother. She also learns what love is and how it is an unbreakable bond, even as she survived a tragic past.

I had this book review in audiobook format, and it was narrated by the author. Listening to this book had quite an impact on me. This was no easy book to read or listen to, especially because things were so tragic. Sometimes Helen read the journal entries in order, sometimes randomnly. In either case, they were more than disturbing. Now Helen herself is a mother, and she wants never to repeat her mother's mistakes. More than that, as a reader I often felt as if I were absorbing the same words that Helen was reading, and wondering what it would have been like to be in her shoes, especially when she was a child.

Many thanks to Thread and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Excellent book!

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This book was hugely validating to take in. While my own experience was more a covert (less obvious / dramatic) there was 80% of this book I could relate to, which helped me to validate what happened in my own family.



Much of my own childhood was reflected in this.

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One downside of the book is feeling like it could have been nailed down in 10 less chapters. It was mind-bending to realize the horrible health care system they had to rely upon, even as she seeks support for PTSD. I just hope Helen continues to thrive in spite of the harsh realities she faces head on with great courage. I believe she is an inspiration to the many lost souls trying to find their footing after being raised by truly crazy, abusive people.

Interesting but a little long…

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I couldn't see the author as a victim. Her stories seemed exaggerated and her mother's diary entries seemed like average day to day writing that the author seemed to twist to fit her narrative. I saw no Munchausen's and the story didn't ring true.

Boring

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It’s a rare exception if I don’t finish a book but this book falls into that rare exception. Helen’s story is a sad one and her childhood with her mother was clearly challenging, however, as a book it came off as Helen having “victim/martyr mentality”. Her mothers diary entries did little to support the narrative around them. I can only base my review on the first half of the book since I didn’t finish it but I didn’t finish it because it droned on and on with sameness. Memoirs typically take the reader on a journey where the subject grows and evolves throughout life’s trials and tribulations. Half way through the book, Helen had grown from childhood to motherhood with little to no personal growth in relation to her mother. I went from sympathising with childhood Helen to being frustrated with adult Helen that she was still allowing herself to be mistreated and barely made any effort to move outside the mental confines her mother had laid out. I don’t recommend this book to anyone who had a turbulent childhood because it’s not empowering at all. In fact it felt downright depressing and frustrating.

Couldn’t Finish It - Depressing & Frustrating

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Sounded very whiney and like you just wanted sympathy. Please be at peace. I was so disappointed just all you, you you.

Disappointed

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