All My Children's Debbi Morgan (ex-Angie Hubbard; ex-Harmony Hamilton, The Young and the Restless) has broached the subject of domestic abuse via her one-woman show, The Monkey on My Back, but now she's revealing her entire heart wrenching story in her new book, The Monkey on My Back: A Memoir -- Breaking a Generational Curse.
The fearless memoir, spanning three generations of women, focuses on the fear, doubt, and insecurities Morgan struggled with for much of her life -- and how she escaped a vicious cycle of pain to find self-confidence, happiness, and success. Says the Simon & Schuster website: "Early on in her family history, an ugly pattern of abuse developed into fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and emotional trauma, which passed down from one generation to the next. From her maternal grandmother, who was beaten by her husband as they struggled through the Great Depression, to Debbi's mother, who became pregnant as a young teen and suffered the same abuse as her mother, down to Debbi, who internalized the physical abuse she watched her mother endure, a deep-rooted fear plagued all three generations of women. But through it all, Debbi endured, and with a good dose of humor and self-compassion, she emerged with the deepest love of herself -- and her mojo quite intact! Told with intense emotion, candor, and a barrage of belly laughs, Debbi shares a deeply moving, explosive, yet inspirational journey about what it took to break the cycle and emerge as a confident, fearless woman."
Morgan, who played AMC's Angie on and off from 1982 to 2011, says writing the memoir was, "like I had to regurgitate all of the emotions of the pain, shame, humiliation and fear that still exists in the deep core of my spirit and soul. Once I was able to get that out, to release it, and to go on that journey of my expressing through my words, it was so freeing and liberating. It was extremely cathartic for me to do and it wasn't doing me any good to keep that stuff inside and not talk about it... I was writing this book on-and-off for a period of 10 years because I was still going through the upheavals in life. I still had a lot to conquer, and it was through therapy that I finally came full circle. The book was therapeutic because I sort of was able to sort of have an out of body experience and stand on the outside looking in because as I was looking at [my mother] having her trials and tribulations and see the choices that she made. I was able to take that journey."
Morgan's book is now available for order via Amazon and Simon & Schuster's website. As soap fans may recall, she is not the first AMC actress to open up about abuse. Cady McClain (ex-Dixie Cooney; ex-Kelly Andrews, Y&R) also released a book about her painful past with sexual abuse titled Murdering My Youth: A Memoir.
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