'Wearing a Mask Called Normal,' Helps to Overcome Abuse

The new memoir, "Wearing a Mask Called Normal," recalls Amrita Maat's journey from childhood abuse to abuse as an adult and her eventual realization that to recover, she had to forgive.

"It began very early - my mother told me often that I wasn't planned and that my birth caused a great deal of shame for her father and painful memories for my mother," says Maat. "Not a day went by that she did not abuse me emotionally or physically."

Maat knew that her life was different from those around her, and so she tried to hide the childhood abuse by pretending everything was normal.

"My daily life was a staged act that continued well into adulthood," she says.

Maat's compelling life story chronicles her journey from childhood abuse through exploitation and sexual predation and her sometimes disastrous attempts to find her place in "normal" society.

"Children who grow up with abuse and in dysfunctional homes often don't learn how to make good choices, and that was the case for me," Maat says. "It led to unhealthy romantic relationships including my marriage at 18 to a man who would eventually abduct our 1-year-old son to strike back at me for wanting a divorce."

She says it's not surprising that she suffered from impaired self-esteem, or that she had difficulty entering into meaningful relationships or that she constantly questioned her professional, personal and parenting abilities.

On her journey to peace and recovery, she learned profound lessons about herself, her world and her relationship with the world, she says. "These are the lessons that I share with readers who start their day, as I once did, by donning a mask."

Maat's emergence from her own personal hell begins with forgiveness, a systematic process, and acknowledging the ways in which she learned and grew with each hurt.

"It is through these lessons that I am: I am a daughter; I am a mother; I am a wife; I am a sister; I am a woman; I am a nurse; and never again will I allow another person to take any part of me," she says. "I've written this book to share my story with others who seek answers on dark and pain-filled days and I offer readers encouragement and healing strength."

About Amrita Maat

Amrita Maat is a nurse who reached a turning point in her life when she was injured while trying to avoid the advances of a physician who had sexually harassed her for years. For the first time, she stood up to an abuser by taking the man to court. But she had waited too long under the statutes, so she did not get her day of justice. Because of the nature of her memoir, Amrita Maat is a pseudonym. For more information, visit http://www.maskcallednormal.com.

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