"After spending many years wading in the victim pool and drowning myself in alcohol, I come to the realization that only I can save me. I had to pull myself out of this pool of destruction." Christine A. Rucci

Biographical,

At the age of 19, a college Freshman, I an involved in a life altering accident that would leave me scarred for life and facially disfigured.

It has taken three decades for me to heal completely from the psychological trauma of losing my identity. I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. I was able to talk myself down off that ledge I was on one more time. Some people are not so lucky. Those are the ones I want to reach.

New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio

Yes

Internal Journey/Rebirth

Meaningful Message

Substance Abuse

Name: Christine A. Rucci

Age: 19

Gender: Female

Role: Protagonist

Key Traits: Badass, Beautiful, Confident, Educated, Empathetic, Insecure, Perseverance

Name: My family and friends through three decades

Age: 19

Gender: Female

Role: Antagonist

Key Traits: Educated, Empathetic, Leader, Perseverance, Adventurous, Badass, Beautiful, Charming,Outspoken,Selfless,Funny

The author has not yet written this

The author has not yet written this

I can see the movie beginning with a medivac hovering over the highway and the policeman that saved my life that day guiding them to land. There is a bloody victim trying to stand up, blood covering the entire head. Flashback to my childhood and leading up to me going to college. Then we catch up to the helicopter landing to take me to the trauma center...….meanwhile, back at my family home in Nutley, they are getting ready to celebrate Danny's (my older brother) from the Culinary Institute. Then they get "the call" every parent dreads. . Surgery after surgery, I try to regain some sense of normalcy. I become an RN 13 years after the accident but all is not sunshine and roses. Vacillating between anger and despair...I drink...a lot. I become a functioning alcoholic for quite sometime but they find me out. I am a fraud It takes three decades to heal from the psychological trauma of losing my identity but I make it. I am one of the lucky ones. I am able to talk myself down off that ledge one more time. Some are not so lucky. I want to reach the ones still on that ledge and tell them life can be good. You have the power inside of you. You just have to find it.

First time author of Too Phased, a memoir. At the age of 19, I survive a near fatal car accident. There would be over 30 operations to try and regain some sense of normalcy. I am sharing my story which began 36 years ago. I have made it through the despair and drinking and want to share my story. I am currently 55 years old and have been a practicing RN in New Jersey for 22 years.

Age: 35-54

Target Gender: Female leaning

Information not completed

Status: Yes: self-published

Publisher: Self-published

Year Published: August 15, 2019

Yes

9781095155103