Hear this first: you didn't screw up.

Kids don't have to be bad, have bad parents, or live in bad homes to suffer mental health breakdowns, addiction, or incarceration. Everything can change instantly, and if it's happened to your family member, you know the emotional chaos and the feelings of losing control that threaten your survival.

Lorri Britt was caught in a cycle of guilt, shame, sadness, and loneliness, feeling judged and ostracized when her two boys ended up in prison. In My Heart Behind Bars, she bravely shares her true life story and the raw reactions she experienced before, during, and after they were incarcerated. Readers dealing with similar heartbreak will find help and comfort knowing they're not alone.

You'll discover

• What to know and how to prepare when visiting an adult child in prison.
• New and healthier coping skills to release emotions, like taking on creative activities.
• Common responses to a child returning home from prison, like parental protectiveness and worry.
• Emotional triggers to watch out for and where you can direct the intense feelings when they arise.
• How the pain of having a child in prison parallels the grief of a loved one's death-and why it's okay to grieve the loss of the child you knew while greeting the person they've become.

Your child's choices are not yours; you're on separate paths bound together by love. Read My Heart Behind Bars-an honest memoir and guide to processing the imprisonment of a child-and finding help to make sense of it logically and emotionally as you heal.