In outlining my own childhood experience of family dysfunction I definately was not belittling the experiences of some of the other posters who have experienced abuse.
I'm thinking that dysfunction and abuse are two entirely different things. Maybe there is a very fine line/tipping point between the two. I'm not sure where this fine line is - maybe to do with active intent on the part of the parent/s concerned.
So, while there was on occasion some violence in my childhood home, it was incidental, alchohol fuelled, all a bit chaotic really and a couple of times I accidentally got caught in the cross fire of it.
The path to coming to terms with abuse is a very very different one to that of the 'my parents did the best they could' on coming to terms with dysfunction. And for people who've experienced abuse, may not, very understandably, be acheivable.
Passports not in the drawer I always keep them in. Turning the place upside down.