In an era before social media, the danger of oversharing was just as potent. It's a risk young people take when they're isolated, a risk I took nearly forty years ago. In the painful, confusing vacuum of the 1980s, I had no one: no confidante, no guide to help me understand what was wrong with me.

Through this episode of This Authentic Life, you'll see a predatory pattern emerge.

The man I met that day targeted my loneliness. He was kind, or skillfully pretended to be, and immediately cultivated a fierce sense of trust. But that connection was a trap. He began to systematically dismantle my self-worth, twisting my achievements until I believed they were impossible without him. I bought the lie: I was articulate, I was smart, I would "knock it out of the park" on a ...