How do you erase a childhood?

How do you erase the memories of your childhood?  Oh, don't get me wrong, it is not that I had a BAD childhood, in fact I had a pretty good one.  I was born into the typical American family:  Stay at home mom, who cooked, cleaned and took care of the kids; a hard working father who did whatever was necessary to support his family; two older brothers that were into muscle cars, Led Zepplin and hanging out; then there was me, the baby of the family.  Sounds perfect right?  Well, for a while, I guess it was.  Then things started to change.  It was a slow transition that led to a complete breakdown of the family I once knew.  My mother began her downward spiral into the world of hoarding, just as one of my brothers began his decent into the world of drugs.  In the beginning, the rest of us did our best to help my mother and brother overcome their demons.  In the end, the demons won and what was left was a broken and shattered family.  I no longer speak to my mother or my drug addicted brother, my other brother is a work-a-holic who I have little contact with, and my father has moved out of state.

So, how do you erase the memories of a childhood that now seems like just a dream?  Those people no longer exist.  Never will exist again... and it is too painful to remember them the way that they were.