Gypsy

Posted Friday, May 26, 2023

10mo

ENTJ

Scorpio

7

8

Childhood Emotional Abuse.

I went through this and came out of it. The signs still exist and coupled with other issues, this tends to create unpredictable behaviour patterns. hildhood emotional abuse creates patterns of obsessive worrying, anxiety, and chronic self doubt as adults. Here's why: Often we think of abuse as physical, but emotional abuse can be just as damaging. And when it happens as children it can alter our self worth, and create unhealthy coping mechanisms. Childhood Emotional Abuse Can Look Like: - name calling - insulting - humiliating or mocking - telling child negative things about the other parent in order to get them to take sides (triangulation) - shaming ("you'll never amount to anything") - emotional incest (child becomes an emotional fill-in for a romantic figure) - guilting or manipulation - withdrawing love from child (excessive silent treatment, child learns i'm invisible) - telling child they're a burden ("I wish I never had you!") Emotional abuse is typically chronic, meaning it happens throughout the child's life or for extended periods. Children who are emotionally abused, still seek love and approval from the abusive parent. They also might believe they brought the abuse on themselves. Emotional abuse becomes 'normal' and this often primes children to enter into abusive dynamics as adults. Emotional abuse impacts: self worth, ability to feel safe in the world, ability to trust other people, and creates core beliefs like: "I'm unlovable." In homes where emotional abuse is common, there's also high levels of anxiety. Typically, parent figures have an intense focus on worry, dread, crisis, or doubt. Many adults from these homes say these thoughts play in their mind like a recording. Chronic worrying and obsessive fear based thoughts are a survival adaptation. When we experience emotional abuse, we don't feel safe. When we don't feel safe, our nervous system becomes dysregulated. When our nervous system is dysregulated, our body is sending the message to our brain that there is a threat in our environment. This creates chronic fear-based thoughts. One common survival adaptation from childhood emotional abuse is obsessing over worst case scenarios. Many adults who've experienced emotional abuse as children report spending hours rehearing scenarios that never happen. They also have "irrational" thoughts like: they might die of an illness ( (edited)