Childhood Trauma: Focus on Validating Feelings

When you’re a child and you suffer abuse, whether it’s physical, sexual, or emotional, you make it your mission to find out if this is normal. You wonder if other kids experienced the same things. It’s easier to doubt your perception than it is to accept the fact that you are living in a dangerous situation. If you knew that to be true, you’d have to do something about it. You’d have to talk to a teacher, a school counselor, or a police officer. You’d have to expose something that brings you great shame and pain. You’d have to face your abuser. Even though you’re only a child. As a child, you can’t walk to school on your own, you don’t understand fractions, you don’t know what the economy is, and your best friend is your best friend because you brought the same cookies for lunch on the first day of school. For a child, life is simple and small. Abuse is not. You don’t understand what’s happening to you. You wonder if it’s just something you did. Perhaps you’re just deeply flawed and deserve to be treated this way. You wonder if your perception is all wrong. As a child, your experiences are limited, and gauging whether or not other kids are experiencing the same abuse is tricky. I recall my own experience. I remember having asked myself almost every day, “Is this normal? Is it just me?” I know that I didn’t want to be direct in asking my friends about it because I didn’t want to expose my own experience. I was deeply ashamed of...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Inspiration & Hope Personal PTSD Self-Esteem Self-Help Trauma Child Abuse Childhood Trauma Domestic Violence Emotional Abuse Molestation Physical Abuse self-compassion Sexual Abuse Validation Source Type: blogs