Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps Score
Tag: human
26 Things Adults Do Who Have Experienced Childhood Emotional Abuse
1. They have commitment issues, probably because they had a hard time trusting anyone as a child.
2.
They sometimes go into auto-pilot mode and blank out entire
conversations or events. This is due to disassociation, a skill learned
in childhood, and it’s often unintentional.
3.
Mood swings which seem to come at random times are often the norm for
them. This is often because they had to deal with this as a kid, so the
only response they knew was to model the behavior.
4. They may commit acts of self-harm. This often follows from doing this in childhood.
5. They are angry underneath it all, and have outbursts of anger seemingly from nowhere.
6. They are nervous all the time. This may make them seem edgy or startle easily.
7. They don’t feel valid. No matter what they’re doing, they’re unsure if they can do it.
8. They have low self-esteem.
9. They don’t handle compliments well. They doubt their veracity.
10.
They are quiet. They don’t feel comfortable using their voice after
being worn down as small and wrong throughout their childhood.
11. They may have issues getting close to others, because they may not especially, in general, like people.
12. They may beat themselves up mentally and emotionally, since they were beaten emotionally for so many years.
13. Conflict gives them immense anxiety, so they often run from it instead of facing it.
14. Making eye contact is extremely difficult and speaking makes them anxious, making it even more difficult.
15. They fear others abandoning or leaving them. They have attachment issues.
16. They are often defensive, perceiving people as negative or offensive because of their previous abuse.
17. Often afraid of contact with people, they may be introverted and try to distance themselves as much as possible.
18. They may be sensitive to loud noises, as they were raised in an environment of raised voices and yelling.
19.
Many victims of emotional abuse overdo it because they want to please
everyone. They become perfectionistic, tidy, clean and organized.
20. Often they will have trouble making decisions, after hearing throughout childhood that they were not good enough.
21.
They are tough, but very sensitive. Because of experiencing a plethora
of emotions at a young age, you have considerable emotional sensitivity.
22. The world of emotional abuse leaves them second-guessing everything.
23. They constantly say that they’re sorry.
24. They will often ask questions to which they already know the answer, due to self-doubt.
25. They have addiction issues.
26.
They are actually remarkably humble. They sincerely appreciate the good
things in their life. They are a strong, grateful survivor of their
past.
26 Things Adults Do Who Have Experienced Childhood Emotional Abuse

Genie was born in 1957 in California. Her father determined that
she was mentally disabled and therefore not worthy of his attention or
care. He isolated her from everybody – locking her alone inside a room
until she reached the age of 13. While inside this room, he kept her
strapped to a toilet or enclosed in a crib. Due to her isolation, she
was incapable of communicating or walking when she was finally rescued
by Los Angeles child welfare authorities on 4 November, 1970. Her father
would beat her with a plank wood each time she attempted to communicate
with her family and would bark and growl at her like a dog to
intimidate her – this instilled a severe fear of dogs which continued
after she was freed. He even grew his fingernails; the sole purpose
being so he could scratch at Genie is she ever “misbehaved.” After she
was freed, she was often used as a case study for psychologists,
linguists, and scientists. She was sent into care and while there seemed
to be a series of breakthroughs in the beginning, there were also major
setbacks – she was exploited and also abused by those who were supposed
to be caring for her – she was sent to an extremely religious foster
care home in which she retreated and in 1977, she managed to tell a
children’s hospital that her foster parents had physically punished her
when she had been sick. Following this, her speech never recovered and
nobody knows for sure what became of her other than she was sent to an
institute for the mentally undeveloped in Southern California in 2008.



