Adults who take out their anger on children rarely are truthful about the source of that anger and hostility. Some shift the blame unfairly to their punching bag of choice, placing the burden of their actions, as well as the reasons for the actions, on the child.
When you’ve got the chaos of worries running and ducking for cover, when you’ve got them crawling over the control of your life, it can be difficult to remember what the focus is.
Childhood abuse is multilayered. Neglect and physical and sexual abuse are always accompanied by devastating emotional damage. This childhood abuse can appear as aggressive actions of harm as well as passive failures to act.
As more people become aware of depression, they recognize its presence in their own lives. The nameless dread, the constant fear, the ever-present weight takes on a name. It has now become a “diagnosis.”
Anyone suffering from conditions such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and even eating disorders can attribute their feelings to mental health or behavioral issues. These types of mental health conditions can be treated using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, to help find the root of the cause.
Negative messages need to be turned up, but only so you can evaluate them; they are not meant to be cranked up for the rest of your life. The goal of turning up the volume of negative thoughts is so you an really hear what they’re saying and learn to put those messages in their proper context.
Are you getting on with your life with courage and enthusiasm, knowing that somehow you will fulfill your dreams, or have you all but thrown in the towel? Your answers reflect how you see yourself today but they also may suggest that you are still believing and living out too many of the lies your life script may have been feeding you.
Now that you may have recognized help is needed in your life, how do you know where to go to get the right help? There needs to be an internal connection (trust) for this to work. Frankly, it can be quite a circuitous path to find the help you need.
A search through your past is not meant to assign blame; it is, rather, a mature look at your family to discover what might contribute to depression. It is so important for you to be able to identify the burdens from past relationships that may be slowing down your rate of recovery.
Sadly, many of us grow into adulthood with a list of childhood truths that can include many false and incomplete truths. Families, for good or ill, give us our first lessons about ourselves.
Big fears are a complex connection of smaller components. Fears generally have a timeline – a when. They have a reason – a why. They have a pattern – a what. They have an outlet, a venue for expression – a how.
Imagine being involved in a terrifying incident where you were physically harmed or threatened. Then imagine reliving that awful memory over and over again, each time as fresh and horrific as when it happened. This is the essence of PTSD.