9 Signs of Childhood Emotional Neglect

I'm doing a LIVE Inner Child Workshop August 12 and 19, you can register for it here: katimorton.com/the-shop/p/live-innerchild-workshop

-A difficult time regulating emotions -Have a pattern of unhealthy relationships -Difficulties engaging in relationships -Feel Numb/Empty -Struggles with self-compassion -Unhealthy independence (counterdependency) -Shame -rejection sensitivity -easily overwhelmed and discouraged

Sign number 10. You’re on youtube looking for these videos.

I found her videos around the same time I turned 4O. I'm 45 now. In the 5 years of watching these, it's as if she's telling me, "welcome to your life, this is what's been going on and why". It's depressing and empowering at the same time.

So if I relate to all 9 of these signs and barely remember anything from my childhood except being alone in my room, I probably need to get professional help, huh?

Can you believe, I’m seventy and have finally connected the dots!

For many of us, we did have food and shelter and other positive things in our childhood but that was it from our parents.

I'm 67 and wish I had encountered this piece of information 40 years ago. I had always suspected I suffered from childhood mental abuse but hesitated to use the term, because it felt disloyal. Now I see so clearly how it has affected my adult life.

Me: "All of these things describe me" Also me: "It's my fault"

Five weeks in a mental health hospital and the top takeaway was I had never had my own feelings. When my youngest grandson was three my daughter called to tell me he loved me. I realized I had no idea what being loved felt like. I asked my daughter how she could tell. She said he talks about you all the time when you aren’t here. I was 63.

I believe if you were a child in the 50's, 60's, 70's this was very common. Feelings weren't discussed and abuse was a taboo subject. And ,you never "turned an adult in" for sexual abuse if they were known family friend or family member. Everything is out in the open now days. Everything!

My mother consistently told my brother and I growing up, “never reveal anything about yourself to anyone, for any reason, under any circumstance.” To me, that also included my family. So I never confided in her and came to her with my problems. The few times I did, she told me not to be so sensitive as boys don’t do that. I feel this has really impacted my developing avoidant attachment to people in my life and in general.

Sure wish I had the internet growing up. It might have saved me

I am 52 years old and still dealing with childhood emotional neglect , CPTSD, and other undiagnosed issues. This is profound. Thank you!

I check all of these boxes. What I find most difficult is trying to fit in the professional world alongside folks who come from very supportive backgrounds while being held to the same standards. I get angry at my parents and extended family because I often find I struggle with basic emotional stability in the workplace.

I'm still struggling with all the mental and physical illness for the EN that I suffered as a child. It's something that never goes away entirely because it takes so long to recognize, and usually, even longer to treat. My heart goes to all the people that suffered this kind of abuse in the past; it's not our fault, and we certainly deserved better.

My wife always says "but they didn't mean it that way." I see that as totally irrelevant. The effects are the same, the damage is the same, recovery is the same. And the need to create strong boundaries between yourself and the abuser, to protect yourself from further abuse, that need is the same. Making excuses for the abusers behavior is a rationalization for going back again and again for emotional validation and support, but getting more and more abuse instead. It makes some people suicidal. I wish I knew how to help someone break that cycle.

100% spot on thats my life yeah i'm very compassionate to others but whenever i opened up and shared something about me, they left... and felt the need to attack me life is unfair....

This video hit home, especially the last half of the signs. Thinking back on my childhood, there's definitely a bunch of signs that you mentioned that fit me. I had my physical needs met but not so much the emotional ones. Part of it probably had to do with me being an "easy introverted child" and that was mistaken for "not in need of much emotional support". Later that introversion and shyness was perceived as a nuisance because it didn't fit with being socially normal behavior as a teenager - also not by myself and I couldn't change the behavior or accept myself = social anxiety.

It has been SOOO therapeutic watching my nieces and nephews grow up being themselves. I always thought I was so weird as a kid and now I realize I was a CHILD! And it's okay to be yourself! ❤️