Childhood wounds that can impact adult life

From abuse to constant emotional neglect, here are a few childhood wounds that can impact our adult relationships.

The way we are brought up in childhood affects the relationships we make in the later stages of life as well. As we navigate through adulthood, the learnings, trauma and the baggage of childhood also make their way with us. When we are brought up in dysfunctional homes where we did not receive the affection and love that we deserved as a child, we tend to carry such trauma in our adult lives as well. "As children, there are many experiences that can leave us hurting. We require help with navigating the world before we can do this on our own. We need parents or caregivers for this. But there are a lot of factors impacting raising children these are personalities, environment factors, enough money, safety, and political stability. Sometimes parents struggle with mental health issues. Children can suffer severely if certain needs are not met, which can cause harm to their self-image," wrote Psychologist Alf Lokkertsen.

Here are a few childhood wounds that can impact our adult lives as well:

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Statements that broke our confidence: Often in childhood, we did not receive the attention and love that we deserved from our parents and caregivers. Instead, we received harsh criticism and words that broke our confidence and made us doubt our own abilities.

Constant emotional neglect: Repeated neglect from the caregivers can instill the belief in us that we are not important enough or that we do not deserve their attention. This can make us people pleasers later in life, who end up prioritising others instead of themselves.

Insecure attachments: Not receiving safety or proper care as a child can lead to insecure attachment style in the later years. In insecure attachment, a person needs constant validation and is always anxious of being abandoned.

When our authentic self was not allowed: Our needs, wants and expectations got suppressed by our caregivers and we were never valued for who we are. Hence, we learnt to hide our true selves and pretend.

Abuse: Be it physical, mental or emotional, any kind of abuse in childhood can have grave repercussions in adulthood as well.