Psychological abuse experienced during
childhood can shape one's entire life and can play a part in how one interacts with friends,
family, and society at large. Childhood psychological abuse from an adult in the child's life
can look like bullying, yelling, consistently criticizing/punishing, threatening, insulting,
withholding affection/love/support, rejecting who the child is (for being gay, as an example),
and exposing the child to consistent/constant family violence. The outcomes of this abuse for
the child can be that the child can be made to feel consistently rejected, misunderstood,
worthless, unloved, shutdown, and/or scared/anxious.
In a two-parent
household, it is not uncommon for one parent to be directly psychologically abusive while the
other remains complacent/distant in the face of the abuse. This can often result in a tension
between family members who deny that the abuse is happening/attempt to ignore it and those who
seek to call out the abuse.
Often, this abuse becomes internalized and the
chid grows up with low self-esteem/self-worth and difficulty sharing and showing affection.
Coping mechanisms such as heavy use of alcohol/drugs and self-harm as young adults and adults is
not uncommon for victims of childhood psychological abuse. As abuse is often cyclical unless a
person actively decides to break this cycle, there is often a chance that abusive behaviors
inflicted upon the person as a child will be enacted by the person as an adult. Thus, society at
large is affected as cycles of abuse are rarely interrupted and patterns continue
generationally.
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