Your childhood experiences affect who you become as an adult.
If you have felt serious pain or emotional trauma as a child, you mind find yourself stuck in certain situations in your adult life. Our childhood emotional wounds generally stem from the relational dynamics between us and our caregivers.
While there are numerous different types of emotional wounds, three common wounds relate to independence, affection, and self-esteem.
1. Independence:
If your freedom and independence were severely limited when you were a child, you might struggle in your adult life. Growing up in an environment where your decision-making skills were always questioned and criticized can have negative effects on you as an adult; that is, you might lack the confidence to make decisions and take initiative in your adult life. In addition, your passive nature and your indecisiveness may make it easy for people to control you or take advantage of you.
2. Affection:
A child who is deprived of love, affection, and support, grows up feeling lonely, isolated, and inadequate. In their adult life, they grow up to seek validation externally so as to get rid of their belief that they are not good enough. This means that they may grow up to be people-pleasers and/or overly concerned with what people think of them. In other words, adults who have childhood emotional wounds relating to affection struggle with self-love.
3. Self-esteem:
Emotional wounds relating to self-esteem generally stem from rejection. A child who has consistently been rejected by their caregivers will struggle immensely in their adult life. Being blamed, criticized, humiliated, and devalued is extremely harmful and can even be traumatic. As adults, people who have faced rejection from their loved ones tend to have extremely low self-confidence.
The first step to overcoming and healing your emotional wounds is to see and recognize them.
Once you do, you can work to find out where they stem from and how you let them affect your adult life. Often, people need to seek the help of a professional who will be able to guide them and make it easier to notice patterns.
