“When we bury our feelings, we bury who we are. Because of childhood emotional trauma, we may have learned to hide parts of ourselves. At the time, that may have helped us. But as adults, we need our feelings to tell us who we are and what we want, and to guide us toward becoming the people we want to be.” (Brandt, 2017)
Trauma from childhood can impact your life as an adult. Here are several ways you can lose touch with who you are due to trauma. With the proper therapy, you can work through and reconnect with your inner self.
1. "The False Self": When you feel unloved as a child, you create a false persona that you believe your parents might love. Often you carry that false persona into adulthood, ultimately losing touch with who you are and making it challenging to live an authentic life.
2. "Victimhood Thinking": When you have trauma in your childhood, it can make you feel powerless. That feeling of powerlessness stays with us into adulthood through negative self-talk and the belief that we still have no control over our choices.
3. "Passive-Aggressiveness": When raised in a household where anger is mainly expressed in its violent form, you may avoid it at all costs as an adult. This avoidance leads to not addressing what makes you angry and may cause you to become passive-aggressive in your adult relationships.
4." Passivity": Neglected or abandoned children often bury their feelings, which can last into their adult lives. They tend to become adults who have lost a part of themselves, making it very difficult to navigate who they want to be.
Brandt, A. (2017, June 01). 4 ways childhood trauma can Affect Adults. Retrieved February 26, 2021, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mindful-anger/201706/4-ways-childhood-trauma-impacts-adults
