I think our childhood experiences certainly contribute a significant amount to our development. Our own personalities play a big part too. Our experience of the world is so highly subjective that we might all be exposed to the same thing and still react in completely different ways. Having a father who wasn't affection might cause one person to stumble, but another might manage to develop a high sense of self worth from other experiences.

When I began therapy I was completely disconnected from the way the past influenced the restricted life I'd been living. I only blamed myself. Now I realise that early childhood experiences significantly impacted my life. I believe that because it was reflected so clearly in my behaviour, and my world view, which I began to uncover slowly after beginning therapy. I don't blame my parents now. It was still my subjective reaction to the experiences I was exposed to, and I just didn't cope with my life very well. Though I've struggled at times to remember early experiences, it has helped me to begin changing the early messages I received. I don't think the messages have to result from extremely traumatic experiences in order for them to have a significant negative impact on some people. Even with a nerobiological diagnosis I'd imagine that the environment would still have some impact on things like coping methods. Just my very subjective opinion of course! If everything said about connecting my behaviour to my past didn't match up with my experiences or thoughts or behavour, then I'm sure I'd feel like it wasn't something I needed to work on.