I just read an article about emotional abuse; well, it was just a list of questions that I answered yes on each and every one, but anyway...

Signs of Emotional Abuse | World of Psychology

Part of me is throwing her hands up yelling, "Of course! It all makes sense now! I no longer have reason to deny having a personality disorder!" The other part is rolling her eyes at the first, saying, "You're being stupid, believing this crap. Pffft, that's not abuse, you're just too damn sensitive and need to grow up, get over it."

Which, when I write it out like that, is exactly what the blog says emotional abuse is. But I still can't get over that second part of me, the part that says I'm being stupid, the part that's picking away at me from the inside...

So...

Long story short, I answered every single question with a yes on that blog. I lived with at least four other people at any given point for the first 18 years of my life, and pretty much all of them were emotionally abusive in some way.

For the past five years, since I moved out and got my own place, got married, had kids, I've been struggling with accepting that these negative feelings were placed there by my family. I've had numerous counselors, as well as my husband, tell me that my family is dysfunctional and that yes, there's plenty of reason for me to turn out the way I did, but I've never really believed them.

I'm still struggling, even with this blog showing me that it's very likely that I grew up being emotionally abused. I guess it's that "abused" terminology, it feels so negative and I know that if I ever used it in front of my family they would accused me of being ungrateful and rebellious and a horrible hateful person. So I'm very reluctant to use it myself.

I guess what I'm wanting to know is, was I really abused? Is this substantial reason for me to have a personality disorder?