TIPS FOR RECOVERING FROM EMOTIONAL NEGLECT

How to Recognize and Overcome Childhood Emotional Neglect

So what can you do if you think you may have been emotionally neglected as a child? Here are some tips:

1. Learn to be aware of positive and negative emotions when you're experiencing them.

If you've spent your adult life being disconnected from your feelings, the first step is to learn to identify positive and negative emotion. It's important to acknowledge just good and uncomfortable feelings to begin with.

Once you have that down, you can focus on noting subtler nuances of feelings. You may not even have words for how you feel, which is perfectly normal if you didn't grow up in a home where people talked about their feelings.

2. Identify your needs, and take steps to meet them.

Many adults who experienced emotional neglect as children are often unaware of what they need and typically don't feel deserving of getting their needs met. Develop your emotional vocabulary by researching emotions and needs online or at the library. Once you know what you need, it's time to take action.

3. If you believe you don't deserve to have your needs met, acknowledge the belief and see it as just that: a belief, not a fact.

It can be helpful to begin to deconstruct old beliefs you've held for a long time that may no longer hold true. Like everyone else on the planet, you have emotional needs that you deserve to have met, no matter what you experienced in childhood.

4. Be gentle with and take good care of yourself, starting with small steps.