MrsA, I am sorry you experienced that kind of treatment by your older sister. It's amazing how something not thought about for many years can come rushing forward like you described. When we are just children and face others that put us down as described in the article, we may actually believe we are not very good or talented or deserving. Children are so innocent and tend to believe in anything they are told. Unfortunately, they tend to become targets because of this, especially if another child feels threatened by them and is looking for attention and some way of being or feeling superior.

My sister is four years older than me and she felt threatened by my presence from the time I was just an infant. I recently came across an old photo and I was such a peanut compared to her and I was around age 7, so I realized how that difference in age and size can have an impact for many years in one's childhood. Infact, all my life I had this feeling of needing to look over my shoulder, I thought it was normal. Well, it's not normal only MY normal. Years later in flashbacks I learned where it actually came from and that it was her hovering over me and she was a negative presence. She was not a healthy presence for me in that she did attack my self esteem and I did not even know what self esteem even meant but I felt it. This can be something a person unknowingly carries their entire lives.