What was your childhood like?

No trauma or abuse of any kind, but emotional neglect. My parents weren't very grounded emotionally and their marriage was real unstable. My childhood depression, I believe was environmental. My way of coping with all the dysfunction was to withdraw and retreat into my own private world. I spent a lot time in my room. I needed help but my parents couldn't even help themselves. They were too mired down in their own problems to see that I wasn't just a quiet, shy kid but very depressed. They were great providers with physical needs though.
They simply couldn't give me what they had never received.

I've heard of it, but I don't know. I mean, I don't even believe in emotional abuse, how can emotional neglect be valid? Sure, I was kind of ignored psychologically, but it doesn't really matter. I talked about it on here before, and most likely my mother was emotionally unavailable due to her own psych issues (depression/bipolar, exasperated by grief). So I'm just kind of used to not taking my own psych issues that seriously.

Same with not being able to connect, though really, I've had that problem since early childhood. I don't have the first idea how to actually, maturely connect with other people. Closest I ever came was latching onto someone and using them as a love dispenser (never again). How can that be from neglect, though? And what does it even matter?

EDIT: I feel like I should explain my newfound views on "emotional abuse". Basically, toughen up. Someone hurting your feelings is not abuse. If you're worthless, figure out how not to be worthless. If you're fat and ugly, fix it. They're telling you the truth and you just can't handle it. You don't deserve to be coddled, you're trash. Everyone is unless they're born exceptionally talented, or work their asses off for perfection. And calling someone's emotional outbursts 'abuse' is even more pathetic. They can do whatever they want, especially if they're above you in some way.

I don't want to believe any of this, but I had to realize it's true. Your feelings are never valid, and people can do whatever they want to them. If you feel abused, it's your fault for being to weak to handle it.

And for the record, I've experienced treatment that qualifies as emotional abuse. The entire reason I ended up where I am is because someone advocated for me being a victim of emotional and mental abuse. I also know I'm a weak person, and there isn't much I can do about that (I believe strength and weakness are inherent; strong people can have moments of weakness and weak people can learn to appear strong, but the core self doesn't change). So I've rejected the term. I'm just a screw-up who needs to learn how to be less of a screw-up.

I gave you the link.....it's the underlined words. Read about it & learn. Knowldege is power.

True, there is NOTHING we can do to change the emotional neglect we have experienced but we can learn how to fix the damage that is has done. We don't have to be stuck with it the rest of our lives & continue passing is on to those around us because that is all we learned.

They moved a lot. The family was weirdly focused on me but it seems like everyone wanted to tear me down. My brother made passes at me. My mom really hated me. It was the 1970's which are really the dark ages.

Since we are talking about our childhood, I thought I would provide the link to more video's on Childhood Emotional Neglect....it's not about blaming parents because even good parents can create the environment that this happens in.

Why You are Running on Empty

Hope this helps give some insight to those of us who thought we had a good childhood but felt that there was something seriously missing. It's not a mental illness condition but it definitely can contribute to one if not healed from.

Looking back at my life for the first 54 years, I can see this clearly now. It puts words to what I was experiencing. It's only been in the last 9 years when I left that environment completely & am surrounded by wonderful friends who I can have an emotional connection with that I have really healed....LOL...I went from answering yes to all but 3 of the questionnaire questions to only answering yes to 3....amazing what 9 year & being around the right people can do in our lives

I had a wonderful child hood as far as parents until the age of seven. My mom got caught having and affair by her high school sweetheart (he was not my biological father, but ik him as such) my mom filed for divorce soon her new man was living with us. He seemed nice at first, but his true colors showed. He being violent physically, mentally and verbally abusive.

My mom would sit there like she was in a trance. She refused to listen to my crys when I spoke at at school o got my behind beat. "What goes on in this house stays in this house" I was forced to call him dad against my will. When i asked about my previous step dad (who I believed to be my dad) I was beat told to forget about him he abandoned us. He was my dad now. It wad awful and my mother did nothing except deny these events too place. I would be so sore I couldn't sent down I had wells from switches all over my body.

My mom would sit on me while I was naked and my stepdadand her would both whip me and laugh. My mother completely change after being with this man. My mother never spanked me for the first 7yrs of my life until she got into a relationship with this man. He convinced her I was mentally ill and I was stupid and had emotional issues. They both talked down to me repeatedly and laughed when I cried and said I was to sensitive. I attempted suicide several times started cutting myself. I

started identifying myself with Satan I thought I was bad. Its taking me a long time to get where I am today. I have no one but the most high and my grandma and my sweet uncle to thank.

My childhood was just scary, lonely, isolated. Knowing what I know now I wish I could go back and change it. I think that would be my heaven. To relive my life with the knowledge I have now

i have a question about my childhood because i don't know what to consider something that happened to me, and i have no clue how to post something to ask

I remember my childhood as on the whole very happy as an adult I can now see that things weren't quite so great. My mother came very close to leaving my father several times, over the years we had several of my older siblings friends move in with us as they had been cast out by their own families, we were made to attend family therapy after my older siblings got in trouble at school and involved with drugs and money was really tight and my parents both had to work several jobs and there were so many more issues.

My family had problems just as most others do, but I was lucky enough to have parents that managed to shelter me from it, which at the end of the day is their job.

My family life was great for the first ten years. Home life was stable, and we did fun things together. After we moved things changed. My parents nearly separated, which they tried to hide from us. Children know. Around that time I started to get bullied at school by one boy. The bullying eventually became so severe that I had to change schools. This experience deeply affected me, a lot more than my parent's marriage problems.

Very early trauma in my life followed by a lifetime of bullying at the hands of my mother.