A healthy family system has clear separation between adults and children.” When there is no separation, an emotionally toxic relationship forms. —Dr. Patricia Love Emotional/Covert Incest There no diagnosis for Emotional Incest Syndrome Not often talked about, Emotional/Covert Incest has long-lasting effects. When a parent lacks boundaries, they can rely on a child to fulfill […]
If you don’t know how to say no, your body will say it for you through physical illnesses. —Dr. Gabor Maté The long-term effects of ACES Life experiences in childhood that are lost in time and then further protected by shame and by secrecy and by social taboos against inquiry into certain realms into human […]
Gaslighting is a form of psychological manipulation in which a person seeks to sow seeds of doubt in a targeted individual or in members of a targeted group, making them question their own memory, perception, and sanity. wikipedia Gaslighting is Simply Evil. So many people ask me what Gaslighting is. I recently tweeted back to the […]
Behaviorally, we show that the extent to which participants engage in self-serving dishonesty increases with repetition. LIES. When someone deliberately lies to hurt… Science! Brain scans! Dishonesty begins early. This is all is very interesting to me. Studies now show how lying begins early and I get that! I was a victim of “lies” upon “lies” […]
“TICKLE TORTURE!” my brother screamed. He held me down. I struggled to get away. “Stop!” “Tickle torture,” he laughed. He held down both my arms with his one hand above my head. I struggled to get away. He had his other arm free. He tickled me. I shrieked! I was laughing but screaming. “STOP IT!” […]
I tried to explain how hurt I was. Just like when we were kids, I was trying to get my mother to hear me. She refused to listen to me. Refused to empathize with me. Here I was, a grown-up woman, and the same thing was happening. No reply. Silence. —My Courage to Tell The […]
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. —Frederick Douglass Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN) | Harmful as physical abuse! It’s harmful. It is an invisible abuse. Something we often do not talk about. But now science is telling us that it is just as harmful as physical abuse. Oh yes—I think […]
Survivors of atrocity of every age and every culture come to a point in their testimony where all questions are reduced to one, spoken more in bewilderment than in outrage: Why? The answer is beyond human understanding.” ― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror No more […]
All children are born to grow, to develop, to live, to love, and to articulate their needs and feelings for their self-protection. —Alice Miller Child Neglect. It Hurts. Children Matter! “Would you like to go out for a bite?” I asked my husband. It had been a long week. I was tired. “If you like,” […]
Children who are emotionally abused and neglected face similar and sometimes worse mental health problems as children who are physically or sexually abused.
