A crucial milestone in psychological development is developing a stable sense of self. People struggle with creating an identity in their teenage and typically achieve identity formation in young adulthood. Successful identity achievement helps a person clearly define who they are. When you’re clear about who you are- your beliefs, values, interests, and opinions, you …
Childhood emotional neglect occurs when one or both parents consistently ignore their child’s emotional needs. For optimal physiological and psychological development, children need the emotional support of their parents. They need to feel they matter—their thoughts and emotions matter. Parents who are responsive to the emotional needs of their children raise securely attached children. These …
Abuse in relationships can be physical or emotional. While physical abuse is obvious and needs no test, emotional abuse can sometimes leave the victim confused: “Am I being emotionally abused or not?” Unlike physical abuse, emotional abuse can easily hide under the shadows of things like ‘It was my fault’ or ‘Their anger was justified’. …
Emotional detachment is the opposite of emotional attachment and empathy. People who are emotionally detached are unable to fully engage with their feelings and the feelings of others. For some people, emotional detachment is a personality trait. They consistently show behaviors that scream emotional distance. For others, emotional detachment is a strategy they occasionally deploy …
Trauma can be caused by any negative, life-threatening experience. People can be traumatized by other people, accidents, illnesses, natural disasters, political unrest, and the like. Childhood trauma is especially damaging because the minds of young children are highly impressionable. Since young children spend most of their time with their parents, most people have been traumatized …
Being a social species, humans crave love, support, and care from others. Since human babies are born helpless and unable to tend to themselves, we have a natural fear of abandonment. Abandonment means being left helpless and unprotected. Having abandonment issues means having a persistent fear of being abandoned in your close relationships. If you …