What Are Adverse Childhood Experiences?

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Emotional neglect teaches you to dismiss, distrust, or feel ashamed of your own emotions.

Pushed-away feelings do not disappear; they often grow stronger beneath the surface.

You may feel either emotionally numb or unexpectedly overwhelmed, with little in between.

Relearning to value and respond to your emotions can restore connection, clarity, and self-trust.

Childhood emotional neglect is the silent scourge that hangs like a cloud over countless people’s lives, robbing them of the zest, the warmth, and the connection that they should be feeling every day. Childhood emotional neglect happens when your parents (perhaps unintentionally) fail to respond to your emotional needs enough when they are raising you.

Yes, that’s all it takes.

When your parents don’t respond to your emotions enough, they send you a powerful, subliminal message that your feelings don’t matter. This never-stated-out-loud message in your childhood has an incredible ability to disrupt your adult life in immeasurable ways.

As a child, when you receive these subliminal messages over and over, your brain somehow understands the unspoken request to hide your feelings and, surprisingly, knows just what to do.

It walls off your emotions so that they will not bother your parents—or you. Tucked away on the other side of your........

© Psychology Today