Member-only story
Lies Childhood Abuse Victims May Believe About Themselves
Barriers to recognizing false beliefs about ourselves and how we can find the truth about who we truly are.
I have met many adults over the years who, like me, experienced some type of abuse. I have discovered some things we have in common. Our exposure to traumatic events in childhood often caused us to have false beliefs about who we are. We have emotional baggage that can carry into adulthood and damage our self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and mental health. One way we can heal from abuse is to challenge these lies and believe the truth instead.
Barriers to Recognizing the Lies
There are several barriers that can keep us from accepting the truth about ourselves.
Denial
It is hard to face the fact that people who were supposed to love and nurture us were actually harming us. It is easy to dismiss their hurtful words or actions. We may make excuses such as the offenders were trying to improve us or were administering a deserved punishment. We blame ourselves for the way we were treated instead of realizing the offender is at fault.
We want to avoid pain and suppress all the hurt inside. We may disassociate ourselves from our true feelings to avoid feeling them.
