Emotional Neglect in Early Childhood up to Teenager Years

Emotional neglect leaves a trail of neurological and psychosomatic reactions in the body of the developing child, these are often resurging in adulthood under medicalised terms of Anxiety, Depression and Behavioural Disorder inflammation of the brain, those neurons being effected by "pruning" an attack of its own cells limiting the function of synapses; often in severe case of adverse childhood where sexual and physical abuse were present it prevent the brain forming its natural development, in some cases it has shrunk.

When parents sufficiently neglect emotional needs, they do not notice what you are feeling, ask about your feelings, connect with you on an emotional level, or validate your feelings enough. There may be enough hugs. There may be enough money. There may be enough food and clothing. But this family does not manage to provide enough emotional awareness, validation, compassion, or emotional care to the children.

Research has established a link between a difficult/abusive and or emotionally neglectful childhood and the development of organic disease and illnesses, such as cancer, obesity, autoimmune disease, chronic bowel syndrome, to name a few. Exposing the child to unpredictable stress causes the body to churn out inflammatory stress hormones—cortisol and adrenaline—that ignite a state of physical and neural inflammation.

Parallel to this, moderate stress may be the grist for resiliency when it's not deeply personal, chronic, and/or perpetrated by someone we love. Recently, studies carried out at Harvard University on the " toxic stress response - the impact of childhood hardship on brain development and on the development of diseases later in life" everything that infiltrates the body influences brain development, the cardiovascular system, and the metabolic system.

The outcomes here are not to eliminate stress; in childhood, to be able to deal with normative stress is part of healthy development. Children learn how to seek out resourceful strategies, recover and build the biological capacities for resistance. Toxic stress is what to look out for.

You cannot fix your family, and you do not need to try. But you can start changing yourself.