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How Healing The Inner Child Will Help Those "Sad Feelings" Go Away If You're a Parent and an Abuse Survivor

 

Guest articles > How Healing The Inner Child Will Help Those "Sad Feelings" Go Away If You're a Parent and an Abuse Survivor

 

by: Adam Appleson

 


Let's take a trip using your imagination.

Let's pretend you had the best childhood one could possibly hope for. You loving parents, lived in a nice neighborhood, and had lots of friends to play with. Can you see this little kid?

Isn't he or she so happy? Can you see how this little kid would grow into a happy adult? At the core of this adult is still that wide-eyed, happy youngster who loves life.

This kid is your inner child.
Oh boy. "Inner what?", you may be asking. The inner child is essentially a psychological concept which describes who we are. The inner child is that little boy or girl inside all of us that makes us individuals and animates our personality. It is our authentic self. It is what makes your friend interested in rap music or your other friend interested in collecting sea shells by the seashore.

But of course, the sad truth is not all of us get happy childhoods.
And child abuse leads to a wounded inner child. That wounded child is the authentic part of yourself that may have been beaten, repressed, and not treated very kindly. As a result, you have some unresolved emotional trauma. The inner child had to witness the effects of an alcoholic father or an abusive stepmother. This inner child protected himself or herself in any number of ways including zoning out or denying what happened.

Your wounded inner child is the part of you that feels so sad now.
If you're an abuse survivor with children, you may find you're extremely sensitive to child abuse. You may also feel pain when you to look at your own children because it causes you to think about what you missed out on as a child. These feelings can be overwhelming at times. You may find yourself crying or having feelings of sadness in general.

When you look at your child and see all the things you missed out on, you're grieving. It's natural. You went through an emotionally trying time. So cry. Let it out. This is the first step to healing.

Then congratulate yourself.
Grieving over your loss is a good thing. It means you're aware that you were abused and you're aware of these feelings. That's the first step to getting on the road to healing the inner child.

If you're wondering whether the pain ever stops, I would encourage you look at it in a different way.
Because it's a loss. And like all losses, it's something that you have to integrate into your life. The closest analogy is someone who lost a loving parent to an early death. The pain of losing the loving parent will lessen in intensity over time, and this person will move on with life, but the loss will always be there. That's how it feels. You may find something triggers an issue that you haven't resolved or grieved through, so you'll work through it. You'll incorporate the loss into your life.

If you feel overwhelmed, don't worry, there are tools to help you through this.
If you're an abuse survivor who is just coming to terms with your past, then I strongly recommend enrolling in therapy. A good therapist will help you understand where your grief comes from and give you new skills to help you cope with your loss and move on with your life. Writing is also another good way to reflect and become more self-aware about your past and how it affects your present.

As you move through your old issues, you'll find certain things that used to cause intense feelings won't bother you as much anymore. You'll be a better parent for it. Plus, those "sad feelings" won't feel so sad anymore.

 


About the Author:

If you liked this article, see other psychology and mental health articles at the ZenTactics website.

Adam Appleson has been actively involved in using personal development techniques to promote psychological health and goal-oriented success for the past 11 years. He is the founder of ZenTactics, a website with advice written especially for survivors of abusive and dysfunctional families.

 


Contributor: Adam Appleson

Published here on: 06-Dec-09

Classification: Development

Website: http://www.zentactics.com/

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

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