Childhood neglect can be much more confusing to work through. It’s abuse all right. But its message was just as harsh as physical beatings or harsh punishment. What is that message? That you weren’t worth feeding, or being educated. Whatever physical or emotional pain you had didn’t matter. What you experienced simply didn’t matter. And the emptiness and confusion of that can be very difficult to sort through.
Tara Westover’s recent book, Educated, tells her story of abuse and neglect in a brutally honest way, and I highly recommend it to you. She tells her own compelling story of how the rigid, fanatical beliefs of her parents brainwashed her for many years, until the light of education began to open her understanding of what else could be.
The listener email today is from a person whose outer life appears strong and competent but who is isolating more and more, almost being afraid of leaving his home.
Other important links:
The definition of childhood neglect
Failure to thrive article
Article from The Mighty on childhood neglect
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