The Danger Of Ignoring Your Troubled Childhood

You suffered through a very difficult childhood. The memories are uncomfortable and the idea of reliving those nightmarish experiences in any way is less than attractive. Instead of actually confronting your past in an effort to get closure, you are tempted to simply "put it all behind you"--to ignore your history and to progress as if nothing ever happened. You wan to put your formative years in a mental box, locking it and refusing to every open it again.

That sentiment is completely understandable. It's also a horrible mistake. You can't change the past, but your well being may very well depend on your willingness and ability to successfully deal with it and to come to terms with what has happened and how it has affected you. You can't ignore your difficult childhood.

First, you should know that efforts to ignore the past are doomed to fail. You simply can't take a substantial part of your life and pretend as if it never happened. The human mind doesn't work that way. You can attempt to suppress your background, but it will continue to bleed through into your present every day, whether you realize it or not. At some point, the damage done in days past will come through. It always does.

Second, even if you never even realize that you're grappling with your past, you may experience some pretty horrible consequences from childhood abuse and turmoil. Those who experience difficult childhoods are statistically more likely to suffer from things like clinical depression and alcoholism. The scars of the past can create lasting difficulties in building quality relationships with others, too. That will happen if you lock your history away. It will continue to have an impact.

Third, those who refuse to confront the past are cheating themselves out of a significant part of life. Your childhood matters. What happened to you then matters. For better or for worse, it's part of who you are. Pretending as if those years didn't exist is like lopping off a part of your very existence. One may be able to reinvent themselves, but not by feigning the nonexistence of a difficult childhood.

Finally, locking away and ignoring your past will prevent you from the benefits that could come from resolving past issues and seeking closures. Consciously or subconsciously, your childhood is weighing you down and making it more difficult to reach your full human potential. Only by dealing with those issues can you really reach a maximum level of empowerment and self-fulfillment.

The idea of ignoring a horrible childhood is seductive. The idea of simply putting it aside and moving ahead as if those events never transpired seems like a low-intensity shortcut to a better life. In reality, suppressing that history and its impacts can actually make your life much more difficult.

If you've been "locking it away", it may be time to open that box. With a commitment to improvement and wise guidance, you can confront your past and move forward as a more complete and happier person.

Kim is a Registered Nurse working and living in the UK. She has been nursing for nearly 35 years and now works as a Back Care Advisor.  

 Source: http://www.nursing-hints.com

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by Kim Standerline

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