Pain Origins -Part 3: Mental/Emotional
If only small children had the language to express the nuance of mental and emotional pain. We may have had the word ‘gaslighting’ far earlier.
Unfortunately, the child experience of mental or emotional pain is a quiet one. This population, depending on the age do not have the language or the experience to explain themselves (nor the confidence). Thus quieted by their lack of words, the child learns to silence their pain. Maybe they lose themselves within their own fantasies or disassociations to best handle the experience, but they quietly learn to stuff it-no matter the size and possibly creating their own coping mechanisms.
For how can it be pain if they can’t see it? What little Golden Book talked about the confusing world inside?
In today’s world, there are many children’s books that talk about feelings, not long ago, there were few if any. The adults of today (you dear reader) have been given only a few choices on a vast spectrum of emotions. And I presume, if you’re reading this, you’ve left yourself open to the possibility there may be more to yourself than you realize.
Thank you in advance for considering these ideas,
~Carmen