Here’s How Negative Childhood Experiences May Affect Adult Relationships

Your childhood experiences  have a great influence on your mental and emotional development. Your parents and siblings, who are the people with whom you first connect, play an essential role in the way you experience the world since they create the foundation of what the world is going to appear to you.

Is the world around you a safe place where you could freely take emotional risks? Are those around you going to take advantage of you, betray you, and hurt you? Can you rely on important people in your life to be there for you in difficult times?

The truth is that although you’re unceasingly learning how to connect with yourself as well as other people throughout your life, your childhood experiences, especially the negative ones, have a great role in shaping your attachment style in your adulthood.

Generally, people who were raised in a healthy, happy, harmonious home where their parents were emotionally available, caring, supportive, and loving have a healthy, secure attachment style.

These individuals do not ignore or neglect their partner’s feelings and needs and they don’t depend too much on them. And they do have problems in their relationships, but an insecure-avoidant attachment style is not the cause.

On the other hand, people who were raised by emotionally unavailable, unloving, and manipulative parents tend to avoid building close relationships in their adulthood. They may hide their emotions, keep secrets, and seem uninterested in developing genuine emotional intimacy.

 

Individuals who experienced constant neglect or emotional abuse in their childhood may fear both emotional intimacy and being alone as adults. These people may have trouble trusting others and feeling comfortable communicating their feelings and showing their vulnerabilities. They may also fear rejection and abandonment.

Last but not least, a person who grew up in a family atmosphere in which their parents alternated between being responsive to their needs and neglecting them may grow up to be a clingy individual. They may crave lots of attention and intimacy and they may pay careful attention to changes in their relationships.

Additionally, they may have frequent mood swings as well as low self-esteem and they may feel like they’re more invested in their relationship than their partner.

What you need to remember is that the impact of your negative childhood experiences on your adult relationships doesn’t have to be long-lasting. All you need to do is share your attachment problems  with your partner so that they can help you overcome them.

If your partner is someone that’s sensitive to the way your difficult, toxic relationships from your childhood impact you and if they’re willing to help you overcome it, this will undoubtedly help you build and maintain a healthy, fulfilling, and loving relationship with them.