If you’ve suffered from emotional abuse, you have the added burden of suffering an “invisible” wound. You have no bruises, burns, or broken bones. If you try to tell someone what was done to you, it can end up sounding pretty lame: “My mom called me names,” “My dad told me I wasn’t good at anything,” etc. The cumulative damage done by these types of messages, not to mention the underlying message (“I wish you weren’t here,” or something like that), is very damaging indeed.
So those you hope will be sympathetic to you may say things like, “Oh come on, just get over it!” “You whiner!” “At least you weren’t physically abused!” But what is not so obvious is that what may look like “no big deal” has actually changed the neurological structure of your brain. So it is in your head—but it’s not in your imagination, but rather in the physical “wiring” of your brain.
This is important for you to know.