Childhood can be one of the best stages of our life. But it is also one of the most influential on our behavior as adults. We begin to get to know the world and identify the environment around us. We also learn to interact with people and communicate with our family and our friends and teachers at school. That’s why unpleasant or traumatic experiences can leave a strong impression on who we are, and some wounds remain until we reach adulthood. These behaviors tend to be traced back to our childhood:
Defensive behavior
People who have suffered some type of abuse during their childhood, whether physical or psychological, tend to have trust issues and overreact to a simple action, becoming defensive. This type of attitude doesn’t always manifest in a hostile way, but often simply manifests itself as reserved behavior.
Isolation
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If we don’t receive enough care as children and can’t count on the constant presence of our parental figures, we tend to grow up lacking affection, have relationship problems and even experience sexual dysfunction.
Anxiety and fear of others
If the isolation wasn’t so extreme but moderate, adults tend to express this via a fear of establishing relationships with others and a certain type of social anxiety.
Fear of commitment
This occurs especially when we experience some kind of loss during childhood. We develop a defense mechanism which makes us fear to establish another strong emotional bond which is cut short all of a sudden.
Fear of rejection
If as children we were victims of bullying or rejected by our classmates, we tend to avoid large social circles for fear of being rejected again. We prefer to spend more time alone, remaining in our comfort zone.
Contempt for others
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Children who were mistreated and abused tend to develop sociopath behavior. If we’re mistreated during childhood, when we grow up we believe that everyone else is our enemy and we treat them as such.
Dependence
If our parents were overprotective, they weren’t teaching us to be independent. This means we often find it difficult to deal with adult life. That’s why we start feeling frustrated and look for other figures we can rely on to come to our rescue.
Happy slave syndrome
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If as children we were exploited or obliged to do excessive work, by parents or teachers, then as adults we develop a tendency to get used to being exploited. It doesn’t matter if what they ask violates our rights, since we think that a person’s value is measured in many hours of hard work.
The job of being a parent is very complicated. It’s common for us to develop at least one of these behaviors as adults. However, it’s our responsibility to realize that it’s stopping us from living a happy life and seek help.