Childhood Emotional Neglect: Causes, Symptoms, Treatment of this emotional problem

Childhood emotional neglect occurs when parents fail to understand or respond to their child’s emotional needs. This can have both long-term and short-term consequences on the child’s life. There are parents who cannot provide the emotional support to their child, but they give them all the other essential care and necessities in life. It can also be intentional to neglect a child’s emotional needs.

The effects of emotional neglect can be subtle that parents or teachers cannot observe it. But if the effects are severe then they may notice it. For example, if a child says that he is feeling sad because one of his friends, then instead of ignoring it, parents should listen to their child carefully about his feelings. So, here we have discussed everything about childhood emotional neglect. Read on to know about it.

Causes, symptoms and treatment of childhood emotional neglect.

Causes of Childhood Emotional Neglect

When parents ignore their child’s emotional problems, the child feels emotionally neglected. And the reasons why the parents do that are as follows:

Mental health disorders.

Substance misuse.

Resentment towards their child.

Depression.

Personal lack of emotional fulfilment.

Lack of good parenting skills.

According to studies, parents neglect them because their emotional needs are suppressed in their childhood for which they have resentment towards their child.

Symptoms of Childhood Emotional Neglect

Symptoms of emotional neglect can vary from mild to severe. Initially, they seem to be silent, but later the symptoms start to become overpowering. The symptoms are as follows:

Anxiety.

Depression.

Failure to thrive.

Aggression.

Hyperactivity.

Delays in development.

Low self-esteem.

Substance misuse.

Withdrawing from friends and society.

Appearing uncaring.

Shunning emotional intimacy.

How does emotional neglect affect adults?

Adults who have become emotionally neglected by their parents have to deal with certain issues in their adulthood. Since their emotional needs have not been validated, they tend to experience as follows:

Post-traumatic stress disorder.

Depression.

Emotional unavailability.

Eating disorder.

Shunning intimacy.

Feeling deeply flawed.

Emptiness.

Guilt.

Aggressive behaviour.

Difficulty in trusting others.

These adults are also likely to ignore their child’s emotional needs in the future since they have never learnt to give importance to one's emotional vulnerability.

Treatment of Childhood Emotional Neglect

The treatments of this emotional neglect are as follows:

Therapy- A psychologist or a therapist can help you to recognise your emotions in a healthy way. For a child or an adult initially, it would be tough to express their emotions in a healthy way since their feelings have been suppressed for a long period. But the therapist will show you the right path to cope up with this trauma and express your feelings calmly.

Family Therapy- If parents cannot deal with their child’s emotional state, then opting for family therapy or counselling would be very helpful. The therapist will be able to help both the parents and the child to deal with the negative impacts of this issue. Early intervention is always better to combat any mental problem.

Parenting Classes- Parents can also take parenting classes where they will learn to recognise, listen and respond to their child’s emotional needs.

How is it diagnosed?

There is no specific taste for emotional neglect. After observing the initial symptoms in a child, the therapist tries to notice the child’s lack of emotional response during the consultation. They also try to observe if the parents lack interest in their child. They incorporate all the visible and invisible symptoms to come to the conclusion.

Conclusion

Childhood emotional neglect can severely damage a child’s emotional health and self-esteem. So, parents should never delay for therapy after noticing anything abnormal in their children. If they cannot understand how to deal with their child’s problems, then opt for counselling therapy.