The Lie That You Are Defective or Damaged Goods

Don’t Believe It

Photo by Hassan Sherif on Unsplash

Dissociative identity disorder is caused by severe and repetitive trauma in early childhood abuse, including sexual, physical, emotional, and verbal plus neglect or all of the above.

One of the unfortunate consequences of childhood trauma is that children who are traumatized will often internalize the messages given to them by their caretakers that they are not good enough, that they are defective, or that they are deeply damaged goods.

This article will discuss these horrible lies we tell ourselves and ways to combat them.

Childhood Trauma

A great definition of childhood trauma would be neglect and abuse of any sort, including sexual, physical, emotional, narcissistic, and verbal. Childhood trauma is any event that leaves a person feeling helpless, such as a scary, dangerous, violent, or life-threatening happening experienced by a child.

When a child is trapped in an abusive and neglectful home, they internalize the messages they hear from their caregivers. Verbal putdowns and hateful behavior towards the child leave them feeling hopeless, helpless, and having a distorted sense of who they are.

If the traumatic experiences are repetitive and disturbing, the adult survivor will form a…