The cumulative evidence that childhood and adolescent exploitation is a primary causal factor in lifetime emotional instability has been well-established. This is likely the cause of our disorder. Detachment, exploitation, and abandonment in our formative years can manifest in chronic depression, and feelings of helplessness, hopelessness, and unworthiness. We may be prone to repetitive patterns of shallow relationships. We may have difficulty trusting others; we may be afraid of intimacy and commitment. Add to these, debilitating anxiety, codependence, feelings of insecurity, isolation, and the loss of control over life.
In Maslow’s hierarchy theory, the orderly flow of social and emotional development requires satisfying specific fundamental human needs. The adolescent experiencing detachment, exploitation, or neglect, is disenabled from fulfilling his or her physiological and safety needs and the need to belong and experience love.
Child psychologist B.F. Steele maintains “abuse” includes events that interfere with the optimal physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development of the child. The term is subdivided into physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and various forms of neglect, all of which can occur alone or in combination. Maslow’s hierarchy is not a purely linear exercise, and it is not absolute that one level of needs must be satisfied to get to the next level. The list of individuals who have been deprived of fundamental needs yet achieved greatness is long and inspirational. But disruptions in our natural human development makes it more difficult. We did not make it happen; it happened to us as a child/adolescent. It is not our fault, but it is our responsibility to do something about it.
