When Parents Deny Emotions: Emotional Invalidation
Are you tired of your parents ignoring, belittling or dismissing your feelings? Well my friend, you are not alone in this struggle. Emotional invalidation is a phenomenon when parents deny their child’s emotional experiences leading to the child feeling unheard, unseen and invisible. It can cause long-term emotional damage and can affect relationships outside of the family.
In this article we will explore what emotional invalidation is, how it affects children and ways for both parents and children to cope with it effectively.
What Is Emotional Invalidation?
Emotional invalidation is when an individual’s emotions are ignored, dismissed or invalidated by others. It involves minimizing someone’s feelings making them feel like they’re wrong for expressing themselves.
This often happens as a result of poorly developed communication skills from one party (i.e., parent) who isn’t able to properly express empathy for another person’s feelings causing the other party (i.e.,child) feeling like they aren’t being heard.
The most frustrating part about emotional invalidation is that even if people don’t do it purposely but instead do so out of ignorance experienced by poor communication strategies learned over time without proper guidance would lead to a vicious cycle leading more suppression which develops into frustration eventually having impact on personality development leading either extreme aggressive behavior or suppressed under confident disposition towards life challenges faced later in future relationships too (which nobody wants indeed!).
How Does Emotional Invalidation Affect Children?
Children rely heavily on their caretakers’ validation to develop healthy self-esteem as well as teach them how to communicate with others.. When children have these needs repeatedly ignored or denied during tender age might lead to certain stories rewriting inside subconscious impacting self esteem growths resulting behavior patterns interfering connections in subsequent relationship along their lives! An adult suffering from chronic denial emotion end up relying excessively on toxic coping mechanisms including substance abuse ,violent tendencies etc., which often leads to self-undervaluation (this happens more than we’d like to admit).
Types of Emotional Invalidation
Emotional invalidation can take many forms. Some common examples are:
Ignoring
A parent might ignore a child’s feelings or act as if they don’t exist. This is often due to parents not understanding the importance of emotions in children’s growth which causes both parties friction over time where later in life, it becomes hard for the now grown-up kids trusting own reactions having difficulty communicating with others too.
Minimizing
This involves minimizing someone’s feelings and making them feel like their experiences aren’t as severe or important as they think they are. For instance, when a parent tells their child that things could be worse during tough times may lead according miniscule attention towards adversities one is facing may make child appear trivialized causing psychological impact hindering them from connecting fully in future relationships upon growing up.
Blaming
Blaming someone else for how you feel can happen at any age but usually most common among older adults.Children who have been blamed by their parents usually carry this sense of unjustness into adulthood and have trouble taking ownership of themselves playing blame games throughout their adult years harming relations significantly everywhere!
Coping Strategies for Children Dealing With Emotional Invalidation
If you’re currently experiencing emotional invalidation there are several strategies you could try ,some recommended below;
1.Write about your feelings – journalling out feelings help regulate better amygdala functions giving clear sightter perspective.
2.Practice mindfulness meditation techniques which aid learning ways observe thoughts rather than getting caught up allowing one develop effective emotional regulation skills while hitting head on problems demanding ones attention..
3.Seek therapy – talking with trained professionals about your experiences could offer actionable solutions,you learn communication skills essential to build stronger individual persona boosting self esteem.
How Parents Can Become More Emotionally Validating
Parents need to learn how to validate their children’s emotions by becoming empathetic listeners who provide non-judging space in allowing child’s struggles acknowledged,seen &heard. Some ways parents can be emotionally validating are:
Listening
Rather than criticising or comparing with alike episodes ,parents must value holding back judgement and accepting complete perspective- this help child feeling heard irrespective of beliefs.
Acknowledgement
Acknowledge that the emotion exists rather than ignoring it. This might look like saying “I understand you’re upset about this situation” which goes long way assisting children feel validated .
Understanding/ Empathy
This means emphasizing with your child’s experience the reasons behind their behaviour assuring them its valid for feelings resulting clear visibilty towards communication which helps building creating more solid parent-child relationship, than harming any less important aspect of it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, emotional invalidation is a serious issue for many children today, but there are ways to cope effectively. Whether you’re a parent looking to become more emotionally validating or a child dealing with emotional invalidation yourself—we hope these strategies helped open doors towards thriving into better healthier relationships as we wish reminding every individual importance one could ever have is valuable self empathy (a gift from within unlimited love and care!).
Hey there, I’m Dane Raynor, and I’m all about sharing fascinating knowledge, news, and hot topics. I’m passionate about learning and have a knack for simplifying complex ideas. Let’s explore together!
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