Tag Page wellbeing

Verbal abuse in childhood can damage the adult brain 😔 I'm living proof

A new study looked at data from 20,687 adults in England and Wales between 2012 and 2024. It found that people who experienced verbal abuse as children were 1.64 times more likely to report poor mental well-being as adults. Those who went through physical abuse were 1.52 times more likely to struggle later in life, and for people who endured both verbal and physical abuse, the risk jumped to 2.15 times. I didn’t need a statistic to tell me this, but seeing the numbers made it hit harder. I recently learned what “reactive abuse” is and realized it was something my mom often did. It is when someone keeps provoking you until you finally react, then they point to your outburst as proof that you are unstable or abusive. It’s a common tool of emotional and verbal abusers, especially narcissists. For years I thought I had simply overreacted or been too sensitive. Now I see that what I went through has a name, and science shows the long shadow it can cast over mental health. Has anyone else had that moment where research finally explains why certain things in adulthood feel so heavy? #mentalhealth #emotionalabuse #childhoodtrauma #wellbeing #research #healing