How many of us?

[RoseEve]

Just started thinking about this and I guess I should have wondered this before, how many of us were abused as children? I just had a fight with my father on the phone and had a panic attack. Then my cycle of HA thoughts started to spin. I remember my first feelings of fear, uncertainty, and helplessness when I was with him. Is there a link between child abuse and anxiety?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Well, I certainly wasn't. I am lucky to have a loving family.

I think there is likely certain areas of my issues that come from the family model though but when you look back butwhen was anxiety & depression ever discussed in society when we were younger? (if you are like me in your late thirties) It was all the "pull yourself together" type cliches in society as there wasn't the awareness of today.

I have no kids but there have been times where I have thought I would try to be different than my parents (who did a great job with us) to attempt to prevent any later anxieties that my kids could develop. One such example might be to be more open and spend more time with each other which was more of a luxury as my dad would be working up to 7 days a week and my mum had 2 part time jobs...so they do they best they can at the time. I would also follow their example for far more things than I would ever change for mine though!!!

I'm sure there is proven links between anxiety & depression and child abuse. If I can develop my issues as a result of my working environment (and the idiots I had to deal with) then I'm 100% sure that any form of domestic abuse could cause them.

The same goes for people who have been bullied.

If something gets under your skin so much, it's effects are bound to be serious to your mental health.

BUT

(and this depends on your situation) I also think that anxiety & depression are very sneaky things. Sometimes I think they can add too much emphasis and alter your perception of the past in the same way that some people seem to do the opposite and put the rose tinted glasses on. So, it can cause unrealistic views so those same tools in CBT you may use to reason out your fears, may be needed to reason out an unrealistic view of someones past.

Not saying that for everyone though, I just know I think of how I feel now and think of the past and my emotions of the present make me think I've never been happy...which I know is complete rubbish! I suppose it's the same as when you look to the future and see nothing to go on for when you are in the that rut in the present.