Building a New Future After a Life of Emotional Incest
Recovering from a childhood spent too close for comfort.
by: E.B. Johnson
Children bear a lot of hurt and upset in this life, which they absorb silently and with great grace they rarely get credit for. They watch their families fall apart and the world shatter around them. More and more they are asked to handle the traumas of this world, but that is no greater than the trauma that many experience at home. Physical and mental abuse is common, but emotional incest is something just as insidious as both. Were you the victim of an emotionally weak parent? You may be paying the cost, even now, in every facet of your adult life.
What is emotional incest?
Emotional incest occurs whenever a parent or caretaker becomes overly emotionally dependent on their child. An insidious form of abuse, this is particularly damaging on the child as they grow, develop and become an adult with their own perception of self (and relationships). Common in homes where trauma is generational, as well as homes in which parents are divorced or things are dysfunctional, many of us are dealing and coping with emotional incest every single day.
There are many ways in which a parent or caretaker can victimize their children…
