# Anxiety Disorders > Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) >  >  Abuse and Neglect

## Misssy

I'm wondering how many people think or know that they experienced abuse or neglect at some point in their lives and think that the anxiety they have is somehow related to that.

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## pam

Absolutely related. Both abuse and neglect taught me that I wasn't worth shit. So to go out in the world "knowing" I don't measure up--scary. The thing is, yeah, over the years I learned to THINK I am worth something, but good luck getting me to actually FEEL worthy. It disappears so quickly when around other people. I can't control it. So when i am in situations where I have to talk to a person, and they might get to see exactly how messed up I feel, it gives me so much anxiety that my IQ drops about 75 points. Brain freezes up, can't think, can't respond, and that equals looking like an idiot. 

Also, when a person is being abused and or neglected, they are not only being exposed to negative influences, they are also at the same time, missing out on interactions and influences that teach you how to feel good about yourself and develop in a healthy way. So it's like it's taking away the good AND dumping  bad on the child. 

I'm not saying this all has to be permanent, but I definitely think this is a huge cause of many people's anxiety.

What do you think Misssy?

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## L

yup pretty much but right now I'm not angry enough to explain

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## Chantellabella

I think that's definitely what's related to my anxiety. I believed I was worthless and was so anxious about screwing up (because in my mind I would be punished).

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## Misssy

Well, I asked the question because there really is a range of types of anxiety that people have on here and different degrees of severity and slightly different struggles. I think it has impacted me personally abuse/neglect. 

One time I had a counselor tell me that I mainly am very introverted. Though even that is confusing to me because some quiet and introverted people still have more well-rounded lives than how I have lived.  

So the combination of introversion/anxiety/depression versus common life events versus episodic chemical imbalances / versus poor coping skills, versus a genetic issue that will never go away........

been told it's teenager behavior, been told it's normal and not a problem, been told it is child abuse...

I'm always aware of a myriad of possible explanations though I am always wondering.....some would say pointlessly but I guess I always need resolution. 
There hasn't been 

I mean yes I think my family growing up and even now still impact me.

In the end maybe it's the combination of things, but I would say that I've always thought that I was a happy child at one point...and then I started to keep to myself and have more and more problems.  

anyways I just brought it up because I didn't see any posts about it specifically here

In the end even when I try to focus on "positive things".....I still feel like there is a shape to my life that defines me like lines in which I live. That other people somehow live in a world that is defined differently than mine. Like a map of life. Or shapes of zones. I often feel like I am trying to escape the confines of my own life....instead of living, always trying to neverendingly fix problems....kind of in an obsessive compulsive way. But this is me and my "issues"

One concept says that people are resilient and overcome everything and anything. 

One concept says that it (abuse) forms a person's personality.

I personally feel like my life is out of control and I'm just in some kind of pattern repeat that I don't move beyond.

Reminds me of a book I read "Are you somebody".... It's a memoir not specifically about abuse or neglect although there are hints of it

I mean in many of the articles I read about depression or anxiety maybe there is some kind of reference to (self esteem), another vague term to me. 

In the end I wonder things....like how much of it could do with a person feeling like they are nobody.

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## VickieKitties

Big time, I wish I could say that those were the only things that caused my anxiety.

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## Equinox

Yes throughout my childhood, and I do think it's related, Complex-PTSD (if it gets to that point) seems to form a basis for several mental disorders to stem out of it, I'm still learning to deal with it.

http://outofthefog.net/Disorders/CPTSD.html

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## pam

> Yes throughout my childhood, and I do think it's related, Complex-PTSD (if it gets to that point) seems to form a basis for several mental disorders to stem out of it, I'm still learning to deal with it.
> 
> http://outofthefog.net/Disorders/CPTSD.html



That's a great article on CPTSD. I knew I had it, but never saw it so spelled out like that before. I liked how it mentioned "layers" of trauma affecting each other....that's a hard thing for other people to get. Not everything is lined up neatly in a straight line--it's (I am) more complex than that. More like a web of traumas al somehow touching each other and being triggered all over the place. Well, sometimes, lol.

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## Misssy

Equinox, that makes sense to me about untreated PTSD. Thanks for the link.

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## Misssy

Lots of personality disorders have it stated that child abuse may be one of the contributing factors. 

Such as Schizoid Personality disorder....

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