According to Dr. Jeffery Young, Some of the problems that can emerge as a result of being raised in the unpredictable family environment include the following emotional and social impact:

• Feelings of Abandonment: A feeling and perception that one is repeatedly abandoned left alone to fend for one’s self, and being repeatedly adrift in sporadic stability. This can lead to family members who have weak connections or attachments, feeling vulnerable and weak, and a strong appearance of emotional reactivity.

•  Inconsistent Trust: Relationships can be characterized as lacking a consistent quality of trust in significant others. That trusting relationships are conditional and also require significant monitoring which can be related to hyper-vigilance in family members.

•           Fractured and inconsistent trust, increases tension and anxiety in family members and can be related to increased conflict and poor problem solving.

• Emotional deprivation: This is the next common element in this first environmental dynamic. Emotional deprivation is common when the attention of the caregiver is focused away from the immediate welfare of the children or family.

• Emotional damages: such as poor self worth and a sense of being unlovable, primarily because in the egocentric mind of a child if the parent ignores your wants then the child can’t be that important, lovable, or worthwhile.

• Insecurity: Develop an attitude or belief that they are defective, and be ashamed because they are inferior and unworthy of love and attention. Sometimes this leads family members to develop insecurities of many types and varieties, being self-conscious and shy and a feeling that their own wants and desires are some how unworthy and illegitimate.

• Social Withdrawal: Finally, a prominent response to this family dynamic is a withdrawal or isolation from others including other family members. If left unchecked a sense of paranoia and expectation that other people will take advantage or intentional inflict hurt if they have the opportunity.

It is vitally important that families increase their mindfulness of the environmental dynamics that they are creating, maintaining or delivering to the next generation within the walls of their own abode. The impact of developmental trauma is felt throughout society and leads to an erosion of quality and satisfying interpersonal relationships, increased academic failures in children, early onset juvenile legal contact and expanding addictions of all types with in society.

Are there elements of this story that can relate to? Do you believe that you suffered a childhood trauma as a result of being raised in an unreliable and inconsistent family environment?