Child abuse – Verbal abuse – The short and long term effects
Understanding Verbal Abuse:
One of the most overlooked forms of child abuse is verbal abuse.
The reason for this is clearly the fact that verbal abuse is hardly reported because the harms caused by verbal abuse are not external and fall along psychological lines, making it very difficult to evaluate any number on it. However, this is largely supported by the perception or misunderstanding that verbal abuse can masquerade as ‘tough love’ or ‘discipline the child’.
This is a very ignorant perspective that causes substantial damage to the psychological health of the victim. Although this is not very noticeable because the injuries are not as visible as those from child physical abuse or neglect.
However, the behavior patterns are very obvious and pose a great threat to the child’s future.
Imagine it for yourself, if you are a kid and if you get yelled at for a mistake or two. What would be the result? Yes! You will be too afraid to do something for fear of being scolded if you make a mistake.
This in turn translates into a chain reaction that causes the child not to participate in activities of interest for fear of being yelled at if he is not compatible with the family or society.
Although this doesn’t sound like ‘a lot’ directly, but compared to violence, the effect this can have on relationships, career, and mental well-being in the future is disastrous.
Verbal abuse can be defined as follows:
Insult a person
Yell at a person
Demoralize a person
I’ll start by stating the short-term effects of verbal child abuse:
Short-term effects:
1.) Depression
Yelling and demoralizing a child causes him to associate all events with a negative outcome. Please note that I am not establishing exact scientific terms and definitions for layman’s understanding here.
Among several other things, the child is very likely to assume that he is inferior to his acquaintances.
2.) Poor physical and mental performance
Children need confidence to perform to their full potential.
For example, if a parent says ‘you can do it, you can win this race’. I trust you, then the child would automatically assume victory and considering that there would be no alternative options (doubts) in his mind, he is likely to do the best he can regardless of the outcome.
However, if a child is told ‘you have to be faster, you can’t win like that, you just don’t have it, do something else’, then at this point the child will be mostly nervous because a bad result is predicted for him. .
At this point, the child may instinctively decide to lose to prove that his father is right, given that it is the “suggested outcome” and therefore a possibility in his mind.
3.) Inferiority complex:
The child who is yelled at assumes directly that “there must be something wrong with me” and therefore puts himself below his friends and feels inferior to them.
Because it has been suggested to him through comparison or demoralization that he ‘doesn’t measure up’ and this means that ‘someone else falls short’ and thus also makes the child submissive.
Long-term effects:
1.) Health disorders:
Depression in childhood causes what is known as a ‘chain of substitution’ in which, to satisfy their pleasures, the sufferer may overeat or perhaps not eat enough during their adolescence.
This directly results in stunted growth or underdevelopment of many vital organs, muscles, and bones.
This makes the system considerably weaker to illness and injury.
2.) Low confidence and dominance:
We must consider that adults require qualities of confidence and dominance for a healthy sexual life. The absence of which can cause sexual frustration that can result in depression, as well as other problems such as anger and excessive frustration.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/08/05/pennsylvania.gym.shooting/
The example above is George Sodini, who often complained about not “having sex” as well as his anger at the world for leaving him.
Note that I am not saying that victims of verbal abuse become similar cases, but simply that confidence and a positive attitude from an early age could prevent such cases.
3.) Susceptible to addictions:
Often times, what keeps us from drug or alcohol abuse is the drive or ambition to achieve something.
Also, if you look at the simple economy, hungry people will pay for food.
Depressed people will pay to get intoxicated to break free from reality.
There have been several studies that link depression to drug abuse and it is not difficult to understand this, as there is simply nothing to stop a depressed or low-confidence person from getting into drugs and alcohol.
The previous article was a researched thesis on verbal abuse and its effects. I will write something similar to preventing verbal abuse in the future.
