I grew up in an alcoholic family. There was no physical abuse, but plenty of emotional abuse and neglect, coupled with the chaos of alcoholism.
I was showing signs of anxiety by the time I was 7 years old, and was in full-blown depression by 9. My family didn’t even notice until I was in my teens and it all started spilling out.
They chalked my suicidal tendencies up to “teen-aged moodiness”, said I was “oversensitive”, told me to “snap out of it”, and when I tried to talk to my parents about it, they inevitably made my mental health issues all about themselves.
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