Imprisoned: From childhood trauma to prison

Feeling imprisoned in life

There are people who have always felt imprisoned in life. Even when they were young. They had that feeling but didn’t know how to express it. These are the people who grew up in dysfunctional homes. Full of evil drama and no stability, some children will grow up to become jailbirds. When they get to prison, they don’t feel the loss of what could have been. Because there is no loss in their hearts and mind. It is sad to say that they have never known ‘freedom’ because of their miserable lives. Childhood trauma is real and it encompasses all future disappointments and its best to eradicate it.

I think its safe to say we are all born looking forward to a great life. Unfortunately, a lot of things can go wrong in our childhood. Some are born to bad parents. These are the people that abuse their children physically, emotionally, or sexually. It can be a very dark world. Good news is that the numbers of physically and sexually abusive parents are small. But, the number of children growing up with emotionally abusive parents is very high. It leaves no physical mark but its effects will jeopardize the life of the child, forever. It crushes the soul and wounds the heart.

Pain and trauma

We cannot undermine real pain of trauma that the people who have grown up with abusive parents have gone through. How do you cope with the idea that the person (your parent) that is supposed to love you unconditionally is the one who is causing you the most pain? That is a very difficult question.

Due to this pain, some children will turn to crime. There is some truth to the saying that hurt people hurt people. A very few population of the world’s prisons grew up in happy homes. A very small percentage. Most of them grew up in dysfunctional, bad homes. Crime might have started as a way to feed themselves. That’s right. Some people started stealing from a young age to feed themselves because mum and dad were too drunk, high or unavailable (neglectful) to give food. Not to mention the ones that were beaten by their parents. Some will go into a life of crime because they believe that they are bad people anyway. Can you imagine the level of toxicity that leads to this kind of thinking? Every one of us matters.

Escaping by using drugs and alcohol

The other people turn to drugs to cope with the reality of their childhoods. That’s a difficult topic. But the basics of it is that people take drugs to escape their reality. Then they become addicts and sometimes the vicious cycle of neglect will continue because they are high and not taking care of their children. In certain countries, if you are caught selling drugs or doing drugs, you are sent to prison for a long time.

Of course, drug addicts, and criminals are easy to penalize and point to what they have done. But most people who suffer childhood trauma are not drug addicts or criminals. They live ‘normal lives’ and try their best to put their past behind them. Their childhood trauma seeps through into their lives now and then but they power through. This is most people who struggled in their childhood. The problem is that most people will carry on the ‘traditions’ of where they grew up with their children. We owe it to the next generation to be better people by having better parents.

Best to learn parenthood

Life imprisonment happens when parents condemn their children to a life of pain and mediocrity. Just because people are not in actual prison does not mean that they are not imprisoned. Carrying a lot of emotional baggage from our childhood, can imprison us to a painful existence. It’s time that parents everywhere are taught and helped to become better parents. Every child should live a life of freedom. Freedom from painful memories, freedom from abuse and freedom to be the best they can be.