34 Childhood Habits People Swear By—But The Hidden Truth Behind Them Will Shock You

I just found out I have a binge eating disorder. I eat in secret sometimes and overeat. It comes from my childhood and not knowing where my next meal would come from.

bubbles2255 , Ron Lach Report

Sometimes I wonder if I’m indecisive for similar reasons. Mine isn’t anything malicious. Just being the youngest of three, your opinions generally fall in last for a long time. I became very easy-going/go with the flow, but now I do this thing where I’ll be like, ‘sure whatever’ — and stifle my own desires for others.

Pficky , Markus Spiske Report

This. Gone through my whole life like it, am 24 now. When I say I’m not all here, I’m REALLY not all here. I’m not anchored, I’m constantly slipping into my head in crazy adventures with consistent characters, settings, universes, and themes. It’s like constantly slipping out of reality and into a trippy TV show. I guess it’s kinda nice sometimes, but it gets in the way of school, work, and EVERYTHING I try to do.

PeanutButter707 Report

Making my voice as monotone as possible to prevent people (my parents) from picking up on any tiny hint of emotion. My parents would lose it if I had ‘a tone’ or sounded upset in any way. It’s taken years and years of practice to regain some emotion in my voice again.

Jazzlike_Log_709 , Anthony Tran Report

Having three or four different responses ready for every conversation in advance just to prepare for what might come. My therapist told me this isn’t as normal as I thought it was and apparently other people don’t prepare this much for regular, everyday conversations.

laceylou15 , Suzy Hazelwood Report

Trying to think/mentally prepare myself for every possible horrible thing that could happen to me, so that if it did, I wouldn’t be blindsided. It didn’t work. I want to add that my mother died in a freak accident when I was young, and I was blindsided. My coping mechanism was to prepare for situations where a friend or family member is killed out of the blue, so I wouldn’t be caught off guard again. It caused me severe stress and the inability to relax ever. I am older now and therapy has done wonders for me.

Budson420 , cottonbro Report

I can’t have an aspiration or a dream because I don’t want to disappoint myself. I can’t even say that I am gonna get a good grade on a specific subject out loud, because I’m scared I will disappoint myself. Same thing happens with other things in my life: when I apply for a specific college, I will just do it and ignore it until I get a result, because I don’t want to get my hopes up and end up not getting accepted. I can’t even have a New Years resolution because somehow I think I would fail, and I would rather already expect that than get my hopes up and fail. I am scared of being disappointed in myself.

rianabdussalam , Arina Krasnikova Report

Listening for the smallest sounds. Before I was old enough and had enough money to move out, I could hear the faint sound of the garage door opening because it would always squeak when it opens. I would then bolt upstairs to my room because the garage opening meant that my mom was home. I can distinguish her footsteps easily. I developed a hypersensitivity to sound because of her.

bunniesandmilktea Report

Shutting down emotionally. I learned from a young age that if I felt some sort of way about something, it didn’t matter because I was “too young to have real problems”. Also, being invalidated all the time by being told it didn’t matter or wasn’t a big deal. So any time something bothered me, I’d just shut down and not want to talk at all. I was trying to sort my emotions myself and not offend anyone, but I was really just hurting myself.

Responsible-Top-6882 Report

Having to laugh and smile every time you make a comment to your parents so they don’t immediately start getting offended over everything you say — it’s exhausting.

unlikelycompliance , Johnny McClung Report

Laughing at pain, if I get hurt I laugh. I do it because I don’t want the people around me feeling uncomfortable. I do it even when people aren’t around. It hurts.

Fenikkusu87 , Nsey Benajah Report

Learning about dissociation is a game-changer. It’s so hard to explain what you feel when it’s happening. Being able to see other people try to explain it helps us understand it and not feel so broken.

DefNotAK , lucas clarysse Report

My mom used to take away things I enjoyed when she was thinking I was behaving badly. At some point, I started to ignore it, finding something new or just lying in bed doing nothing. Now I’m curious if despite all other problems this also had an influence on me being indifferent about other people’s presence and emotions.

MaryChrist_ , Ketut Subiyanto Report

Yes, and when someone says, ‘You don’t have to say sorry’ and/or gets mad at you for saying sorry, and you get in a loop for saying sorry. Nowadays, it’s a lot better than it was. But whenever I feel bad, I just keep repeating it.

Ammilerasa , Jan Kopřiva Report

Cleaning or doing things behind the scenes for my family so they’re always happy, life goes smoothly, and my life is serene. The latter isn’t the case unfortunately; I’m exhausted and always on edge.

Crazei , SHVETS Report

I know that…it’s like flipping a switch. It’s most noticeable to me when I’m watching a movie and a scene comes on that triggers some kind of memory and so I mentally switch from being in tune with the movie to staring at the box on the wall while the pictures on it move. It completely removes all emotion.

Christmas_Panda , Nothing Ahead Report

My sister and I both do this. Every minute spent at the table increased the likelihood that we would get yelled at for something unrelated, so the only strategy was to get out of there as quickly as possible. I have to make a conscious effort to slow down around other people now.

Rennarjen , Алекке Блажин Report