Tag: toxic

Father’s poor mental health may harm his kids

Mothers bear much of the burden for a child’s healthy development, from pregnancy through their teen years.

But a large, new study adds to the growing body of evidence saying fathers, too, are responsible for the types of development that help children grow physically, emotionally and cognitively.

Fathers’ mental distress is slightly associated with subpar child development, including cognitive, social-emotional, language and physical development, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. The researchers defined mental distress as symptoms or a diagnosis of depression, anxiety, a mix of both or stress. The findings were especially true in the perinatal period, which spans from conception to two years postpartum.

During this time, the developing fetus, infant then toddler is particularly sensitive to any mental distress parents, especially the mother, experience, according to the study. “Men are at risk of increased mental distress during the transition to fatherhood, with prevalence rates among men during the perinatal period as high as 8% for clinical depression, 11% for anxiety, and 6% to 9% for elevated stress,” the authors wrote.

Read more on the findings: https://cnn.it/4jUypwb

Complex Post Traumatic Stress

* Not a Disorder

Complex PTSD isn’t just the scars of what happened, it’s the weight of carrying those scars through decades of being told they weren’t there. The panic attacks you gaslit yourself into calling “overreacting.” The relationships you sabotaged because closeness felt like a trap. The exhaustion of performing “fine” while your nervous system screamed, “We’re not safe!” Living in survival mode isn’t resilience, it’s a second trauma.

They don’t tell you how the aftermath calcifies. How hypervigilance becomes a life sentence of scanning rooms for exits that aren’t needed. How shame clings like a shadow, whispering, “You should be over this by now,” as if healing erases the years spent dissociating through birthdays, self-destructing in silence, or flinching at triggers only your body remembers. The real injury isn’t the past, it’s the present you’ve had to navigate without a map, armed only with coping mechanisms that now feel like cages.

Surviving this long is proof of your fierceness. Every night you white-knuckled through flashbacks, every morning you chose therapy over denial, every boundary that says, “No more,” to the cycles that birthed you, that’s the work of rewriting destiny. It’s not “dwelling.” It’s dismantling.

Healing isn’t a return to who you were “before.” It’s building a life where your body finally believes the war is over. Where “safety” isn’t a theory, but a practice, one slow breath, one trusted hug, one unedited truth at a time. The daughter they left in the trenches? She’s still here. And she’s teaching you how to finally come home.

#DaughtersOfNarcissisticMothers #CPTSDAwareness #LivingWithTrauma #BreakingTheCycle #NervousSystemHealing