Jeff Weise resembles many of the children in Child Protection I know. A mother that hated him, Psychotropic medications, repeated examples of self-loathing, talk of suicide and homicide. Working with neglected and abused children has shown me a part of human development that I could not have otherwise become familiar with.
Normal children overcome feelings of self-hate and inadequacy with the help of parents, teachers, and other adults in their lives. Abused children can’t trust the adults in their lives. Their own abuse has come from the trusted adults in their lives. These children often resent or hate authority figures as a result of the suffering adults have visited upon them.
Feelings of self-hate and inadequacy consume many of the children I work with as a guardian ad-Litem.
Children removed from their homes have been traumatized by their circumstances. Starved, beaten, and tortured children do not overcome trauma, self-hate, anxiety, and inadequacy without timely intervention and adequate mental health therapy.
Almost all abused children believe they have brought on their own abuse.
Abused children think it was something they did that made daddy do those terrible things. Raped women experience similar feelings—if I had taken another route, or I had been more observant, the terrible thing might not have happened.
My little friends talk to me about “being normal” until they reach a point of hopelessness and despair that leaves them cold to me—and cold to the rest of the people in their lives.
