How do you feel when you have gone a few hours without food? If your like me, your stomach starts to grumble and you begin looking for food. Well imagine going without food for 10 days and you're not allowed to have food, not even scraps from the garbage. How would this impact you if it were your mother that was depriving you of the necessary food?
             You look to your family when you're younger to provide emotional and physical support as well as nourishment. But what happens when your parents don't provide that for you? Do you become strong and independent or weak and dependent as you grow older?
             When children are first born they cannot live without love and nourishment from their parents. Parents need to provide these important things for them. If they don't receive them, they'll become impaired or even die. As a casual observer, it doesn't seem that difficult to do, but depending on our own socialization, it might become extremely difficult. Physical neglect is often the result of poverty, or of a substance abuse problem and at times it can be a combination of both. (1)
             Our family helps shape us into who we are as well as how we view ourselves. For example how would you view yourself if your father told you repeatedly that, "You don't have the brains God gave a dead duck." Would you view yourself as capable of handling new situations? Or would you struggle when you have to make decisions that require risks and could result in failure? Congress considers emotional abuse as significant as physical abuse. Children who are treated in theses ways will have a very difficult time facing work in social situations without any kind of confidence in themselves. Emotional abuse is common in families with one or more alcoholics or drug-addicted adults, whose addictions make them physically incapable of adequately caring for children. One of the worst effects of emotional abu...