ARE YOU A WOUNDED PERSON?
ARE YOU A WOUNDED PERSON?
Ever heard people who were raised using unhealthy methods by unhealthy people say that they turned out just fine? I have always sought to understand what turning out just fine is. Is it that they are successful in their career? Is it that they ended up in a marriage and are still in it? Is it that they became religious and they live peaceful lives? What are they comparing with in order to determine what turning out fine is as opposed to not turning out fine?
One time while attending a party, the emcee stated how fine he turned out after being raised by a successful abusive dad who divorced the mother when the emcee was 9 years. The mother who left the country to fend for them lived abroad since he was 10 years. He was raised by maternal grandparents and became very successful in his career. Emceeing was a side hustle that earned him good money.
He was married twice and divorced the two times and he was now raising his children alone. While I do not blame him or anyone else for the circumstances, I acknowledge that all those experiences had shaped him and even if they may have brought out so much good in him, they had also wounded him and caused him to take certain directions in his life.
One thing I loved about him was the ability to speak about his success in other areas of his life without shame. He repeatedly shared with his listeners that even if the dad rejected both him and his mom, and the mother left him (he seemed to understand the reason and appreciate it), he turned out just fine and that he could ran his life and that of his children.
This brought me to the question. How do we know if we turned out fine or that the experiences of our lives left us wounded? How can one tell a wounded person? How does a wounded person perceive life? Can a person be wounded and still be successful in their career? Can a person be wounded and keep a marriage for many years? Here are some ways to tell that a person is wounded.
Wounded people do not know how to manage their emotions
While it is human and normal to experience any emotion, it takes a healthy person to manage their emotions. Wounded people become aggressive when angry and engage in outbursts or abuse those around them. Others go silent for long and torture those around them. These behaviors portray extreme examples of a wounded person.
Wounded people get offended when people do not appreciate their efforts and success
The work of appreciating and affirming is mostly done by parents to their young children, and this is how individuals learn to appreciate themselves. If this affirmation isn’t given, the individual becomes wounded and seeks to have the world “bandage their wounds” by giving them the affirmation.
Healthy people appreciate being affirmed but when that lacks, they appreciate their own progress. They are satisfied appreciating themselves even if no one else does. They know that they have no control over what other people choose to do.
Wounded people self-sabotage
Wounded people have an unconscious belief that they can never carry a task to completion and, if they do they cannot excel. If one believes they do not have what it takes to keep a relationship, by all means they find methods to sabotage it in order to prove themselves right.
Wounded people will say or do things that rob them of success. Maybe one is being considered for promotion at work then he loses his cool and tells off the supervisor. They could speak hurtful words to someone who was genuinely going to help them.
They do these things unconsciously to sabotage themselves because they believe that they don’t deserve it. Other wounded people are always giving reasons why it is their colleagues who need to be promoted and not themselves. Michelle Obama puts it this way, failure is a feeling long before it is a result.
Wounded people repeat the harmful patterns on their children or other people
Wounded people swear to never repeat the methods their family of origin used on them that hurt them. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychology talked about repetition compulsion being a phenomenon where people repeat behavior that they experienced as children, or chose circumstances that they are familiar with.
Some example of repetition compulsion that wounded people repeat include the emcee’s case in the story shared whose parents got divorced and he ended up divorcing twice, a case of a lady with a violent dad who ends up marrying a violent man and a mother whose method of discipline by their own parents was biting and who ends up using biting as a method of disciplining their children.
People who are always in competition with those around them
Rogers, one of the humanistic theorists calls it living outside inside which is typical of wounded people. This only means that wounded people lack the joy of living and enjoying their success their own way.
They end up feeling very unfulfilled because they look at their own achievements through the eyes of other people. At any point of life, there must be someone doing better than yourself so you can’t live your life chasing the wind.
Wounded people consistently experience feelings of inadequacy, worthlessness and emptiness
Randy Hix in his book father wounds explains how lack of a father (not necessarily absence but inability to connect emotionally) causes such deep wounds that the feeling of lost-ness and loneliness become entrenched in the life of an individual.
Fatherly wounds and any other adverse childhood experience such as death of a loved one, chronic illnesses, form part of these feelings of inadequacy.
Wounded people are insecure and have difficulty trusting others
While it is natural and human to choose who to trust, wounded people cluster people together. They see the world through their own pain. They find it very easy to generalize; all men are, all women do, all mother in laws are…all parents should …all children must…
These are people who project their hidden fears and insecurities on other parties who have absolutely nothing to do with their pain. They bleed on people who did not cut them.
Wounded people believe that performance makes them accepted
Have you ever met someone who told you about their performance or achievements within a very short time? People who spoke about their achievements and wealth accumulation and any other discussion brought up gets cascaded into the achievement story? Have you met people who have an exaggerated sense of self-importance and they expect anyone else to accept them for that? These are deeply wounded people.
While part of our self-actualizing tendencies is productivity and ability to perform, it is not the only one. A healthy person needs to have other human aspects, values, interests, hobbies and life skills that make it easy for them to have relationships with other people. Human beings who only work on performance as a method of self-acceptance and acceptance by others are wounded.
Wounded people flip between having a sense of entitlement and being victim
Have you met people who felt that you need to treat them in a certain way because they were disadvantaged? That you need to fix their lives because you are more blessed? Who imagine that it is wrong for you to enjoy life simply because others are suffering?
Those who guilt-trip you for having what they do not have? Others who threaten the stability of your relationship because they are not enjoying what you have? These are deeply wounded people.
Wounded people struggle with letting go of past hurts
It is human to get hurt when your expectations have not been met. There is nothing wrong with that. A healthy person is able to let go the pain and embrace the lessons. If a person has suffered so much pain and has not been able to heal from painful experiences, it only takes little pain to awaken all the unhealed wounds within leading to massive pain that becomes difficult to heal.
Wounded people have low self-esteem
They see themselves as not deserving and they tend to feel that other people are better than them. In other occasions, they feel that those around them are against them even when they have done no wrong.
They are too cautious of their actions because they are so afraid of making mistakes and are deeply concerned about how others feel about them. A wounded person takes criticism very negatively and can end up rehearsing it over and over again and feeling worse.
Wounded people are afraid of being rejected
It is not possible to be accepted by everyone, this kind of expectation is unrealistic. Wounded people feel the need to be perfect because they believe if they are not, they will be rejected. They tolerate emotional abuse just to avoid being rejected.
They hide their true self believing that if they show their authentic selves, they will be found not good enough and rejected. They live not for themselves but for others because they are constantly trying to please everyone else.
Wounded people are uncomfortable with being around themselves
A healthy person is very comfortable with being alone, they find things that still make them fulfilled. Wounded people panic when someone takes long before responding to their text or email, they constantly worry about what they may have done wrong.
Wounded people become clingy and demanding when they feel someone is pulling away. They assign the distance to something they did or said and because of the discomfort of being alone, they suffocate those around them.
Wounded people avoid relationships for fear of being “left”
A healthy person is free to experience life and the beauty of relationships. They allow themselves to love and be loved back. According to Abraham Maslow, these are some of the needs to be met before a person gets to higher levels of functioning.
Wounded people on the other hand avoid relationships. They also leave relationships before being left or they avoid getting so close lest they fall in love. Even when the relationship is pleasant, they continue to find reasons why they should quit. They end up sabotaging relationships so that they can break.
By Joan Kirera-family therapist. For more visit www.joankirera.com: Facebook: joan kirera, YouTube: joan kirera
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