{"id":37273,"date":"2023-08-19T03:39:23","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T08:39:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=37273"},"modified":"2023-08-19T03:39:23","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T08:39:23","slug":"unmet-childhood-needs-trigger-addiction-as-i-try-to-fill-inner-hole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=37273","title":{"rendered":"Unmet childhood needs trigger addiction as I try to fill inner hole"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For many years, I didn\u2019t understand why I ate ridiculous amounts of unhealthful food when I wasn\u2019t hungry. It wasn\u2019t until after I started understanding the effects my father\u2019s narcissism had on me that I finally understood that I was still trying to fill an emotional hole I had felt as a child.<\/p>\n

When I was young, I didn\u2019t have a mother for much of the time. It took me many years to recognize the enormous hole that was left in me by her absence. I felt lost and unloved because she wasn\u2019t there. I felt abandoned \u2014 and I couldn\u2019t understand that my narcissistic father is the one to drove her to a mental breakdown.<\/p>\n

I never could be good enough for my father. I could never do enough to really get his approval. He taught me that it\u2019s sometimes worse to have a bad parent there than to have a loving parent who was missing. His presence and emotional abuse were the most damaging of all.<\/p>\n

This is the next in a series that shares thoughts that come to my mind as I\u2019m writing a book called \u201cThe Truth About My Father.\u201d If you\u2019d like to subscribe to this new YouTube channel<\/a>, click here and request notifications when I publish new videos. Or you can just watch this one below.<\/p>\n