Understanding emotional pain in the lived experience of women with traumatic childhood experiences

Studies in psychology have shown that having adverse childhood experiences can have irreversible effects on adulthood. On the other hand, failure to satisfy psychological needs has led to the experience of emotional pain, which is not possible except through the deepening of emotional processing and access to trauma-related experiences. So far, no in-depth research has been conducted to understand women's emotional pain affected by a childhood in Iran.

The purpose of this study was to better understand the emotional pain experienced by women who had adverse childhood experiences.

The current research was conducted using a qualitative method of phenomenology. The study sample included 10 women from Tehran who had traumatic experiences in their childhood. The sampling method was purposive. We conducted semi-structured interviews with individuals. We implemented the text of the interviews verbatim and analyzed the data by the Colaizzi seven-step method (Morrow et al., 2015).

The participants' responses extracted two main themes: shame and fear. These themes included the following: All participants experienced shame in all four dimensions of trauma (physical, emotional, sexual, and neglect), and the sub-themes included worthlessness, helplessness, incompetence, humiliation, inferiority, fault/guilt, not being lovable, and impurity/dirt. b) Fear: All participants in this study who experienced psychological, physical, sexual, or neglect trauma felt fear; its sub-themes include fear of insecurity, rejection, abandonment, failure to meet needs, loss, fear of trauma, and lack of support.

Based on the study's findings, women, and girls who have experienced one of the forms of trauma (sexual, physical, emotional, or neglect) under the age of 18 experience emotional pain, shame, and fear in adulthood.