Energy

Dr Gabor Mate talks a lot about childhood trauma and how many of our issues are sourced there. The child feels abandoned, not listened to, abused physically or verbally and so on. 

The trauma leaves symptoms in adulthood which people are unable to trace to the source of the problem. 

Compensation methods are then found in adulthood to mask the trauma such as always being agreeable, burying oneself in work and performance, substance abuse, etc. 

I think he is very much correct and our goal should be to go to the source of the trauma directly and heal the wound with our adult lens. 

Of course transgender people had a very particular kind of trauma in having to suppress identity and authenticity often for decades, but everyone likely has some childhood wounds they need to address. 

When one steps off the carousel of chaos and has time to truly reflect, we realize that much work went into pleasing others and being agreeable under a system that was not only rigged but completely flawed. 

We discover that much energy went into the wrong areas instead of repairing the errors inflicted upon us. As I've discovered it's never too late, but if only this version of myself could talk to my younger self.