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Psychological Effects of Losing a Father at a Young age

Losing a father can be a very traumatic experience for all the kids especially at a very young age. Both, mother and fathers are important for a child’s normal growth and personality development. Time spent with a father either during sharing hobbies or usual chit chat, it adds up into building the personality traits of a child. It creates a serious gap when a child loses father at an early stage of life. Either the father is step, or real, the hollow space during absence of a father counts a lot. If it is a loss of a single father, the child feels completely abandoned and disturbed.

Losing a Father

Long-Term Effects of Losing a Father as a Teenager

Here are some important effects associated with grief of a child when a child loses father at an early age, followed by the complete feeling of abandonment and insecurity. 

1. Grief and sadness:

If a child is in his early two years at the time of loss, it is possible that child can not perceive the difference between mortality and death. However, children about 4 years of age can feel severe grief and it is possible the memory haunts them for life long. The all stages of grief can create serious personality sores that may take years of self help and therapy based healing. Sadness can be associated with loss of a loved one, severe anxiety and depression. Similarly, the grief needs to be let out by discussion and experimenting catharsis that needs the help of an adult.

2. Insecurity:

Insecurity is completely difficult to handle. When a child loses a father, he develops a sense of insecurity and incomplete family retention. There is always a vacant space at the end of the dinner and lunch table, a room for the one who is lost. One of the necessary things that father do is to protect his children. At an early stage of life, when a child can not feel complete protection from his father, he remains completely unprotected and threatened.

There is a complete phase of abandoned growth where no one is there to provide emotional support at the back of the child. Similarly, the different types of mental disorders are affiliated with such abandonment too.

3. Weak at maintaining Relationships:

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Relationships mismanagement is a very quantitative response of kids who do not have fathers. Imagine not being exposed to true and healthy relationships at early stages of life. One who is never exposed to true relationships, he never can differentiate the difference between right and wrong kind of relationships. Similarly they cannot express their feelings because they never had the father love to express at.

Mothers usually nurture the family and have another kind of love and parenting style. Fathers parenting style and personality traits are completely different from that. They are freehand, and leading members of the family. Daughters without fathers cannot experience and accept true love. They might always be falling prey to the wrong kind of narcissistic partner. Similarly sons who lost their fathers at an early age might lack masculine characteristics and prove weak partners who cannot provide protection to the family.

4. Mental and psychological disorders:

Father issues can lead to serious psychological disorders. Lack of love in early childhood, lack of attention and protection might accumulate in a child’s personality as unhealed and untreated trauma. It may lead to disorders like Borderline Personality Disorders, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Seasonal Affective Sadness, Depression and other forms of disorders. The psychological help and mental disabilities might provoke serious outcomes that can cause problems while maintaining relationships.

5. Low Self Esteem and Self confidence:

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Kids are very much vulnerable to low self-esteem and confidence who are not appreciated at early stages of life. Such children might be confused adults, who have difficulty in figuring the path for them. Sometimes kids can find it hard to understand their talent and behavioural mismanagement might occur. Low self-esteem and loss of confidence do not allow them to come to the front, and despite owning a list of talents they cannot express it because of their fear to be not understood.

The cause behind such behaviour is they lack the complete family surrounding to appreciate them. It can also be the outcome with kids who have abusive parents, most commonly, sons whose father yelled at them.

6. Learning Problems and Difficulty in Concentrating:

Who can function well with a trauma? It is obvious that learning and normal functioning require a very healthy environment. Growth is associated with complete safety around. If a child is unable to forget the trauma related to his father, it is more obvious that it starts affecting his natural tendency of learning and concentration. Concentration requires peace of mind. When a kid cannot concentrate, learning problems can be very commonly observed.

This can be prolonged to late stages too.  Determining the cause and uprooting it might help in maintaining focus of the child, but this is not possible without a therapist. The older the trauma is, the harder it is to heal it.

7. Self-Blame and negative Speech:

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Loss of a father is associated with harder circumstances. Things that were the duty of father, now become the responsibility of mother and the elder siblings. Problems like financial support, emotional support, lack of family unity, loss of love can be very bitter and might leave serious effects on the child. When the children grow in such environments, it is possible that they take the bitterness and negativity as a trait in their personalities.

Such hate is expressed as an outcome in self blaming and speech. Fathers are shade for children, but when it is the hard circumstances, kids with no shade can face serious discomforts.

8. Anger mismanagement with Fear or Anxiety:

Mismanagement of anger is a very serious psychological disorder associated with loss of a loved one. The responsibilities of a father is directly inherited by the elder kids thus disturbing the innocence and provoking aggression in kids.

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