 Hey, Psych2Goers. Are there parts of your past that continue to haunt you today? Whether it was a toxic family, a harsh upbringing, an abusive relationship, or a traumatic experience, your past can continue to affect how you think and behave today. After all, you create from the past until you heal from the past. However, to heal from a difficult past, we need to recognize the signs. Curious to know whether your past is affecting you today? Here are eight signs that you had a difficult past. Number one, you don't have a good relationship with yourself. Have you noticed the way you treat yourself? Are you often your own worst critic? Perhaps you struggle with crippling self-doubt or self-loathing, or maybe you've always been quick to blame yourself the moment something goes wrong. Having a negative relationship with yourself can be a telltale sign that you're still dealing with or healing from some lingering emotional and psychological wounds. Like many people, this may stem from having a difficult past. Number two, you have a negative self-image. How do you view yourself? Another sign you may have had a difficult past is having a negative self-image of yourself. Whether it's because you grew up in a harsh environment or because you've experienced trauma at an early age, such as loss, heartbreak, abandonment, or abuse, these past experiences can have a large effect on how you come to see and think of yourself. Some people may believe that they deserved the bad things that have happened to them, and others may let what they've gone through define who they are. Either way, it can impact your self-image and self-esteem. Number three, you have trust issues. Do you have a hard time trusting others? Whether it's having been in a toxic relationship with someone, being abandoned by a parent at a young age, or having had a disruptive home life, your past experiences may have caused you to develop trust issues towards other people. Since you know firsthand how much it can hurt to put your trust in the wrong person, you may struggle to open up and be vulnerable with someone again. After all, you can't get hurt by someone if you don't get close to them. Number four, you struggle with your relationships. Is it hard for you to make close friends? Because having a difficult past can leave you with a lot of negative feelings towards yourself and others, it can make it all the more challenging for you to form and maintain close relationships. In some cases, you may find yourself attracted towards the wrong kinds of people, such as those who are hurtful and who treat you poorly. In other instances, you might develop a tendency to self-sabotage your relationships by pulling away the moment you start getting close to someone. Either way, having a difficult past can lead to a fear of commitment and emotional intimacy, as well as difficulty with being honest, open, and vulnerable with others. Number five, you tend to self-isolate. Do you tend to self-isolate whenever you're feeling down? Having experienced a difficult and negative past may lead you to become more guarded, detached, and self-reliant. You may find it difficult to trust others, find spending time with people too overwhelming or struggle to communicate how you genuinely feel. As a result, you may often feel misunderstood and lonely, even when in the presence of other people. For this reason, you may develop a habit of spending most of your time alone. Number six, you have difficulty dealing with your problems. Are you easily stressed out by your problems and find it hard to think clearly? Perhaps you always feel panicky or overwhelmed when faced with the tiniest of setbacks and inconveniences. Or maybe you react the opposite way, by staying in denial and deflecting with humor, sarcasm, and dismissiveness. Whatever the case, this struggle to address even the simplest of problems may indicate that you're still struggling to recover from your past experiences and problems. Number seven, you struggle to control your emotions. Is it very easy for you to get upset? Instead of you controlling your emotions, does it feel like it's your emotions that are controlling you? Whether it's snapping and lashing out at people a lot or feeling upset and sad suddenly with no good reason, your past experiences can affect how well you're able to manage your emotions. Because your past can leave you with a lot of unresolved negative feelings, you may end up finding yourself constantly struggling to stay atop of your emotions and to rein them in when you're getting overly emotional. And number eight, you're afraid to be happy. Does the thought of being happy scare you? While it may sound ridiculous at first, this is actually something a lot of people struggle with, especially if they haven't had the easiest time growing up. If you're afraid to let yourself be happy, which can manifest itself through self-destructive tendencies, a fear of intimacy, or a compulsive desire to self-isolate, it could be because the feeling is unfamiliar and unknown to you. Compared to the unfamiliar and scary notion of happiness, you may even find comfort in the consistency and familiarity of pain. For this reason, you may self-sabotage yourself and purposefully do things to prevent yourself from being happy. Did you relate to any of the signs we've mentioned? Let us know in the comments below. If you found this video helpful, be sure to like, subscribe, and share this video with those who might benefit from it. And don't forget to hit the notification bell icon to get notified whenever it's like to go post a new video. The references and studies used in this video are added in the description box below. Thanks for watching, and we'll see you in the next video.