Was I Abused? Childhood PTSD Info and Questionnaire

"Was I abused?" is one of the most common questions that brings people to childhood trauma work. Many adults sense that something was off about their upbringing but struggle to name it — especially when their experience doesn't match the extreme examples typically associated with abuse. This video tackles that uncertainty head-on.

Patrick Teahan, MSW, begins by examining the CDC-Kaiser Permanente Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) study, which correlates specific types of childhood adversity — including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction — with long-term health and mental health outcomes. While the ACE study is a valuable starting point, Patrick explains why its questions tend to capture only the most extreme cases, potentially leaving many survivors with low scores who still carry significant childhood PTSD.

A key concept introduced is the "tricky family" — a family that looks functional on paper (stable housing, food on the table, kids in school) but is quietly and deeply emotionally dysfunctional underneath. In tricky families, a child's emotional and developmental needs go unmet through patterns like having a shut-down parent, toxic parental intimacy, rageful or narcissistic parenting, unspoken family secrets, or unprocessed medical trauma. Patrick argues that survivors from these tricky families often present with the same symptoms as those from overtly abusive homes: depression, anxiety, intimacy problems, negative core beliefs, addiction, and attachment issues.

The video then redefines the ACE categories through a broader, more inclusive lens. Physical abuse isn't only beatings — it includes spanking and corporal punishment. Emotional abuse extends beyond humiliation to parentification and surrogate-spouse dynamics. Sexual abuse can mean exposure to inappropriate content, not only direct contact. Domestic violence includes verbal assault and the threat of violence. Mental illness in a parent doesn't require a dramatic diagnosis — it can mean chronic anxiety, untreated PTSD, neurosis, or emotional unavailability.

Patrick then presents 30 questions from his Childhood PTSD Questionnaire, covering topics like parental volatility, emotional shutdown, shame, dissociation, intimacy struggles, people-pleasing, hypervigilance about others' moods, difficulty with ambiguity, and reactions to criticism. If you score five or more "yes" answers, it may be worthwhile to explore your childhood with a skilled trauma therapist.

Whether you already know you were abused or you're still asking "was it really that bad?", this video provides a framework for understanding how childhood PTSD operates — and why healing starts with clearly defining what actually happened in your family system.