I wanted to say that I read in a book about depression about an experiment that have been performed with dogs into learned helplessness. I do not recall all the details, but I would check it out if people are interested.
As I remember it they put two dog in two separate cages. form time to time the dogs are given a weak electrical shock. One of the dogs has a leaver in the cage and when he pulls it the shock stops for both.
The conclusion of the experiment is that even though they have been subjected to the same abuse, the dog which had no leaver shows much more deep behaviour problems, tending to sit in a corner and hide. recovery is also much much slower.
the author called this “learned helplessness”. I think, again I would have to check it, but I believe he related this to effects of abuse.
I can really see a link here. as children we don’t really have options, we were powerless, and unfortunately it seems to be something that we carry into adulthood, something we have learned.
I guess the good news is that it can be changed, time, patience and resilience are required but we can get there