Dr. Don WoodResolving Your Trauma-Based Challenges So You Can Unlock Peak Performance

Stories From a Phychologist

5 Feb 2025 · 1 min

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1:03

A short excerpt from Dr. Don Wood (YouTube) recounting a case of a famous professional athlete whose father's constant belittling and pressure led to severe drug and alcohol problems; the speaker emphasizes that parental behavior intended to 'toughen up' children can cause emotional trauma with lasting effects on daily life and health.

Chapters

I knew a professional athlete, very famous person, constantly was belittled by his father. His father told him he was never going to amount to anything, he was never any good, constantly put pressure on him to perform. Sometimes a parent may think, if I really push my kid, I can push him by constantly beating him down, toughening him up, dealing with adversity. But this particular athlete that I'm talking about, I'm not going to mention his name, ended up with a very, very serious, serious drug and alcohol problem. What he told me was every time he had to perform in his sport, every single time, he heard his dad in his head saying, you're stupid, you're not good enough, you're never going to make it. And so the only way he could shut off his father talking in his head all the time was to use drugs and alcohol. And so when parents do those kinds of things that they think are actually good for their kids, it's going to show up not only their physical health, but it's going to show up in their emotional health. Trauma has a major effect on the way we live our lives on a day to day basis.