This invalidation can take many forms:
"You're angry but you just won't admit it."
"You say no but you mean yes, i know."
"You really did do (something you in truth hadn't). Stop lying."
"You're being hypersensitive."
"You're just lazy."
"I won't let you manipulate me like that."
"Cheer up. Snap out of it. You can get over this."
"If you'd just look on the bright side and stop being a pessimist..."
"You're just not trying hard enough."
"I'll give you something to cry about!"
Everyone experiences invalidations like these at some time or another, but for people brought up in invalidating environments, these messages are constantly received. Parents may mean well but be too uncomfortable with negative emotion to allow their children to express it, and the result is unintentional invalidation. Chronic invalidation can lead to almost subconscious self-invalidation and self-distrust, and to the "I never mattered" feelings van der Kolk et al. describe.
Biological Considerations and Neurochemistry
It has been demonstrated (Carlson, 1986) that reduced levels of serotonin lead to increased aggressive behavior in mice. In this study, serotonin inhibitors produced increased aggression and serotonin exciters decreased aggression in mice. Since serotonin levels have also been linked to depression, and depression has been positively identified as one of the long-term consequences of childhood physical abuse (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen, 1993), this could explain why self-injurious behaviors are seen more frequently among those abused as children than among the general population (Malinosky-Rummel and Hansen, 1993). Apparently, the most promising line of investigation in this area is the hypothesis that self-harm may result from decreases in necessary brain neurotransmitters.
This view is supported by evidence presented in Winchel and Stanley (1991) that although the opiate and dopaminergic systems don't seem to be implicated in self-harm, the serotonin system does. Drugs that are serotonin precursors or that block the reuptake of serotonin (thus making more available to the brain) seem to have some effect on self-harming behavior. Winchel and Staley hypothesize a relationship between this fact and the clinical similarities between obsessive-compulsive disorder (known to be helped by serotonin-enhancing drugs) and self-injuring behavior. They also note that some mood-stabilizing drugs (such as Tegretol, Depakote) can stabilize this sort of behavior.
