Abandoned child syndrome


Abandoned child syndrome is a proposed behavioral or psychological condition that results primarily from the loss of one or both parents, or sexual abuse. Abandonment may be physical or emotional. The abandoned child syndrome is not recognized as a mental disorder in any of the medical manuals, such as the ICD-10 or the DSM-IV, neither is it part of the proposed revision of this manual, the DSM-5.
Parents who leave their children, or when a parent is alienated from their children by the other parent, can cause psychological damage to the child. This damage is reversible, but only with appropriate assistance. Abandoned children may also often suffer physical damage from neglect, malnutrition, starvation, and abuse.

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms may be physical or mental, and may extend into adulthood and perhaps throughout a person's life.
When children are raised without the psychological or physical protection they need, they may internalize incredible fear. This is known as chronic loss. Not receiving the necessary psychological or physical protection results in abandonment. If children live with repeated abandonment, this creates experiences causes toxic shame. Shame arises from the painful message implied in abandonment: "You are not important. You are not of value." This is the pain from which people need to heal.