In my experience, this is also true for survivors of abuse, childhood or otherwise. I've also witnessed people who grew up with just about any dysfunction or difficult life experience (including grief) have trouble accepting that yes, the neglect/criticism/bullying/misttreatment from others, was really THAT bad. Perhaps coming to terms with those things that cause you pain is something of a universal struggle and it doesn't matter what caused the pain. The only people I've met who haven't struggled much with difficult/traumatic events are those that don't involve perpetration/mistreatment by others, such as survivors of floods, airplane crashes, other natural disasters. Maybe because the reality of the thing is in pictures and otherwise validated by the news or objective sources, or maybe it's just that I haven't met a lot of people whose traumas are caused by disaster as opposed to the disasters that are human relationships.