Children in dysfunctional families often lack the needed to resolve natural feelings of shame. When a parent is emotionally unavailable, abusive, or addicted, the child cannot logically blame the adult; instead, they internalise the environment's chaos as a personal defect.
In the context of , specifically relating to those from dysfunctional or alcoholic homes, shame is often described as the "hidden demon" that organises an individual's life around the fear of being found fundamentally flawed.
Adults living with this syndrome often exhibit a "web of self-defeating behaviours" rooted in this early programming: