There are some people whose primary experiences in the past have been horrible. But, for most people, the past was a mixed bag of experiences. They were blessed by some excellent situations and experiences. They also suffered from some traumatic experiences. Very few people have no traumatic experiences in their past.
Some people live in what is called denial.
In reality their bad experiences actually happened, but in their minds those experiences never occurred. Though they struggle in life on a daily basis because the problems of their past were never resolved, in their minds those problems never occurred. Some people refuse to accept any responsibility for their present life because of what happened in their past. They live in what I refer to as the victim mentality. Since they must be who they are because of their past experiences, they accept no responsibility for anything occurring in their lives, and they accept no responsibility to change themselves or their lives.