Imagine feeling like you are never good enough. That all you do is never recognized or appreciated by your family. Like your older sibling is over shadowing you, and your younger sibling is taking up everyone else's attention away from you.

You may be experiencing Middle Child Syndrome. Middle Child Syndrome is a condition that a child born with older and younger siblings sometimes develops. The middle child may feel that they are being ignored or that their parents are showing favoritism towards a particular sibling.

The people that suffer with this syndrome experience loneliness, lack of motivation, self-loathing, low self-esteem and depression. They usually feel that with the oldest sibling everything has been experienced with them. The parents have gone through their first footsteps, first day of school, and now their second childʼs milestones are not as important because they have already been through it. When it comes to the younger sibling the cuteness factor plays out.

Parents might feel that this is their last baby and their last chance to experience the joys of their last childʼs childhood. The middle child often feels neglected and jealous of their siblings, causing sometimes severe sibling rivalry. Most people with MSC will act out in their early years, looking for the attention they are not getting at home.

They might act out in creative ways, joining clubs and performing, or they may act out in negative ways, getting in trouble or doing poorly in school. Middle Child Syndrome is also portrayed in the media.

Episodes of The Cosby Show, Full House, The Simpsonʼs, and Malcolm in the Middle have all dealt with middle children feeling alienated. MCS and the birth order that describes how a persons personality will be, based on which position they are born in their family, are not taken seriously be some psychiatrists and most parents do not like the idea of favoring one child over another.