Recovering Memories from Childhood Sexual Trauma and Their Long term Effects
Childhood is the time for children to be in school and at play, to grow strong and confident with the love and encouragement of their family and an extended community of caring adults. It is a precious time in which children should live free from fear, safe from violence and protected from abuse and exploitation. However, all children are not always protected and therefore undergo a multitude of traumas including sexual abuse. Sexual abuse refers to any action that pressures or forces someone to do something sexually they don't want to do. It can also refer to behavior that impacts …show more content…
Long-term effects of child sexual abuse can include depression, self-destructiveness, anxiety, sleeping problems, eating disorders, dissociation, poor self-esteem, trouble with interpersonal relationships, difficulty trusting others, vulnerability to participate in victimization again later in life, sexual problems, and may acquire other disorders that conflict their social network (Finkelhor, 1979) Most survivors of sexual trauma use defense mechanisms to deal with the trauma of the abuse, such as denial, repression of memories, and blocking out a period of their childhood, a person, a place, or the more painful aspects of abuse. Some victims may encounter behaviors that are out of their control based on the traumas they have experienced prior. This behavior is known to patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder is a typep of anxiety disorder. It can occur after you have gone through an extreme emotional trauma that involved the threat of injury or death (Gosselin, 2013)
Commonly, survivors also experience a process called dissociation, which "is a psychobiological mechanism that allows the mind, in effect, to flee what the body is experiencing yet maintaining consciousness. Dissociation is different than memory suppression, although both can result in a type of amnesia, It is essentially a "psychic numbing ... of external events - a closing off of perceptual or emotional reception, so that the event is not fully experienced,” says
Childhood is the time for children to be in school and at play, to grow strong and confident with the love and encouragement of their family and an extended community of caring adults. It is a precious time in which children should live free from fear, safe from violence and protected from abuse and exploitation. However, all children are not always protected and therefore undergo a multitude of traumas including sexual abuse. Sexual abuse refers to any action that pressures or forces someone to do something sexually they don't want to do. It can also refer to behavior that impacts …show more content…
Long-term effects of child sexual abuse can include depression, self-destructiveness, anxiety, sleeping problems, eating disorders, dissociation, poor self-esteem, trouble with interpersonal relationships, difficulty trusting others, vulnerability to participate in victimization again later in life, sexual problems, and may acquire other disorders that conflict their social network (Finkelhor, 1979) Most survivors of sexual trauma use defense mechanisms to deal with the trauma of the abuse, such as denial, repression of memories, and blocking out a period of their childhood, a person, a place, or the more painful aspects of abuse. Some victims may encounter behaviors that are out of their control based on the traumas they have experienced prior. This behavior is known to patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic stress disorder is a typep of anxiety disorder. It can occur after you have gone through an extreme emotional trauma that involved the threat of injury or death (Gosselin, 2013)
Commonly, survivors also experience a process called dissociation, which "is a psychobiological mechanism that allows the mind, in effect, to flee what the body is experiencing yet maintaining consciousness. Dissociation is different than memory suppression, although both can result in a type of amnesia, It is essentially a "psychic numbing ... of external events - a closing off of perceptual or emotional reception, so that the event is not fully experienced,” says