Childhood Abuse: A Case Study

According to Priebe and colleagues, adults who were sexually abused before the age of 18 often live with significant physical and psychological problems. These problems can include difficulty sleeping, somatic problems (Antal & Range, 2009), PTSD, depression, and anxiety. This trauma can follow a person for the rest of his or her life and increases the risk of entering into sexually abusive relationships later in life (Harte, Hamilton, & Meston, 2013). Survivors of childhood abuse may benefit from therapeutic interventions that encourage them to write about their past trauma (Antal & Range, 2009). This can allow the survivor to emotionally confront and cognitively understand the abuse (Pennebaker & Beall, 1986). However, a portion of those that could benefit …show more content…
This could be because survivors of sexual trauma feel hesitant to discuss their experiences with others and may prefer a more private method to work through the emotions associated with the childhood sexual abuse (Antal & Range, 2009).
Pennebaker and Beall tested the idea that writing can become a supplementary treatment option for this population. This experimental writing paradigm involves confronting a particular stressor or traumatic experience through written expression (Antal & Range, 2009). According to Pulverman, Boyd, Stanton, & Meston as information to process is selected, one’s overarching self schemas can lead to negative consequences if one’s self schema has been corrupted by a traumatic event.
Pennebaker and Beall hypothesised that inhibition of one’s behavior requires physiological and psychological work. This work can then lead to an accumulation of stress on the body and increases the probability of stress-related diseases (Pennebaker & Beall,