Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is one of the most stressful things any human being could ever go through. You could only imagine the types of obstacles these victims have to face on a daily basis; this makes coping with stress all the more difficult. CSA causes a significant amount of stress on the body; this type of stress can directly effect a person’s ability to cope, their immune function and their overall health. There are long-term effects to CSA as well. These long-term effects damage all aspects of a person well-being (Wilson, 2012). Because of this, stress management and prevention play an important role when it comes to the holistic care of CSA survivors. Sexual abuse can be hard to define because of the many different forms it can
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CSA survivors need to focus mostly on their current stressors, whatever they may be whether it’s about the past, the present, or the future. Writing about stress helps one step back and consider the options that are available more clearly. To improve health and decrease stress, journal entries should include two things: First, write what happened, the actual facts about the objective experience. Second, write your feelings about what happened, what you feel and why you feel it. For those who use journaling as a form of therapy, letting it all out is an important thing to remember when writing. Not worrying about spelling and grammar also needs to take place. This is sometimes hard to do for those who are consistently trying to be perfect on a day-to-day basis, but it is something that needs to take place for journaling to be a useful tool for stress management and prevention. CSA survivors need to let their thoughts flow out of them, and they need to enjoy the process of communicating important feelings on paper, which will prove beneficial for them long-term. Journaling needs to take place for a minimum of fifteen minutes a day, every day to be beneficial, adding more time as needed when the feeling arises. Journaling should be a private matter, but one could choose to share their written feelings, but this may or may not be therapeutic as the writer will write for …show more content…
It has been correlated with higher levels of depression, posttraumatic stress disorders, guilt, shame, powerlessness, eating disorders, somatic concerns, anxiety, maladaptive coping, denial, feelings of betrayal, stigmatization, sexual problems, and relationship problems (Wilson, 2012). Depression has been found to be the most common long-term symptom among CSA survivors as well as posttraumatic stress. Suicidal ideation, having disturbed sleeping patterns, and having disturbed eating patterns are also factors that plague CSA survivors on a day-to-day basis. It has also been shown that survivors frequently take personal responsibility for the abuse, but with the proper coping strategies, one can heal from the long-term abuse that they suffered during the most critical years of their
CSA survivors need to focus mostly on their current stressors, whatever they may be whether it’s about the past, the present, or the future. Writing about stress helps one step back and consider the options that are available more clearly. To improve health and decrease stress, journal entries should include two things: First, write what happened, the actual facts about the objective experience. Second, write your feelings about what happened, what you feel and why you feel it. For those who use journaling as a form of therapy, letting it all out is an important thing to remember when writing. Not worrying about spelling and grammar also needs to take place. This is sometimes hard to do for those who are consistently trying to be perfect on a day-to-day basis, but it is something that needs to take place for journaling to be a useful tool for stress management and prevention. CSA survivors need to let their thoughts flow out of them, and they need to enjoy the process of communicating important feelings on paper, which will prove beneficial for them long-term. Journaling needs to take place for a minimum of fifteen minutes a day, every day to be beneficial, adding more time as needed when the feeling arises. Journaling should be a private matter, but one could choose to share their written feelings, but this may or may not be therapeutic as the writer will write for …show more content…
It has been correlated with higher levels of depression, posttraumatic stress disorders, guilt, shame, powerlessness, eating disorders, somatic concerns, anxiety, maladaptive coping, denial, feelings of betrayal, stigmatization, sexual problems, and relationship problems (Wilson, 2012). Depression has been found to be the most common long-term symptom among CSA survivors as well as posttraumatic stress. Suicidal ideation, having disturbed sleeping patterns, and having disturbed eating patterns are also factors that plague CSA survivors on a day-to-day basis. It has also been shown that survivors frequently take personal responsibility for the abuse, but with the proper coping strategies, one can heal from the long-term abuse that they suffered during the most critical years of their