Question:
In what ways does childhood sexual abuse effect the adult victim?
2013-10-02 16:08:37 UTC
I don't recognise many effects of my childhood sexual abuse (although I'm still only 15) I cannot identify as many of the effects that the media or statistics claim. I know every person is different but personally I'm only able to acknowledge a slight anger and guilt as a result of what had happened. Considering the abuse I endured was considerably extreme I don't feel many effects. why would this be? are the effects in a way subliminal?
Three answers:
shell
2013-10-02 16:11:06 UTC
Maybe more one in an adult relationship or once have children due to thinking what if it was my child ect
?
2013-10-03 00:26:15 UTC
Hello Abby. I'm kind of credentialed to talk about this with you, though our situations are different. You're 15, I'm 60. You're female, I'm...not. Yours was in a much earlier stage of childhood, and though you didn't ID the abuser, I'm suspecting a family member. For me, it was the chapter dad of a masonic affiliated order that had young men ages 13-18 in the ranks.



I mainly realized the effects later in life, and much of that in retrospect. I had to have a girlfriend, and if I had one and was in another place, I had no resistance to an affair. I'm a good man, and no other aspect of my personality fit into this behavior. I came to understand that I was desperate to affirm my attractiveness not to old tubby men but to a member of the opposite sex. I needed that reaffirmation, craved it.



Oddly, I gravitated during college and afterwards to anything that helped anybody. Make a Wish, Big Brothers, Kiwanis, EMT (volunteer), NMT, Chiropractor, reading mentor programs, Sunday school...see the pattern? Reach out and help people who need it. It was a mania almost. That earned a lot of admiration, which felt good, but there was a hunger to do more.



My younger brother was approached by this man and when my bro found out I too was prey to the man, he disowned me as having failed in my duty to him to protect him. I abandoned him to the predator. I had thought at the time I was the only one. It never dawned on me my brother would be a target. But that didn't matter to him. I was now estranged.



Decades had passed since the crime. Statute of limitations was passed. But not with the Masons. I gathered testimony from five others and added my own, and had the local masonic order convene a hearing. The man was expulsed from the order he had served for a half century. I faced the demon and gave others the chance to do likewise. That made a lot of difference.



My soul is much more at peace now. I have, after two previous divorces and a lot of crash and burns, my ideal mate. There is no desire to be reaffirmed. I am content.



Does that help?



Dr. D
?
2013-10-03 02:18:49 UTC
Not everyone is effected from it. Some go on to live happy lives and never suffer anything from it.



Others do. Some of the symptoms in adult victims are:



Phobias and anxiety

Depression

Substance Abuse.

Trust issues

Self Esteem issues



There can also be health issues too, like back pain, headaches and genital illnesses. Like recurring thrush in females as adults.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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