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- 1. The Long-term Effects of Child Sexual Abuse without Treatment Meagan Holloway Argosy University June 24, 2011
Editor's Notes
- The Long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse can cause serious self-esteem issues if not addressed at an early age. Sometimes you will find that girls want to overly compensate for where they feel something is lacking. For example they will feel like they are not pretty if they don’t have on a lot of make-up are skinny and have nice clothes. On the other hand, they can go completely opposite and have poor hygiene and become overweight. In not taking care of themselves in that way is a clear sign that self-esteem might have been an occurrence in childhood. A lot of the times these children maybe felt like they did something wrong and it was a lot of guilt to carry around for a long time. Therefore they will think poorly of themselves and will not have a respectful relationship in adulthood. A romantic relationship that has this kind of issues could lead to jealousy and disrespect. Many times these victims might not stand up for themselves and allow the continued disrespect from their spouse. At this point they might feel like they deserve it and just be punished because of their lack of respect for themselves.
- The reasons that self-esteem issues occur with sexual abuse is that either the perpetrator said things to make them feel bad, or the sexual abuse itself might have made them feel like less of a person. A lot of times the victims feel “dirty” and it takes away from the good things they feel about themselves. They might blame themselves for what happened and that they deserve the poor treatment. Therefore they continually did things to receive the same results and in turn had to deal with low self-esteem. In causing them to feel like they are only good for one thing constantly lead to the lack of respect they hold for themselves. Not to mention the mental health issues it might cause and that it continually contributes to the low self-esteem problems. They are always trying to take the blame for things and ultimately not feeling good about themselves because the sexual abuse has made them feel like they are not worth anything better in life.
- The long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse as it relates to criminal issues can be a difficult situation. It might vary in how sexual abuse victims deal with the sexual abuse. However if a victim who has acted in this manner who has been found to be sexually abused might be able to directly relate the two problems. Drugs and alcohol might be one of the major coping mechanisms in sexual abuse situations in that the pain of the abuse can be treated with these forms substances. If a child never had treatment for the abuse it is possible they became involved with the wrong crowd and in turn got involved with drugs and alcohol. The involvement of drugs can cause these individuals to end up in jail and do things they otherwise would not do. Another criminal behavior that could occur with sexual abuse having violent behavior. The violent behavior could occur in relationships or in general. If we look at the next slide we can understand why this occurs.
- The anger that occurs with sexual abuse victims can come from having to deal with the fact that they trusted that person. It is the ultimate betrayal and therefore could cause some animosity. There is also anger involved with the fact that the abuse causes so many problems for that person and now they are left to deal with it. It can be a lot for a child to deal with and if it isn’t addressed in childhood it could worsen into adulthood. Drugs and alcohol are a coping mechanism as it was mentioned before. They lose respect for themselves as a person and therefore do not care to make a good life fore themselves. Sometimes if the victim doesn’t get help they may think it is better to get a break from their thoughts of dealing with the abuse to turning to drugs and alcohol seems the most helpful. In addition this is a form of turning to the wrong crowd and becoming involved in something they shouldn’t do because they no longer respect themselves.
- Promiscuity can be a major factor for women who have been sexually abused as a child. The chances of pregnancy and STI’s are increased with promiscuity. In addition, they will face many relationship problems if left untreated due to the sexual abuse. Unhealthy relationships may involve co-dependency or abuse. Victims might also think they are only good for one thing and therefore will not know how to require respect in their relationship.
- Victims of sexual abuse deal with promiscuity because they might be “filling a hole that was left inside” and they do not know any other way to be. Filling the hole by being promiscuous is caused because they might feel “ugly” or worthless from what happened so if they sleep with several people they think it will give them their desire back and worthiness. They may only feel self-worth during sex as well because it is how they relate feeling important and needed as a child. They might have learned through the sexual abuse that it is what is right and expected of them. If they don’t know anything else it might be hard to see things different or to be different. In addition they lose all their boundaries and do not know how to respect others’. Ultimately they may invade personal space, seem “clingy” and be quick to get in a relationship. Lack of boundaries occur from sexual abuse because their wasn’t any when they were being disrespected. They learn at an early age that it is okay to be in someone’s personal space. This is why there might be continual problems in these individual's relationships. Ultimately counseling is important as soon as the signs are noticed or the abuse has been disclosed. The child really needs to have counseling to avoid all of these issues as soon as they can in childhood. However if nothing comes out until adulthood it still would not hurt to seek treatment to work through the issues and overcome these difficult obstacles in their life.