Most narratives about sexual abuse start with statistics, perhaps to show how serious the problem is. Talking about statistical facts is also (unintentionally) a way of minimizing emotions that the topic can bring up for people. It’s easier to think about numbers than to think about children being hurt, particularly being hurt sexually. But we need to talk about sexual abuse openly to help people get the treatment that they deserve and need. An important focus is the people who are suffering and have suffered because of childhood sexual abuse and who haven’t reached out for treatment and recovery.
Many survivors don’t seek treatment because they don’t want to think about what happened. Thinking about past child abuse can bring up panic, fear, anger, and shame. The emotions can be overwhelming. If you are a survivor, you may blame yourself in some way, or you just want to block out what happened and in the words of a client, “just be normal.” Reaching out for treatment means telling someone, and for many, that’s a huge step that can seem undoable.
If you were abused, it’s like someone stole your sense of safety. Instead of being a fearless child running around and exploring the world with this idea that you are invulnerable, you learned that the world and people in it weren’t safe. You couldn’t trust them to protect you, not even to not hurt you. How alone you must have felt and still do. To talk about it with someone can seem terrifying. For some, there is too much shame (undeserved).
Have you ever trusted anyone enough that you told them that you were sexually abused as a child? Many adults haven’t. Many haven’t recovered and still suffer. Let’s kick out that undeserved shame and help every individual restore their self-worth and live their lives fully. Recovery is important for many reasons. If you are considering seeking treatment, here are some key reasons why treatment is important:
1. Untreated trauma can worsen over time. It can lead to mental health disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, depression, and even thoughts of suicide. It can also affect your physical health in serious ways.
2. Sexual abuse can damage your sense of well-being daily, and your sense of worth and self-esteem. You may judge yourself as being unloveable. You may struggle with intimacy, trust, and relationships. Treatment can help rebuild your sense of a healthy identity, improve your relationships, and help you connect more intimately.
3. To cope with trauma and the impact of sexual abuse, people may use destructive coping behaviors such as substance abuse, isolation, compulsive behaviors, or self-harm. Sometimes individuals who have been abused stay in abusive relationships as adults or become abusers and repeat the pattern with their children. With treatment, you can learn healthy ways to cope and set boundaries to keep yourself safe and to be a healthy parent.
4. Treatment can offer you relief from being on guard constantly, being overly reactive, having flashbacks, and being fearful of living fully. Treatment is a way to thrive.
If you are ready to reach out, there are many different options for treatment to choose from. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is one option and can be effective with children as well as adults. Prolonged exposure therapy, and trauma treatments developed with a dialectical behavior focus are options to consider, and trauma-informed yoga can be a helpful addition to trauma treatment.
You can heal.
