lthough you feel alone, you are not alone. According to Dark to Light and their 20 years of service to preventing child abuse, about one in seven girls will be sexually abused before they turn 18. Nearly 70% of all reported sexual assaults (including assaults on adults) occur to children ages 17 and under. Youths have higher rates of sexual assault victimization than do adults. Hearing these statistics might cause some fear but it can also validate you.
These facts also state that this abuse commonly leads to substance abuse. Female adult survivors of child sexual abuse are nearly three times more likely to report substance use problems (40.5% versus 14% in general population). We don’t want to feel it, we don’t want to think about it. It makes sense that you would seek something to take the pain away.
Your mind can feel like a war zone. Mental health problems are a common long-term consequence of child sexual abuse. Adult women who were sexually abused as a child are more than twice as likely to suffer from depression as women who were not sexually abused. Adults with a history of child sexual abuse are more than twice as likely to report a suicide attempt. Females who are sexually abused are three times more likely to develop psychiatric disorders than females who are not sexually abused. You may have previously seen someone about this and were met with many different disorders. They may have constantly changed what they told you was wrong with you, never fitting what you though or felt.
Your body is also struggling, maybe from multiple health issues you are trying to manage. Adult victims of child sexual abuse have higher rates of health care utilization and report significantly more health complaints compared to adults without a child sexual abuse history. These include fibromyalgia, severe premenstrual syndrome, chronic headaches, irritable bowel syndrome and a wide range of reproductive and sexual health complaints, including excessive bleeding, amenorrhea, pain during intercourse and menstrual irregularity. Adults with a history of child sexual abuse are 30% more likely than their non-abused peers to have a serious medical condition such as diabetes, cancer, heart problems, stroke or hypertension. You might miss work or important events because of your health or just exhaustion from surviving day to day.
14 Years Experience
