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Information for Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse
CDC Suggests Early Childhood Trauma Can Shorten Life Expectancy
Repressed Memories of Child Sexual Abuse
PTSD and Childhood Sexual Abuse
Child Sexual Abuse Effects on the Brain
Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) Model Helps Sexually Abused Kids
Trauma-Informed Healthcare For Sexually Abused Children
New Study Provides Hope for Child Sexual Abuse Victims
Over the past 20 years, the Center for Disease Control has researched the relationship between childhood trauma and illnesses developed later in life. Traumatic experiences such as abuse or neglect, witnessing violence at home, or family with mental illness or substance abuse all had lasting negative impacts. The CDC called these events, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Their most recent study included 144,000 surveys, collected from respondents in 25 states from 2015-2017. These surveys included topics such as health problems, childhood experiences with divorce, abuse, domestic violence, drugs in the home, and mental illness. Crimes such as sexual abuse would also fall into the category of ACEs. Traumatic childhood experiences could impact development and potentially lead to unhealthy behaviors. ACEs negatively impact a child, but the...
Repressed Memories of Child Sexual Abuse
Incomplete memories of sexual assault, including those with huge gaps, are understandable—if we learn the basics of how memory works.
PTSD and Childhood Sexual Abuse
Post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD, is a grave psychological condition triggered by a traumatic or horrifying event in a person’s life, such as childhood sexual abuse. The person’s life may have been placed in mortal danger, or they may have sustained grievous injury-or there may have been the imminent threat of grievous injury. PTSD is a consequence of the feelings of powerlessness, terror, or latent phobias which often plague survivors of traumatic experiences. While PTSD has traditionally been associated with war veterans, similar symptoms have been documented in victims of accidents, natural disasters, or physical or sexual assault. Moments of intense fear or horror create powerful echoes within a person’s psyche. It’s natural for that person...
Child Sexual Abuse Effects on the Brain
It’s an established fact in psychology and neuroscience that the earliest years of a child’s life are the most formative. The experiences a child has in the first years of life impacts the kind of adult you become. Optimally, an abundance of learning opportunities and thorough parental involvement become a recipe for a well-balanced and contented adulthood. In the worst-case scenario, however, an unhappy childhood—full of stress, traumatic experiences, parental neglect, and other unpleasantness—can have “lasting negative outcomes” on a person’s life. At the annual Society for Neuroscience Conference in 2012, Jamie Hanson, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin, presented some of his insights into the development of the brain and behavior of...
Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) Model Helps Sexually Abused Kids
A Children’s Advocacy Center, or CAC, is an organization that focuses on helping victimized children sensitively yet efficiently. They do so without forcing children to relive their horrible experience by repeating their stories numerous times. CACs bring together specialists from many different disciplines: law enforcement officials, child protective services, lawyers, psychiatrists, physicians, and child advocacy groups. These individuals jointly interview abused children and decide, as a single unit, the best course to take with the investigation of the crime, the treatment of the children’s psychological trauma, and the proper conduct of legal proceedings. The Model, Explained Customarily, there is little to no cooperation between law enforcement, advocacy groups, and the medical community. Traditionally, each of these groups would interview abused...
Trauma-Informed Healthcare For Sexually Abused Children
The National Center for Trauma-Informed Care and Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint, or NCTIC defines trauma-informed healthcare as “an approach to engaging people with histories of trauma (such as childhood sexual abuse) that recognizes the presence of trauma symptoms and acknowledges the role that trauma has played in their lives.” What exactly is “trauma”? The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, holds that “individual trauma results from an event, series of events, or set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life-threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.” Trauma caused by childhood sexual abuse...
New Study Provides Hope for Child Sexual Abuse Victims
Much attention is being paid to victims of child sexual abuse before and during the criminal trial of their abuser. Victims receive the customary outpouring of public sympathy and righteous indignation on their behalf. But what happens after the abuser is convicted and imprisoned? The psychological and physical problems resulting from the sexual abuse don’t just fade away with the public furor. Childhood sexual abuse often causes a lifetime of mental health issues. Victims battle with feelings of guilt, shame, fear, and anxiety for years afterward. They often have difficulty forming meaningful relationships as adults. In extreme cases, sex abuse victims turn to self-harm or suicide to escape their mental strife. But there...
