Dealing with a History Abuse (Sexual, Physical and Emotional)

Unfortunately, too many children grow up in environments where they are exposed to various forms of abuse. This abuse can include physical (hitting, restraining, intimidating), sexual (inappropriate touching, forced acts, penetration) and emotional (yelling, manipulation, bullying, demeaning, withholding, neglecting, etc).

As these children grow into adulthood, they can often encounter struggles that are associated with their traumatic pasts. These struggles can take many forms, but include:

• Low self-esteem
• Difficulty developing or maintaining long-term relationships
• Explosive anger
• Difficulties being intimate or staying connected to your partner
• Difficulties in the sexual arena
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Addictions
• Intrusive flashbacks of the abuse
• Difficulty trusting others
• Self-harm (suicide attempts, cutting, binge-eating)
• Inappropriate sexual behaviour
• Chronic pain
• Unhealthy relationships which perpetuate the abuse