What is child sexual abuse
Child sexual abuse constitutes any sexual contact involving a child and an adult or an older person. Such contacts include fondling, genital contact, oral or anal penetration including penetration with objects, masturbation, among others. There are also non-contact forms of child sexual abuse which include subjecting a child to watch pornographic materials, making a child witness a sexual act, or exposing a child to any sexually explicit materials and advances (Draucker Martsolf, p 2). Most children do not report sexual abuse cases due to shame and fear associated with the act. The fact that the perpetrators of this abusive act are close people such as a mother, a father, a brother or sister, a clergy, or a doctor may hinder the child from reporting the incidence. Some children may fear reporting the incidence due to fear that they may break the relationship with the perpetrator and leave the child vulnerable. Failure to report such incidences means that the child harbors the trauma in all hisher life. Unfortunately, the psychological effects of the abuse usually present later mainly in adulthood in several ways. They may present in form of post-traumatic stress disorder, social withdrawal, a poor self-image, dissociation, self blame among other negative effects.
Psychological effects of childhood sexual abuse
When a child suffers sexual abuse, they are likely to experience short-term psychological effects which usually express in form of emotional impairment. Feelings of isolation and fear overwhelm the victims of this abuse with most of them experiencing difficulties in trusting people. These short-term emotional consequences often become lifelong consequences as expressed in form of low self esteem in adulthood and depression.
The most likely psychological problems suffered by survivors of childhood abuse include post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, chronic depression, substance abuse, suicide tendencies, psychotic symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations, dissociative disorders, and low self-esteem (Draucker Martsolf, p 17). Individuals who were sexually abused during childhood are often reported to have the above mental conditions later in life. Amongst the almost obvious mental illness following childhood sexual abuse is chronic depression. Up to 95 percent of children who are sexually abused during childhood report any one or more than one of the above mental disorders. The most prevalent however is post-traumatic stress disorder which is in about 50 percent of adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse (HeretoHelp, para 3). Although one cannot not purely associate childhood sexual abuse with psychological illnesses, the likelihood of developing mental illnesses is very high if one went through a sexual abuse ordeal during childhood. Post-traumatic stress disorder usually occurs as bouts of depression especially when an individual gets triggered. Such a trigger may be being involved in a sexual relationship which provokes the horrible experience during childhood. The thought of sexual contact may be enough to provoke post-traumatic stress disorder. Cases of personality disorder have also been identified among some survivors of child sexual abuse. Substance abuse is also very prevalent in adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse.
A literature review done by Mullen and Fleming (para 54) shows that there is as strong association between child sexual abuse and mental illnesses during adult life. The review of literature reiterated that the most common psychological disorders are depression, anxiety, substance abuse, eating disorders and post-traumatic stress syndrome. The review also noted that personality disorder is also likely to occur although this is a controversial finding.
Taking self-esteem as a psychological disorder, the literature review by Mullen and Fleming (para 56), showed that most survivors of childhood sexual abuse portray low self esteem during adult life. That survivors of childhood sexual abuse end up abusing substances was also reviewed by Mullen and Fleming. It was identified that in most individuals (regardless of sex) who reported having sexually abused during childhood, majority of them were abusing alcohol at an adult age. Women were however more likely to be involved in alcohol abuse. It should be noted that sexual abuse is not the only factor that results to alcohol abuse as there may be other contributing factors.
Suicidal thoughts and attempts are very common among adults who suffered childhood sexual abuse. The suicidal thoughts are usually out of self-blame as the individual may feel as if they were the ones responsible for the action. The isolation feelings may also prompt the individual to end their lives through suicide. Again the guilt will tend to be more intense in adulthood when these individuals experience triggers as well as due to coming to terms with what happened then.
Personal testimonies on adult experiences resulting from sexual abuse during childhood are the best way to describe the psychological consequences. Sage Williams (para 3), narrates of her personal experience of child sexual indicating psychological impairment at an adult age. Though raped at a tender age, she only came out to share it out at the age of 31 years. At this age, Williams (para 13-16), still suffered post-traumatic stress disorder especially when she came across any setting that resembles the environment in which her father used to rape her. Williams clearly mentions that after many years of holding back the trauma of childhood sexual abuse, adulthood experiences include dissociative disorders, depression, low self esteem, and posttraumatic stress disorder among other psychological effects. In her ordeal, Williams also report that sleeplessness, poor concentration, being extra cautious and intense anger were among the conditions she had dealt with in her adult life. In addition, feelings of detachment or estrangement seem to prevail in these individuals thereby translating into social withdrawal and panic.
The increased psychological impairments during adulthood in persons who were sexually molested during childhood are as a result of an impaired psychological development. It should be noted that children suffer sexual molestation at a very important stage of psychological development. The fact that they do not express these aftermaths at childhood does not mean that the consequences are absent. Reaching adulthood seems to open the reality of the past and the mature individual at this time may not be able to hold back the experiences and the effects. Most survivors of childhood sexual abuse make almost unending psychiatrist visits seeking to find help over psychiatric conditions. It is unfortunate that some of them may not even disclose to their counselors of the childhood sexual abuse experiences thus worsening their conditions. Although some report recovering from the episodes of psychiatrist illnesses presenting at adulthood, most of them still remain with these scars. In specific, forgetting becomes very difficult since life experiences always present triggers to the childhood experience. Williams (para 19), says that although she has found much relieve after psychiatrist visits, bouts of depression are part of her life even at the slightest trigger.
Conclusion
Childhood sexual abuse undoubtedly translates to severe psychological consequences in adulthood. Most adult survivors of child sex abuse will present with post-traumatic stress disorder especially at the encounter of a trigger. Chronic depression, dissociative disorder, anxiety, panic and alienation will also characterize the lives of such individuals. Some individuals may also experience personality disorder. Due to these psychiatric conditions, adult victims of childhood sexual abuse will tend to abuse substance such as alcohol which may worsen the mental disorders.
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