Abuse is one of the most obvious components of many dysfunctional families, whether it is verbal, physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
Abuse in childhood is like a vampire that steals a child’s feelings of self worth or self esteem and makes him or her vulnerable to negativity and abuse later in life.
Let’s define each of the types of abuse before we continue:
Sadly, abuse is still very common in our 21st century culture. As a psychotherapist, I often see clients who are tolerating abusive relationships or abusive behavior in their everyday lives.
Although I’m always very grateful that the person I’m working with has made the choice to see professional help, I also feel sad that there are so many others out there who are still being abused. Too often, the most beautiful people simply don’t realize what the problem is or that they could make a choice to better their lives.
There are many reasons why you may allow abuse to continue in your life. Some of these include:
One of the most hurtful comments you can make to a sexual abuse survivor is “It happened a long time ago–Get over it!” Most survivors would love to be free of the deep emotional pain of sexual abuse, but they simply don’t how to get there.
Some survivors describe their abuse as ‘soul murder.’ They describe feeling like something precious was lost from deep inside of them. They report that their bodies were not affected as deeply as their souls.
