How Affected Are You By Childhood Abuse?

I thought I might post this poll in a couple areas of abuse. Please feel free to post, and if you care to, comment on your answer.

I voted that the abuse bothers me now and then. As I continue in therapy I am finding that I have very little memory of a lot of things. Especially the things that had to do with my mother and father. They weren't monstrous parents......but they were both only children and were raised by very dysfunctional parents.

Sweetngentle

Its hard to tell what is schizophrenia and what is abuse. I try to treat people as best I can because I do cannot stand to be the cause of someones suffering over trivial things. I have a hard time remembering most of my childhood and what I remember is not pleasant but the worst is also far from my memory. My voices when they do appear try to convince me to give up my humanity using my childhood as an argument. So I struggle very hard to keep what humanity I have.

Feather

How true.....it seems as if it's the little things that tend to get me down......the larger ones I am able to rise to the occasion. And when I was a child....it was the little things that hurt the most!!!

Sweetngentle

I am starting therapy soon. Here in the UK, we don't openly discuss or admit that child sexual abuse occurs. Therefore, it appears difficult to cope with when disclosing such demonic events.

However, in my 30 years since, it has blighted my life in many ways. The bulk has been subconcious, but quite harmful. It is only now, through counselling and therapy that I have realised there may be a connection, a pretty bitter pill to swallow!

I too have mixed memories of my experiences. Some are quite foggy, some are gone leaving the open wound. Some are incomplete, but still damaging.

It is really sad to seee that hardly anyone uses these forums.....I was sent to seek chat rooms and message boards by my psychologist...and I find empty, rarely visited forums....sad, really....

cornczech,


Just in case you come back this way again.
I usually go to an abuse forum offered with another health issue, fibromyalgia. It too is not frequented much, but there is more traffic than here.

Part of the reson for message boards not being utilised is the nature of the thing we are talking about. It isn't discussed openly...no matter what type of abuse it is. It is usually swept under the carpet with a pretense of not exising in any large number. And the impact of it on the victim...it's depressing.

PI.

For me, the things from my past do affect my daily life. Of course I have only recently had the courage to get away from it, so I suppose it will take some time to let go after almost 17 years of it.
And yes, most abuse is swept under the carpet...when trying to reach out for help I would get the "stop lying, I don't want to know" or the "deal with it" attitude. I learned to take all the shame and pain and made it part of me and protected it.

Cryptic,

It gets easier with time. The further you are away from it the less it interferes with daily life...so long as you have dealt with the devils it engenders in the first place.

Good Luck for your future.

I have post traumatic stress disorder as a result of the child abuse, it affects every aspect of my life and has ever since it occured. I have had a lot of therapy and tried to educate myself about it and always question the why of it occurring. It is difficult to comprehend the things that people can do to children. But obviously it happens.

I have tried very hard to make sure that I am not the parent my parents were to me. I'm not perfect, just average. I think it will take many years and a different type of society for child abuse to be lessened in our country. It is hard to understand that most of the dramatic TV programs in the USA are geared around perpetrators and most of the advertisements are promoting alcohol with irresponsible behavior. The Super Bowl is just one example of what is popular in the US. I read where the busiest searches on the Internet were of Justin Timberlake ripping off the part of Janet Jackson's outfit to expose her breast. Aren't we something? What in the world does that tell our children.