Kickstart Your Healing from Childhood Sexual Abuse
“Children are resilient.”
Have you heard that before? Adults tend to dismiss what happens to a child with statements like "they're young" or "they'll get over it." These statements assume a child's age disqualifies them from remembering or absorbing an event. Years of study, and likely your own personal experience, reveal how incorrect this is.
The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse
When it comes to matters of childhood sexual abuse, abused children may experience:
The impacts of childhood sexual abuse are not independent. A child may experience one or more of the impacts listed in the diagram. The impacts are often interconnected, meaning one of the impacts may cause or be the result of another.
If relationship problems, suicidal thoughts, self harm, anxiety and depression, or any of the impacts shown above are not addressed in childhood, abused children carry their impacts into adult life.
Survivors of childhood sexual abuse may experience:
Guilt, shame, and blame
Intimacy avoidance in relationships
Inability to trust
Self-esteem challenges
Trouble coping with stress
Impulsive behavior
Anger
Dissociation
Self-harm
Mental illness
Substance abuse problems
This list is an extension of the diagram above.
Broken
Broken is one way to summarize all the impacts that can result from childhood sexual abuse. Broken isn’t a pretty word, nor does it paint a pretty picture, but it’s a true, simple descriptor for what happens when a child is abused. The truth is my childhood sexual abuse broke me. The breaking was easy, but the healing is hard.
Initiating healing from childhood sexual abuse--or as I like to say, kickstarting your healing -- is a tough but worthwhile endeavor. Through my healing journey, I have identified 7 steps that helped kickstart my healing.
Before we continue, please note: I am not a licensed counselor or therapist. I highly recommend talking to a professional as part of your journey. I share my journey in hope and prayer that it will help you and others kickstart their healing journey.
Below are the 7 steps for building a healing plan.
Are you ready to kickstart your healing? Or are you ready to learn more so you can support someone as they begin their healing? No matter what your answer is, I am praying for you and my program is waiting to show you how to Kickstart Your Healing.
