Forever Harmed

Forever Harmed

According to Child Sexual Assault statistics, it is estimated that as many as 40 million Americans, one in six people, experience sexual victimization as children. The most common ages of children when sexually abused, occur between ages 8 and 12. Child sexual abuse is hardly ever a one time occurrence, it can last between 1 to 4 years. 75% to 80% of all the children abused were abused by someone they knew. Children who have been sexually abused are more likely to cope by turning to alcohol or becoming addicted to drugs. One third of children may later repeat the cycle of abuse by being abusers themselves. Negative long term effects that can stem from being sexually abused as a child go beyond the horror of the sex act itself, one has to deal with many different emotions , isolation, and depression.
When a child is sexually abused, immediate effects the a child could experience are anti-social behavior, problems in school such as acting out towards school mates to make them even more of an outcast, and even fear of adults. Children may have nightmares or wet the bed.   Some emotional effects include apathy, depression, hostility, lack of concentration and even eating disorders.   Common sexual effects are inappropriate knowledge or interest in sexual acts. When a child knows a little to much about sexual acts it may backfire on them in the long run when the knowledge is used against them. For example a girl in a junior high school may want to fit it so she is a little to promiscuous with boys an becomes known as a slut. They may even have excessive aggression or fear of a particular person or family member. Children who have experienced the nightmare of being sexually abused most likely feel as if they have no one to turn to for help so they take this mass of destruction and turn it inward where the process of decomposition begins.
Some of the behavioral effects include becoming angry due to the lack of protection (from the child’s parent or from oneself)....