Today, child sexual abuse is becoming a scourge, with the consequences that this entails for the victims. Approximately 25% of girls suffer some type of sexual abuse or assault before reaching adulthood, and for boys the statistic is approximately 16%. They are very high values ​​that society often does not want to see or finds difficult to digest. Even so, both in books, in films and series, they are topics that are widely discussed and I think that little by little there is beginning to be awareness about all of this.
But what is more difficult to accept is that The vast majority of these sexual abuses occur within the victim’s family which makes the trauma even more painful and difficult to overcome.
Sexual abuse within the family
On many occasions, the people who abuse the minor are a father, a grandfather, an uncle, a cousin, a family friend, people who are certainly close to the child, who gain the minor’s trust, sometimes for years, and then use him or manipulate him by treating him like an object.
The psychological damage suffered by the victim of sexual abuse by a family member is tremendous, because it not only has the consequences suffered by victims of abuse by strangers, but also your trust is totally betrayed Not only is there a lack of understanding of what happened, social isolation, feeling stigmatized or marked, but it also creates the feeling that no one can be trusted and that no one will be able to offer their help in an authentic way.
Furthermore, sexual abuse within the family does not usually occur through a single isolated event that does not occur again, but rather becomes a lifestyle that children can suffer for years, with the incongruity that The person who abuses may be the only one who basically pays attention to the victim in his home, or it is the same person who at the same time takes care of him when he is sick, feeds him, feeds him and continually tells him how much he cares. wants.
The psychological consequences
These are some of consequences of sexual abuse :
Sequelae in adulthood
In reality I have listed only some of the repercussions that sexual abuse in childhood can have and even more so when it has been committed by a family member, obviously the closer that family member is, the worse it is. This does not mean that all victims have these symptoms but surely if any victim is reading this article, they may be identified by several of these points.
Furthermore, the fact that this symptomatology begins during the abuse processes does not mean that it stops when the abuse has disappeared, or even when the person reaches adulthood. In fact, it gives rise to long-lasting problems that generally worsen over time and create new traumas that the person accumulates.
Even so, all of this can be treated, but you have to face the problem, see that the symptoms may be due to this and not to other causes that seem more superficial. Of course, it is everyone’s job to help, report, and help heal people who have had to live in fear in their own home.