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Sexual abuse represents any kind of sexual contact between
an adult or older teen, a child or another adult. It can include
actual physical contact, such as fondling or rape, but it
also includes making someone watch sexual acts or pornography,
using somone in any aspect of the production of pornography,
or making a child look at an adult's genitals. This behavior
is used to gain power over the victim and often involves a
betrayal of the child's trust.
If you have been sexually abused, please
know that you are not alone, and it is possible to overcome the devastating effectsthat abuse can have on people for many
years to come if left un-dealt with.
Over 20% of the American population suffers from some form
of sexual abuse before the age of 18. Sexual abuse can happen
to anyone - males and females, rich and poor, white and black,
from all backgrounds and from all walks of life.
Many victims of childhood sexual abuse will have been abused
by someone in the family or a close family friend.
Some will have been abused by a stranger, and although that
is what becomes reported in the news far more often, abuse
happens far more often by someone known to the child that
they should have been able to trust to protect them.
Studies show that there is a relationship between sexual,
emotional and/or physical abuse and the development of an
eating disorder.
Many sufferers of sexual abuse have turned to eating disorders
and have found that their eating problem helps to protect
them, repress or block out their painful memories, and numbed
their feelings.
Victims of sexual abuse most often develop "coping mechanisms"
to survive the memories of the abuse. Eating disorders like
anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and complusive eating disorder,
and self-harm, are among these mechanisms.
Eating disorders may have helped sexual abuse vicitms block
out their feelings and memories for a while, but it is a very
destructive way of coping.
For many sufferers of sexual abuse, eating disorders have
been their only means of survival for many years and it is
difficult to recover because of the fear to give it up. They
are not sure if they can survive without their eating disorder.
Individuals who are/were sexually abused
suffer from low self esteem and poor body image, and are at high risk for developing
an eating disorder due to an underlying negative body image.
There are two very important things for every sexual
abuse survivor to remember - First, it was not your fault, you did nothing wrong
and did not deserve this! Second, you do not have to struggle in silence and keep
your secret hidden because it is okay to talk about it.
Healing the emotional wounds of physical or sexual abuse IS possible!!!
It is important to seek professional help: Survivor’s of sexual
abuse need to be treated in a safe environment with a therapist who they like
and trust. If the person finds it too difficult to express themselves verbally,
writing is a good way for them to express what happened and how they are feeling.
Statistics cite one out
of four girls is sexually abused; one out of seven boys.
Young girls
who are sexually abused are more likely to develop eating disorders as adolescents.
Abused girls were more dissatisfied with their weight and more likely to diet
and purge their food by vomiting or using laxatives and diuretics. Abused girls
were also more likely to restrict their eating when they were bored or emotionally
upset. Food restriction and perhaps other eating disorder behaviors may (reflect)
efforts to cope with such experiences. Source: Stephen A. Wonderlich, M.D.,
et al, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Fargo,
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 2000;391277-1283.
A lower rate of sexual abuse has been reported among people
with anorexia in relation to individuals with bulimia.
People with
bulimia and a history of sexual abuse tend to report a variety of impulsive
behaviours, including drug abuse, alcohol abuse, self-mutilation, and stealing.
Such behaviours often appear to serve the function of reducing self-awareness
and decreasing the intensity of feelings.
Famous Victims - Celebrities who experienced Sexual Abuse
There are a number of celebrities who have been
sexually abused in the past, some of them went public about
their struggles, pain and feelings.
The following men and women are very
courageous to talk about their "dark secret" and I'd like to thank
them for their honesty, courage and openness.
Actress Teri Hatcher went public with a dark
secret from her childhood and revealed in an interview
with the magazine "Vanity Fair" that her uncle
sexually molested her between the ages of 5 and 9. She
kept the abuse a secret until recently and never told
her parents about the molestation but suspects they
might have known. "It's the choice to not remain silent.
It's a choice to raise our voices in a strong way to
say to perpetrators that we are not going to be silent
anymore." In her book "Burnt Toast",
Teri opens up about the little moments that have sustained
her through good times and bad.
Oprah Winfrey was sexually abused as a child.
Actress
Anne Heche was sexually abused as a child by her father. Her father, a former
church choir director, who turned out to be gay and who lived a double life, died
of AIDS in 1984. In her controversial autobiography "Call Me Crazy"
published in 2001, Anne talks about the sexual abuse she experienced as a child
and her struggle to overcome these horrific events. Anne reveals that she spent
the first 31 years of her life suffering from mental illness that she says was
triggered by sexual abuse by her father.
Singer and songwriter
Fiona Apple became anorexic after being raped outside of her mother's home
at the age of twelve. She says she was not anorexic out of a desire to be thin,
but as a reaction to being raped. She also admitted to having self-injurious behaviours
in the past.
Model
Janice Dickinson, who also struggled with bulimia in the past, was emotionally,
physically and sexually abused as a child. Her late father abused her and her
sister. Janice wrote a book about her life called "No Lifeguard : The
Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel", in which she talks
with brutal honesty about her struggles, addictions, good and bad times.
Singer and songwriter Tori Amos was raped
and wrote a song called "Me and a Gun" about her
rape, surviving and healing. Tori talks about her abuse in
interviews, and was granted an award from the Washington,
D.C. Rape Crisis Center recently for her work in recovery
and in her establishment of a nationwide toll-free rape hotline.
American poet Anne Sexton (1928-1974), who
also suffered from anorexia and depression, was sexually abused in childhood and
committed suicide at the age of 46, years before the existence of any support
groups or recovery-oriented therapies for survivors of child sexual abuse. She
discussed her abuse in psychoanalysis and some of the tapes have been published
in a book.
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