Sexual abuse and relationships
People who experience sexual abuse in relationships, assault or rape are negatively impacted by this trauma in multiple ways. It affects not only their mental health and emotional wellbeing but also their ability to safe and secure in their relationships. Sexual trauma can change a person forever but with treatment it is possible to repair some of their issues so that they can learn to develop close connections with others.
The Impact of Sexual Abuse and Trauma
When someone is sexually abused, especially as a young child, they may carry a lot of shame about the experience. They may have kept the abuse a secret for a long time and developed the belief at a young age that sex and intimacy are wrong. These feelings can be pervasive and carry on into adulthood when they begin getting involved in close relationships.
We see the similar effects of childhood bad experiences manifest throughout a person’s life in one of our previous Mental Health Tuesday episodes.
In that episode we noticed the long-lasting consequence of someone being abused sexually as a child and having to live through the trauma of that for most of their adulthood. Tune in that episode on our YouTube. Click the link down below to hear real life experiences and how people have overcome their struggles in their lives.
