Effects of Repressed Child Sexual Abuse

The following essay presents the topic of effects of repressed memories of child sexual abuse. Trauma and repressed memories, the false memory debate, lifetime effects of childhood sexual abuse, and dissociative disorder and PTSD outcomes of abuse are presented. This is followed by a summary and conclusion.

Trauma is linked with repression (Resneck-Sannes, 1995). When the individual experiences a shock and is overwhelmed by what has happened, the brain isolates and represses the incident and it is no longer remembered. Memories can become conscious at any time and may not come to the surface for many years (20 to 50 years later); victims of child abuse or sexual abuse present with this phenomenon (Resneck-Sannes, 1995). Clients may present symptoms of sexual abuse without remembering any incident of this abuse in their childhood. Memories of the abuse may not be present or there may be false or blurred memories. When a client feels threatened with anger or violence or is afraid of being overwhelmed by a memory, the memory may be shaped into a different form or the individual may act out to deal with the event. For example, a child may run away from home to avoid an incestuous father without remembering any sexual abuse incident. Instead the child may remember only that the father is angry or they may remember being raped with no memory that the father was the perpetrator, as if t

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, and disowned dramas. Themes reported included: malevolent socializing environments with high levels of different kinds of abuses, family stress, psychological and psychiatric problems, and low levels of family of origin support. Of this group, 48% reported that their families of origin were disengaged, emotionally distanced, and malfunctioning. These women reported a history of physical and psychological abuse, sexual abuse, physiological abuse, and family stress (drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, battering, unemployment, mental illness, arrests, multiple moves). Multiple psychological conditions and disorders were also reported to include anxiety and depression, panic attacks, self-mutilation, and suicidal thoughts and attempts. These women reported the inability to protect their children from danger, threat, or harm; 60% reported having severe or extreme concerns in this area. Lifestyle behaviors were designed to control behaviors in the child and others. Parents would move the child from one town to another to keep them safe and they would monitor the child excessively. Parents feared their ability to harm others, including their own children and they reported being unavailable emotionally for their children. Courtoi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2391
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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