When I first started recovery my therapist identified my problem as PTSD caused by child sexual abuse. That was new and alien to me. I thought this diagnosis was only assigned to soldiers returning from war. In today’s world a diagnosis of PTSD has widened. Child sexual abuse is routinely placed under the umbrella of PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Let’s breakdown this acronym. Post, meaning afterwards, T meaning a traumatic event, S meaning it is causing stress and D meaning disorder or an abnormal mental condition. How frightening. None of us wants to be thought of as having an abnormal mental condition. Since today one out of every three girls and one out of every six boys is a victim of child sexual abuse, it is rapidly becoming anything but abnormal. Sometimes I think, having met so many survivors, not having been sexually abused, is abnormal.
During a traumatic event, you think that your life or others’ lives are in danger. This traumatic event could be a death in the family, a life threatening illness, losing a parent, a severe car accident, witnessing a violent crime, natural disasters such as an earthquake, tornado or hurricane or many others. If this happens in your life, you may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening around you. Most people have some stress related reactions after a traumatic event; but not everyone is diagnosed with PTSD. If your reactions don’t go away over time and if they disrupt your life, you may have PTSD.
After a trauma occurs, such as child sexual abuse, it is typical to have feelings of anxiety, stress or fear, making it difficult to adjust or cope for some time afterwards. The National Institute of Mental Health has classified symptoms of PTSD into three main categories: Re-experiencing (flashbacks, recurrent memories or dreams), Avoidance (the desire of a person to change their routine to escape similar situations to the trauma) and Hyper-Arousal (difficulty concentrating or falling asleep, easily startled, feeling tense and on edge, angry outbursts). A third has been showing up, Negative Changes, (the way you feel about yourself and others).
As per the US Department of Veterans Affairs (which lists child sexual abuse as one of the traumatic events that can cause PTSD): Whether or not you get PTSD depends on many things:
- How intense the trauma was or how long it lasted
- If you were injured or lost someone important to you
- How close you were to the event
- How strong your reaction was
- How much you felt in control of events
- How much help and support you got after the event
There are two main types of treatment, psychotherapy and medication. Sometimes people combine psychotherapy and medication. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most effective treatment for PTSD. There are different types of CBT, such as cognitive therapy and exposure therapy.
- One type is Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) where you learn skills to understand how trauma changed your thoughts and feelings.
- Another type is Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy where you talk about your trauma repeatedly until memories are no longer upsetting. You also go to places that are safe, but that you have been staying away from because they are related to the trauma.
- A similar kind of therapy is called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which involves focusing on sounds or hand movements while you talk about the trauma.
For those who can’t afford therapy or who have already tried it, or like me, went through more therapists than you can count and never had any relief, I have two suggestions. One is Twelve Step programs. The primary one I recommend and the one that is most frequently cited as the root of our problem, is Codependents Anonymous. Others are Overeater’s Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Sex Addicts Anonymous. There is a Twelve Step program for almost every problem. A Twelve-Step program is a set of guiding principles outlining a course of action for recovery from addiction, compulsion, or other behavioral problems. Your telephone operator will have the phone number of the group nearest you. Give it six sessions. By that time something happens; you realize you are in the right place. Here you can safely talk about your trauma; you can identify with what others are saying thereby utilizing the Prolonged Exposure therapy. Along with it I highly recommend getting a copy of Repair Your Life. We have a book page on it on our website (http://www.thelamplighters.org). Working the Repair program will fulfill the description of Cognitive Processing Therapy as you will learn skills to understand how the trauma changed your thoughts and feelings.
For further information on PTSD please see the following websites:
US Department of Veterans Affairs:
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/index.asp
RAINN
https://www.rainn.org/effects-of-sexual-assault/post-traumatic-stress-disorder
Pandora’s Project
http://www.pandys.org/articles/invisibleepidemic.html
