By Vincent Felitti, MD<\/p>\n
“Incest and childhood sexual abuse are among the great\u00a0social taboos of all time.\u00a0\u00a0As a result,\u00a0we act as if they are rare aberrations, infrequently mentioned in a newspaper\u00a0article about someone far from our part of town.\u00a0\u00a0Unfortunately, both are demonstrably common\u00a0even in the \u2018best of families\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0The\u00a0Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study of 17,337 middle-class American\u00a0adults found\u00a0a self-acknowledged prevalence of childhood sexual abuse in 28%\u00a0of the\u00a0women and 16%\u00a0of the\u00a0men when routine inquiry was carried out,\u00a0initially using a well-devised questionnaire, filled out at home, to gather this information.\u00a0 We then followed it up in the exam room: \u201cI see on the Questionnaire that\u2026\u2026. \u00a0 Can you tell me how that has affected you later in your life.\u201d \u00a0And we listened, implicitly accepting that person as a worthwhile human being. \u00a0Ultimately we did this with 440,000 adult patients over an 8-year period.<\/p>\n
Sadly, this high prevalence that is\u00a0lost in time and further\u00a0concealed by\u00a0shame and secrecy usually causes these individuals\u00a0unconsciously to seek relief in various\u00a0coping devices like food, alcohol, nicotine, promiscuity, and street\u00a0antidepressants like methamphetamine.\u00a0\u00a0Although these coping\u00a0devices often end in biomedical disease and\u00a0shortened lives, their underlying causality typically remains\u00a0unrecognized.<\/p>\n
\u201cRepair Your Life\u201d will be of major help to these many\u00a0hidden people, if they find their way to this book.\u00a0\u00a0It is one of several significant books by a\u00a0woman who writes openly and perceptively, using her own experiences to take us\u00a0down her path to an ultimately fulfilling life.\u00a0\u00a0This example of someone speaking intelligently and freely about the\u00a0ordinarily unspeakable is a powerful starting point\u00a0for those fortunate\u00a0individuals who will find self-help here when so little else is visible to\u00a0them.\u00a0\u00a0This is an important book.”<\/p>\n
Vincent J. Felitti, MD, is a renowned physician and researcher, one of the world\u2019s foremost experts on childhood trauma, and the co-principal investigator of the internationally recognized Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.<\/em>
\nSan Diego, California.<\/em><\/p>\n