9 Effects of Sexual Abuse on Victims brings to your perusal sexual abuse and its effects on victims, and thus confront and proffer solutions to such.
Long Term Effects of Sexual Abuse
Sexual Abuse Effects:
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Unwanted Pregnancy could be an effect of Sexual Abuse
- Sexual and Physical Health Imbalances
- Psychological and Emotional Imbalances
- Relationship and Marital Problems
- The feeling of Guilt and Stigma
- Loss of trust in people
- Increased Crime Rates
- Hatred for the Opposite Sex
Sexual abuse is a term used to describe an unwanted sexual activity, with perpetrators using force, making threats, or taking advantage of victims not being able to give consent to such. It ranges from physical activities like rape to verbal abuse.
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Studies reveal that cases of sexual abuse are more rampant in developing countries of the world and especially in areas where proper attention is not given to ensuring disciplining of perpetrators of such acts.
It is worth noting that sexual abuse occurs irrespective of sex, but those of the female counterparts seem more pronounced merely because of disbelief and low attention to the travails of the males.
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The Effects of Sexual Abuse on the Victims includes:
1. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
This is a condition of a reactive disorder that comes into being especially in cases where a person had experienced a serious traumatic event that must have led to an immediate response like horror, fear, anxiety, or feeling of helplessness.
This leads to cases of flashbacks, and nightmares, which cause psychological derailment of such a victim. The thoughts of the recurrence of such traumatic events can possibly lead to loneliness; where the victim dissociates from society.
2. Unwanted Pregnancy could be an effect of Sexual Abuse
Some cases of rape lead to early and unwanted pregnancies among teenagers which could go a long way to thwarting their bright future.
Most of the victims engage in abortion once they find out that they’re pregnant. This alone is a great stigma, and its effect on the victim cannot be overlooked.
3. Sexual and Physical Health Imbalances
Sexual molestation poses great risks of chronic and sexually transmitted diseases like HIV/AIDS, gonorrhea, syphilis, etc. It also causes gynecological and perinatal complications, painful intercourse, and vaginismus in women.
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4. Psychological and Emotional Imbalances
Due to both the nature of the victim and the nature of sexual molestation involved, different psychological cases arise as a result of such occurrences.
Serious cases of rape could lead to depression, loss of self-esteem, thoughts of suicide which could actually lead to suicide if not prevented, challenges with human relationships, drug, and alcohol abuse, etc. This is a result of ugly memories left behind after such incidents.
5. Relationship and Marital Problems
A victim of sexual molestation is likely going to have problems relating freely with his/her partner. This is a result of the fear of recurrences.
It may be difficult to gain their trust, commitment, intimacy, etc. in a relationship and such situations cause serious complications, especially with an inexperienced partner.
Victims of sexual abuse also have serious issues as parents and are always relating their poor parenting to their ugly past.
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6. The feeling of Guilt and Stigma
Victims of sexual abuse do suffer from guilt and stigma associated with such occurrences. A child who was sexually abused as a teenager ends up growing into adulthood with such stigma and finds it difficult to perfectly fit into society.
7. Loss of trust in people
The majority of sexual abusers are people which the victims had once trusted and never expected much from them. When sexually molested, victims tend to lose trust for even persons who mean well to them, probably for fear of recurrences, especially with the opposite sex.
Physical abuse like bruises, injuries, and wounds are rampant especially in different rape cases across the globe. These leave long-lasting scars on the victims, making it impossible to forget about such nasty experiences.
8. Increased Crime Rates
Due to the ugly experiences of sexual abuse, most victims end up being child abusers while some others may involve in unwholesome acts like prostitution, armed robbery, or other social vices.
This is simply because their sexual experiences had changed their focus and view about life and they opt for this path too.
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9. Hatred for the Opposite Sex
Most victims of rape generally tend to hate people of the opposite sex and thus, find it difficult to relate well with them.
It is worth resounding once again that sexual abuse is a vice that ought to be corrected in our society and perpetrators of such acts are brought to book because of the long-lasting effect it has on the well-being of the victim.
This is a clarion call on both individuals to be more alert and also, on the government to outline strict measures and enforce the same when such cases occur.
