My name is Luka.

[cyrano]

And asking for information from my psychology-inclined friends about childhood abuse and its long lasting effects.

I'm working on a fictional character who was sexually abused as a child by a neighbor, and I've been poking around the net looking for descriptions of behaviors that tend to show up in adult survivors. I failed my Google fu, however, and haven't yet had much luck. Any pointers?

Comments

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

Lack of sexdrive or overactive sex drive, sometimes cyclically. Fear/phobia of things connected to the attack (such as the dark, or being alone in a house, or chryslers....and yes, I'm serious).

More when I get home.

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Excellent and helpful. Thank you for your assistance.

[aberrantvirtue.livejournal.com]

Low self-esteem, somtimes disguised as narcissism. Occasional victimhood complexes. GUILT.

Ummm, that's what I got off the top of my head. Other mental illness/anxiety disorders also.

(Yeah. Can you tell I've had 12 years of therapy?)

[jesshartley.livejournal.com]

http://www.aaets.org/article120.htm
http://www.theawarenesscenter.org/symptoms.html

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

The Force is strong with this one.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

It can depend somewhat on how extensive and long-lasting the abuse was. Was this once or twice, or a consistent thing for awhile?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Consistent, probably for a couple of years, but neither severe nor frequent.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

Mmyeah. That'd leave some mental scars, although not as strongly as if it'd been familial abuse. The acting out stuff would probably be happening, yes.

Low self-esteem, difficulty with sex (in some way or another-- the overactive sex drive thing is just as hard as the low sex drive and/or flashbacks thing.) Difficulty with relationships. (That's a big one, often.)

Flashbacks. (These can be visual, auditory, tactile... whatever.)

The somatization is pretty frequent. (That is, making your psychic pain physical.)

Jess' second link is good. Her first one is excellent.

[spenceraloysius.livejournal.com]

I have a person on my friendslist who was sexually abused as a child. She's a sexpot and claims that this is a result of the abuse.

[juliansinger.livejournal.com]

This is, in fact, a common result. (Often because sex is the only way they know how to appraoch a relationship, given their early upbringing; in other cases, it's because they're using sex to dull their emotions, somewhat like alcohol.)

[(Anonymous)]

Had a boyfriend ask me once if I'd been sexually abused as a child. Silly me, I took it as a compliment.

[phillipalden.livejournal.com]

anxiety and depression, sexual dysfunction, fear, guilt, shame, low self-esteem, denial, hurt feelings

[irismoonlight.livejournal.com]

Your mileage will vary wildly. Some people with massive abuse show fewer behaviors than some with "mild" abuse. Reactions can be heavily based in how the person copes, not necessarily the extent of the abuse.

Some I didn't see on a admittedly quick perusal of Jess' first reference (I can't see the second one), or perhaps the same behaviors with different names:
passive aggressive behavior
trust/betrayal issues (common)
using partners as shields/weapon/objects
using sex as a tool/weapon or the flip of that, inability to cope with anything sexual
being emotionally "stuck" on some issues at the age the abuse began/was worse/or just before it started
given this was neighbor abuse, stuffed or acted out anger at parents/authority figures for not rescuing/noticing/saving and relatedly, "waiting for a white knight" behavior, constantly needing to be "rescued" -- some see that as "spoiled princess" behavior
sense of contamination that morphs into -- I think it was on that list--self hatred, distrust of self, self-mutilation, suicidal behaviors
Fear of success/failure (fear of being "found out")


also, your character would have strengths that helped her? cope, helped her? survive the abuse. Some of these are helpful as adults and some are notsomuch. Humor, resiliency, stuffed emotions, acting ability, "spacing out" or detachment, ability to "forget" things, compartmentalization, smart mouth, thinking quickly on one's feet, ability to make oneself emotionally invisible, ...

anyway. Hope that helps.

[hamgallon84.livejournal.com]

Ah, we discussed this very idea last night in my Feminist Theories of Violence class. Straight out of one of my textbooks:
"It has been noted that child victims fare better to some extent than adult rape victims because they are less likely to have suffered massive physical coercion or threat, but not because they are so quick to forget. The fact that so many child victims fail to report their experiences to anyone, even their parents, is power evidence that the experience is surrounded by conflict.
The picture from clinical records on adults who were former child victims also tends to support this view. Psychotherapists report an unusually large number of child sex victims among their clients and note that women with such experiences are often suffering from depression and difficulty relating to men."
Also, child sex victims are more likely to become adolescent runaways than non-victims.
FYI: White children are more likely to be sexually abused at a younger age than are children of color, and are as likely to be sexually abused as are minorities.