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Most adult Survivors of incest, sexual abuse, rape and/or domestic violence describe suffering a significant degree of physical, mental and emotional trauma during, immediately following, and even a long time after the abuse. The trauma often disturbs the cognitive and emotional processing systems, as well as the interpersonal relationships of survivors.
It is common to internalize trauma and develop emotional problems such as depression; with symptoms of sad or flat affect, low self-esteem, and poor self image. Anxiety problems such as panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive behaviors and ultimately Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), are also common symptoms that trauma Survivors experience. The dominant features of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder are re-experiencing the trauma (e.g., flashbacks, intrusive emotions), emotional numbing (i.e., emotional non- responsiveness, zoning out and dissociation), and hyper arousal (e.g., irritability, difficulty concentrating, being easily startled and difficulty falling sleep).
Untreated trauma may haunt Survivors with feelings of betrayal, mistrust, guilt,
shame, loneliness, anger and powerlessness. The nature of the traumatic experience and the unprocessed memories and feelings makes them hard to share with others or to acknowledge to one self. These feelings may compel self- harming behaviors to release the psychic pain.
Thankfully, no one has to suffer alone. Through reflective, ego supportive, educational and emotional corrective experiencing, Survivors will work towards integrating, ego building and gradually trusting one self and eventually others.
Individual, and group therapy, as well as family therapy, are deemed necessary as part of the healing process. Therapies such as Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) are helping Survivors move towards healing and developing a life worth living.
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