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Childhood Abuse And Child Abuse

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Child abuse is a topic that not many feel comfortable discussing. It goes to reason then, that the abuse one has faced during their childhood is a topic that is also rarely discussed. When a person brings up the situations in which they had been abused as a child, many people will uncomfortably change the subject while giving their condolences. However, childhood abuse can greatly affect future of the adults who have suffered it. Abuse is defined by the Oxford Dictionary (2017) as: cruel and violent treatment of a person or animal. There are three main types of abuse: physical abuse which involves physically harming, psychological abuse which involves verbal abuse (threats, insults, refusal to communicate, etc.) and an array of other acts, …show more content…

(Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2017) This does not account for the countless children who faced multiple types of abuse or the hundreds of incidents that were not recorded.
Because of this abuse, those children are now at risk for mental health issues as adults. Multiple sources conclude that childhood psychological abuse is one of the causes for adult mental illnesses such as: anxiety in its many forms, depression, dissociative disorders, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts or actions. (Elish, 2006; Health Direct, 2017; Hunter, 2014) Along with these mental illnesses, adults with a past of psychological abuse are also at risk to become overly critical of themselves, have low self-esteem, and to develop an eating disorder such as bulimia, anorexia, or obesity. These illnesses could go undiagnosed or they could be recognized by those who suffer them and treated. Undiagnosed mental illnesses have the power to wreak havoc on the person suffering and those close to him or her. When paired with one another, these issues make a deadly cocktail.
There is also an array of physical illnesses that adults can experience as a direct or indirect result of psychological abuse. These adults may find that they develop insomnia, migraines, stomach ulcers, indigestion, and other health issues that occur as a result of substance abuse problems and sexually risky behaviors because of the abuse they faced as a child or adolescent.

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