Breaking Free

Help for Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, Carolyn Ainscough & Kay Toon, Sheldon Press, ISBN 0-85969-810-6

Section i

Chapter 1: Survival and Recovery

advises writing about stuff so thats what i'm going to try to do.

Chapter 2: Survivors Speak Out

I do find reading others accounts of abuse very upsetting even when they are wildly different from my own. I don't know if I could do as these people have done and talk in such an easy way about abuse.

Chapter 3: The Damage Caused by Sexual Abuse.

"When a child is abused, especially by a relative or someone she knows and likes, her trust in that person is betrayed."
Exercise 1
Look at the effects of sexual abuse listed in Table 1 and tick off any that apply to you:

• fears
• anxiety
• phobias
• nervousness
• nightmares
• sleep problems
• depression
• shame
• guilt
• lack of self-confidence
• feeling different from others
• feeling self-conscious
• suicide attempts
• self-harming
• dissociating
• creating different identities
• binge-eating
• no interest in sex
• avoiding specific sexual activities
• feeling unable to say "No" to sex
• flashbacks
• hearing the abuser's voice when he isn't there
• seeing the abusers face when he isn't there
• confusion about sexual orientation
• marrying young to get away from home
• marital problems
• drug problems
• alcohol problems
• abusing others
• clinging and being extremely dependent
• anger
• hostility
• distrusting people
• difficulty in being able to judge people's trustworthiness
• physical problems