What to Know as an Adult Survivor
If you are an adult survivor of child sexual abuse, you do not need to be alone. Specialized counselors and support groups can help you. Adults who have entered counseling to address abuse issues say that it was a hard decision to make, but one they recommend to others because of the support and success they experienced.
What if my child was also abused?
If you are an abuse survivor and a caregiver, the abuse of your child may have reawakened painful memories for you. Self-examination takes courage. Many are reluctant to let themselves become vulnerable to painful memories and emotions without a good reason. Dealing with past pain shows great concern for your child and for yourself. Do not let your child be the first to handle the tough issues! Do not ask your child to make the journey to recovery alone. To serve as a guide and an example for your child, you may need to take the journey yourself first.
Want to Learn More? Look into these Readings
Selected Readings for Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse
This book was designed to assist readers to let go of their pain and get on with their lives.
Healing the Child Within describes how the inner child is lost to trauma and loss, and how by recovering it, we can heal the fear, confusion and unhappiness of adult life.
Deeply moving testimonies by survivors of child sexual abuse
This much-needed book pinpoints the typical problems abused children experience when they become adults. The information is presented in a friendly and thorough manner for victims and professional
This book shows how incest is often at the root of such problems as depression, sexual and eating disorders, drug and alcohol abuse, and phobias and panic disorders. Using this information and the author’s guidance, survivors can identify themselves, develop alternative, nondestructive survival techniques and begin again on a new path toward a rich and empowered life
An inspiring, comprehensive guide that offers hope and a map of the healing journey to every woman who was sexually abused as a child—and to those who care about her. Although the effects of child sexual abuse are long-term and severe, healing is possible.
Affirming and inspiring, The Obsidian Mirror explores the vivid and personal journey of an adult survivor of childhood sexual abuse. Drawing on the power of creativity, Wisechild listens to and learns from her inner voices – the critical judge, the rebel, the scared and needy children of various ages – and uses evocative imagery to describe the emotional settings of her interior landscape. This is both a stirring testimony of one woman’s passage from fear and grief to rage and resolve and a moving portrayal of a spiritual reawakening and reclamation of self.
A resource guide designed to lead women from incest victim to survivor.
The first book written specifically for men, Victims No Longer examines the changing cultural attitudes toward male survivors of incest and other sexual trauma. Now, in this Second Edition, this invaluable resource continues to offer compassionate and practical advice, supported by personal anecdotes and statements of male survivors
For Partners of Adult Survivors of Sexual Abuse
Provides comfort and guidance for partners in the process of recovery. Graber draws from personal experience to show how partners can accept
responsibility for their own issues, support the recovery of the incest or sexual abuse survivor, and work toward solving relationship problems together.
Sympathetically and incisively explores the effects of incest on survivors and offers both they and their intimate partners a great deal of information on ways to get past the abuse
A step-by-step plan for overcoming obstacles together
A highly respected resource for understanding and healing the intimate sexual problems caused by sex abuse.