Child Abuse

The victims of sexual abuse try to achieve this figure, or they become extremely fat. This behavior is seen in an attempt to exhibit themselves as unattractive to other people. They try to become desexualized. Many abused persons diet obsessively starve or purge in order to overcome the harsh memories of sexual abuse. The can work to appear more attractive so that they feel more powerful and controlling individual. On the other hand, many victims start becoming fat so that they do not look smaller and childlike. This is done in fear of experiencing same abuse again. Thus, eating disorders occur as a way to avoid painful memories of abuse from the past. The victims also tend to keep the abuse and eating disorder a secret. They feel guilty about their childhood. They believe that abuse occurred to them because of their own powerlessness and inability to defend them. So they prefer to keep the abuse secret and overcome the adverse experience by emotional eating. Children prefer not to disclose the abuse they experienced for many reasons. They do not realize the importance of sharing at that point in time. They are not enough mature to identify what went wrong and how to express it. It is also possible that the abuser is related to the victim. Thus, the dependency of the victim on abuser hinders the courage of the victim to share the experience with others. The victim feels threatened by such abuses.

Physical consequences can damage the growth of brain of an abused child. It can also lead to psychological implications where a child has problems of cognitive delays which he finds hard to express to caretakers. A child also develops emotional difficulties. All these problems result in the development of high-risk behaviors. Depression and anxiety can be experienced by the victim. Such abused persons try to cope with smoking, drinking alcohol and consuming drugs. These high-risk habits then further lead to long-term physical health problems. These health problems include HIV or any other sexually transmitted diseases. After analyzing the case, it can be concluded that individual should develop the ability to cope and thrive with the negative experience. The role of society and support systems is also critical as it helps in improving individual characteristics of confidence, self-esteem, aptitude, resourcefulness, wittiness, and autonomy.