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Child Sexual Abuse Survivors Quotes

Browse 15 quotes about Child Sexual Abuse Survivors.

Child Sexual Abuse Survivors Quotes

“Most survivors tend to be the care-giver rather than the care-receiver. We tend to be good at being spouses and parents, anticipating our loved ones needs, going the second mile when it came to self sacrifice. But seldom can we ask our loved ones to give to us. We fool ourselves into believing we don’t need much.”

Self SacrificeAbuse SurvivorsExtra MileChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsAccepting HelpSelf Sacrifice QuotesCare GiverCare TakingOver Responsibility
Book:The Right to Innocence: Healing the Trauma of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Therapeutic 7-Step Self-Help Program for Men and Women, Including How to Choose a Therapist and Find a Support Group
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“The adult incest survivor is likely to become involved in sexual relationships with older or more powerful people…There is little room for intimacy and much opportunity for abuse and sacrifice…The survivor may continue to be ‘child’, rather than an equal.”

IncestFather FigureChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorChild Abuse SurvivorSugar DaddyChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsPower Imbalance
Book:Secret Survivors: Uncovering Incest and Its Aftereffects in Women
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“One of the reasons a survivor finds it so difficult to see herself as a victim is that she has been blamed repeatedly for the abuse: "If you weren't such a whore, this wouldn't have to happen." Each time she is used and trashed, she becomes further convinced of her innate badness. She sees herself participating in forbidden sexual activity and may often get some sense of gratification from it even if she doesn't want to (it is, after all, a form of touch, and our bodies respond without the consent of our wills). This is seen as further proof that the abuse is her fault and well deserved. In her mind, she has become responsible for the actions of her abusers. She believes she is not a victim; she is a loathsome, despicable, worthless human being—if indeed she even qualifies as human. When the abuse has been sadistic in nature...these beliefs are futher entrenched.”

Child AbuseChild Sexual AbuseAbuse SurvivorsIncestDehumanizationComplex PtsdVictim BlamingChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorComplex TraumaSelf BlameChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsNo Longer Human
Book:Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse
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“The experience of childhood sexual abuse leaves some survivors with a high tolerance for pain. Dysfunctional environments require endurance and thick skin. Child survivors sometimes have to commit to sticking things out in order to survive. This pattern of tolerance follows you into adulthood. Instead of using pain as a signal to evaluate and change direction, you may use pain as a signal to try harder. Try harder to please someone. Try harder to control your children. Try harder to be a good friend. Try harder to be successful at a job that you hate. You remain in survival mode that you picked up as a child. Your high tolerance for pain keeps you committed to dysfunctional experiences and relationships that recycle pain from the past. Sometimes, the only way out of this cycle is time in isolation to learn what peace feels like. Sometimes you have to be willing to let go of everything in order to learn how to hold onto anything.”

Child Sexual AbuseAbuse SurvivorsChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorChild Abuse SurvivorsChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsPain Tolerance
Author:Rosenna Bakari
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“Women involved in out-patient treatment for substance abuse were interviewed to examine their recollections of childhood sexual abuse. Overall, 54% of the 105 women reported a history of childhood sexual abuse. Of these, the majority (81 %) remembered all or part of the abuse their whole lives; 19% reported they forgot the abuse for a period of time, and later the memory returned. Women who remembered the abuse their whole lives reported a clearer memory, with a more detailed picture. They also reported greater intensity of feelings at the time the abuse happened.”

Child Sexual AbuseSurvivorsRepressed MemoriesRecovered MemoriesTrauma MemoryRepressed MemoryChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsRecovered Memory
Author:Elizabeth F. Loftus
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“During sexual abuse, children feel and incorporate the rage, pain, shame, and sense of perversion that the perpetrator is projecting. They take these feelings into the very core of themselves, and they are badly traumatized by the emotions surrounding the assault, as well as by the assault itself.”

RageProjectionChild Sexual AbuseAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsHealing InsightsTraumatizedChild Sexual Abuse Survivors
Book:Repressed Memories: A Journey to Recovery from Sexual Abuse
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“Often feelings of shame, powerlessness, and self-hate are bottled up with the memories, and as the memories come through, these feelings do, too. Yet healing isn't just about pain. It's about learning to love yourself.”

HealingShameAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsPowerlessnessSelf HateHate MyselfHealing AbuseChild Sexual Abuse Survivors
Book:The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
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“Too often the survivor is seen by [himself or] herself and others as "nuts," "crazy," or "weird." Unless her responses are understood within the context of trauma. A traumatic stress reaction consists of *natural* emotions and behaviors in response to a catastrophe, its immediate aftermath, or memories of it. These reactions can occur anytime after the trauma, even decades later. The coping strategies that victims use can be understood only within the context of the abuse of a child. The importance of context was made very clear many years ago when I was visiting the home of a Holocaust survivor. The woman's home was within the city limits of a large metropolitan area. Every time a police or ambulance siren sounded, she became terrified and ran and hid in a closet or under the bed. To put yourself in a closet at the sound of a far-off siren is strange behavior indeed—outside of the context of possibly being sent to a death camp. Within that context, it makes perfect sense. Unless we as therapists have a good grasp of the context of trauma, we run the risk of misunderstanding the symptoms our clients present and, hence, responding inappropriately or in damaging ways.”

CrazyMental HealthTherapyNutsPtsdAbuse SurvivorsPsychotherapySurvivorsMental Health StigmaTraumatizedTrauma SurvivorsComplex PtsdCounsellingCptsdChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsTriggeredTrauma TriggerSexual Abuse Survives
Book:Counseling Survivors of Sexual Abuse
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“Why Is It So Important to Remember? When you were abused, those around you acted as if it weren’t happening. Since no one else acknowledged the abuse, you sometimes felt that it wasn’t real. Because of this you felt confused. You couldn’t trust your own experience and perceptions. Moreover, others’ denial led you to suppress your memories, thus further obscuring the issue. You can end your own denial by remembering. Allowing yourself to remember is a way of confirming in your own mind that you didn’t just imagine it. Because the person who abused you did not acknowledge your pain, you may have also thought that perhaps it wasn’t as bad as you felt it was. In order to acknowledge to yourself that it really was that bad, you need to remember as much detail as possible. Because by denying what happened to you, you are doing to yourself exactly what others have done to you in the past: You are negating and denying yourself.”

Sexual AbuseRapeSexual AssaultSexual ViolenceHealing From AbuseMinimizingHealing AbuseTrauma MemoryChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsNot That BadTruth About AbuseCold Sexual Abuse
Book:The Right to Innocence: Healing the Trauma of Childhood Sexual Abuse: A Therapeutic 7-Step Self-Help Program for Men and Women, Including How to Choose a Therapist and Find a Support Group
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“For girls who've been pressured into sex they didn't want, growing into a woman's body can be terrifying. Anorexia and bulimia can be an attempt to say no, to assert control over their changing bodies. Compulsive overeating is another way.”

Eating DisordersAnorexiaBulimiaEffects Of Child AbuseChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsCompulsive EatingOver EatingNine Eating
Book:The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse
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“We can ill afford to wait until we have worked through all our memories & feelings about incest before learning to rest & play. While it may seem to be a natural impulse to get to the bottom of things & purge ourselves fully, we need to regularly examine the full picture of our lives for balance along the way…Learning to rest & play is an essential part of our healing.”

HealingAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsIncestHealing InsightsHealing The Emotional SelfRecovery From AbuseHealing AbuseChild Sexual Abuse Survivors
Book:Beyond Survival: A Writing Journey for Healing Childhood Sexual Abuse
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“People would think that clergy would plead guilty and would do all they could to minimise the stress and pain for the victim. But the Church will hire the best lawyers, barristers and even QCs to defend the abusers ... The victims are cross-examined as if they are on trial. The victims have to recount every detail of the abuse, and then are called liars.' (Sexual Abuse survivor Andrew Collins quoted on p.364)”

Catholic ChurchChild Sexual Abuse SurvivorsCross ExaminationCardinal George PellComplainants
Book:Cardinal: The Rise and Fall of George Pell
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