Abused children become Anxious Adults

Statistics have proven that children who suffer abuse as they are growing up become adults with anxiety disorders and suffer from post traumatic stress (PTSD). In a survey of over 4000 people, 82% suffer from some type of anxiety related to childhood abuse. The worse the abuse, the stronger the risk in people to develop this maladies.

Over a quarter of a million Americans will develop PTSD at some point in their lives after being victimized or witnessing violence or other tramatic events. The major categories contributing to this number are surviors of child abuse, and the rates go much higher for war veterans.

These things should tell us that we have to do something to stop child abuse. It is unfair to our children to steal away their innocense in childhood to face the cruelty of abuse and then to be hit with a double whammy of anxiety disorders and PTSD as the aftermath of their survival. Will anyone speak for those who cannot speak for themselves?

April is Sexual Assault Prevention Month

April is the month that is set aside as National Sexual Assault Prevention Month. My question to you is what are you doing to help prevent sexual assaults? The statistics are staggering: in 2006, almost 250,000 victims of sexual assault - that means there's a sexual assault every 1-2 minutes. Over 60% of sexual assaults are never reported - either because of fear, embarrassment or whatever the reason. The saddest of all these statistics is that only 6% of rapists that are caught and prosecuted will ever spend one day in jail. (These statistics were taken from www.RAINN.org 's website).

I hope these statistics stir something within you as they did me and that we will work together to do all we can to stop this ever growing violation against men, women, and children.

The enduring nightmare

What most people do not realize is that children who have been abused are actually traumatized. For the most part, these children grow into adulthood trying to cope the best they can with their warped set of values since no one usually intervenes for them emotionally. As adults, these survivors continue to have difficulty in their day to day lives because the trauma of their abuse continues to haunt them over and over making their lives as adults unmanageable. This is why the suicide rate is so high for those who have been abused. We must do something to reach out to these forgotten group in our society and stop the abuse before another child is traumatized and enters the nightmarish cycle.