We Are Adult Survivors of Child Abuse and Neglect

During the first two decades of my life when I was being abused and assaulted by my father, I learned to cope exceptionally well by dissociating my stressful feelings. Thus, my inner state was relatively calm most of the time, and I was never overweight.

I recently watched the Senate Homeland Security Committee conduct hearings about the Fort Hood massacre.  The gist of their questions to the panel of experts was:  why wasn’t information shared among federal agencies and the military about the shooter’s questionable activities? If information had been shared, perhaps this tragedy wouldn’t have happened.

It’s that time of year again when everything and everyone around us are gearing up for holiday “cheer.” For too many survivors, this is the worst time of the year, so we need to prepare for how to deal with it. This intensified stress is a reminder, many times,

I had never heard of a “safe place” until I was in therapy. After my memories about the awful circumstances I grew up in came forward, I realized how unsafe I felt. In fact, I used to tell my therapist, “I’m afraid of most people.” That was only natural

Once a person is victimized as a young child, particularly if they do not get any type of help to heal from their abuse, they are susceptible as adults to being revictimized. When someone suffers from trauma that hasn’t healed, reactions from the old wounds will affect their adult lives in a variety

On the front page of the New York Times on October 27, 2009 was a story about how runaways turn to sex to survive on the streets. It was a full-length article talking about the actions of pimps and the misfortunes of runways. I wrote a blog

I am conducting an anonymous survey of adult survivors of child abuse and neglect. This survey has IRB (institutional review board) approval, which means it has been reviewed by the Chair of this Board and she has given the authorization to proceed. It is being managed by McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland.

A study was conducted by David Zielinski, Ph.D. at NIMH which showed that the long-term impacts of childhood maltreatment include higher rates of unemployment, poverty, and use of social services in adulthood.[1] He evaluated data on childhood maltreatment and socioeconomic well-being from the NIMH-funded National Comorbidity Survey (NCS)

A recent article in the Baltimore Sun talked about a possible correlation between child abuse and neglect and obesity.[1]  While I applaud their reporting, it took up about two inches of newsprint. It is also nothing new to the tens of millions of us who are adult survivors of child abuse.