For Survivors of Sexual Abuse or Assault

Reactions

If you are a survivor of child sexual abuse, you may be experiencing:

• Nightmares.
• Flashbacks.
• Depression.
• Anxiety.
• Increased startle response.
• Difficulty sleeping.
• Difficulty concentrating.
• Difficulty with relationships.
• Avoidance of people, things and places that remind you of the trauma.
• Sexual problems.

What you can do

Because people can heal from trauma.

Things that help

These include:

• Supportive friends and family.
• Therapeutic relationship—individual and/or group.
• Medication may be helpful for a while.
• Seeing yourself as a multidimensional person who has survived a difficult experience.
• Writing in a journal.
• Staying safe and taking good care of yourself.

Things that don't help

These include:

• Keeping the abuse secret.
• Protecting the perpetrator who may be harming someone else.
• Isolating yourself.
• Reenacting abuse in other relationships.
• Feeling responsible for what happened to you.

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