A Better Way to Find Healing from Child Abuse

Lisa Franchi October 09, 2014

For many adults, their childhood is one of the best times in their life. It’s a picture of fun and silliness, laughter, and learning. It’s where all the happy memories reside. But for some people, childhood is their worst nightmare, a curse that holds them back to living their present life to the fullest. It’s the source of tears, unhappiness and loneliness. It’s where the memories they’d been trying to forget, hide.

Child abuse ranges in many forms. It could be verbal, physical, sexual, or emotional. It can also be in the form of neglect or abandonment. Research shows that the health effects can last for decades following high levels of child abuse. Child maltreatment is often regarded as the ‘tobacco industry of mental health’. Much the way smoking directly causes or triggers predispositions for physical disease, early abuse may contribute to virtually all types of mental illness. A 2012 study by Harvard researchers suggests a tight link between child abuse and mental illness. In the study, 25% of participants had suffered major depression at some point in their lives and 7% had been diagnosed with PTSD. But among the 16% of participants who had suffered three or more types of child maltreatment — for example, physical abuse, neglect and verbal abuse — the situation was much worse. Most of them — 53% — had suffered depression and 40% had had full or partial PTSD.

Even more surprising, regardless of their mental health status, formerly maltreated youth showed reductions in volume of about 6% on average in two parts of the hippocampus, and 4% reductions in regions called the subiculum and presubiculum, compared with people who had not been abused.

Healing from Child Abuse

Recovering from a traumatic event takes time, and everyone heals at his or her own pace. Seeking therapy has always been the best approach to overcoming the mental health effects of child abuse. A therapist can help a client reach out to family, friends, co-workers, fellow church members, or others. He or she can help a socially isolated client join a support group or enrol in a class. And because working on a trauma can be retraumatizing, it is best done with the help of an experienced trauma specialist.

More ways to promote healing:

Journaling

Most therapists encourage their patients to do "trauma narratives" – an approach to narrative that focuses not only on the trauma but how that can fit into your broader identity, personal values, and who you want to be. Telling one’s story allows the person to portray a clearer picture of what happened to them and put it into the big picture of who they are.

Practising Self-regulation

Learning how to manage and control emotions is another step towards continued healing. Emotional regulation allows a person to organise their thoughts and feelings, instead of suppressing them. People who are better at managing their emotions practise healthy coping mechanisms when stressed or dealing with a difficult situation.

Reaching Out to Others

Compassion has a special way of protecting a person from mental illness. Connecting with others and helping them, has been found to promote positive physiological changes in the brain associated with happiness. It also brings a sense of belonging and reduces isolation, and promotes optimism.

Not everyone is fortunate to have a happy childhood. But everyone is given an opportunity to recover from the hurt of the past, and face tomorrow with love and happiness.