The Effects of Sexual Abuse

The Effects of Sexual Abuse PSY/265 March 8, 2013 The Effects of Sexual Abuse When you talk about the short term and long term effects of sexual abuse, the list can be long with many variables. The variables can be anything from someone being raped by someone they do not know, which still has the same damaging effects but not to the extreme when the individual was raped by someone they know and had a relationship with. Another example of a variable that could affect short-term and long-term effects of sexual abuse would be the care that they received after the abuse happened.

When an individual is able to get counseling and has a strong support system after going through something such as rape, it is suggested that somebody with this type of help after being raped is less likely to have long-term effects from a rape. Now on the other hand, if somebody does not have the support system in the counseling afterwards long-term effects are more likely to happen. When you talk about long-term effects are talking about weight gain, promiscuity, addictions, codependency, abuse, and no interest in sex.

When you talk about the long-term effect weight gain are talking about somebody putting on weight in order to hide themselves said that they would feel in visible to others, making them feel undesirable. The long-term effect promiscuity is explained, as someone who has been raped by a family member, starts to feel that they are not worth anything unless they are having sex with somebody and feel that they cannot get love otherwise.

When it comes to the long-term effect addiction, this can mean anything from having an addiction to food to hide with their failing to having an addiction to drugs and/or alcohol in order to numb the feelings that they currently are going in regards to the sexual abuse. The next long-term effects is codependency, this is explained as the victim having such a low self-esteem that they do not trust what they decide to do and need somebody to help make the decisions for them. References: Rathus, S. A. , Nevid, J. S. , & Fichner-Rathus, L. (2011). Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity (8th ed. ). Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn & Bacon.