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Scars of abuse remain
Although I rarely have children under 13 as my patients, I
know from the personal experience of many of my adult patients of the trauma of child sexual abuse. They tell me of their agonizing experiences undergone years and decades ago.
A child’s mind is highly vulnerable. It has not built up the hard protective shell of life’s experiences. It is open to any and all intrusions, whether they be beneficial or malificent. The mind of a child anywhere from birth to adolescence is like a mass of putty, susceptible to be molded into any form.
Tb assume that once an abusive event has been discovered and brought to a halt that it has become a thing of the past is to be guilty of the moral crime of neglect.
Just as pressing the “delete” button on the computer keyboard does not truly wipe out the program, so an event once transpired continues to exist forever. It often lingers in the deeper recesses of the mind, hidden from conscious levels of awareness.
I think of the woman in her seventies who came to me wondering why she had occasional bouts of depression for no apparent reason. Her life was a happy one. Only after numerous psychotherapeutic sessions did she, much to her amazement, “remem ber” that she had been raped at the age of thirteen,
A male patient of mine in his forties was able to relate his anxiety attacks to his “forgotten” sexual molestation by a baby sitter when he was six years old.
Over a century ago, poet William Wordsworth declared that “the child is father of the man.” Out of the child come the ingredients that create the adult, both physical and mental.
Let us then look at this beautiful child that has just been mutilated emotionally. Let us rush to apply healing salve. Better yet, let us be observant. Child abuse is more common than you think — and report suspected abuse to child protective services. Watch for patterns.
Is this witch hunting? Err on the side of caring. Protecting a possibly at-risk child may mean saving an adult.
Dr. Robert Iadeluce
• Wairenton
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