What’s Happening To Me?

If you are suffering through abuse right now (and especially if you were abused as a child), you may be experiencing various thoughts, feelings, and emotional and physical symptoms. You may be depressed, self-abusive or even suicidal. You may also be experiencing extreme anger, shame, guilt, sadness or even physical pain. Victims cope in various ways during and after abuse.

Childhood Trauma:

1. Leads to vulnerability
2. Physical, emotional or sexual abuse
3. Abandonment (physical or emotional/psychological)

The effects of abuse include some, if not all, of the following:

Physical: May cause you to hate your body, have self-destructive tendencies, self-mutilation (also known as self-abuse), eating disorders, sickness/disease, etc.

Emotional: You may be experiencing feelings of shame, anger, fear (afraid of men, touch, etc.), grief (over the loss of the feeling of safety, the loss of a perceived friend/confidant, etc.), guilt, numbness, or the inability to relax.

Cognitive: You may think things like, “I am worthless.” “God is not good.” “God doesn’t protect me.” “God doesn’t care.” “I must have deserved it.” “I must have done something to lead him on.” And so on. When tempted to listen to these thoughts, please review these thoughts worth remembering.

Relational: You’re probably dealing with issues of betrayal, rejection, humiliation, deceit, abandonment, and so much more. You may find it very difficult to trust anyone, especially God.

Spiritual: You now have a distorted view of God and yourself. You may see God as punitive, indifferent, dead, or maybe even as having abandoned you, or that He is unsafe and untrustworthy.

Please read our section entitled Consequences of Abuse. It may also be helpful for you to review our list of Definitions in order to become more acquainted with any unfamiliar terms that may be used in this site.