This page is about Child Abuse and the impact it has on all involved. I will be working on a page to help others over come this through writing. But counseling is also important.

Child abuse-- the physical, sexual, or emotional maltreatment of a minor-- was a devastating reality for anyone, coloring many aspects of our childhood and now casting a long shadow over our adult life.
Now, more than ever before, people are waking up to the fact that some 2 million children are being
physically, sexually, and emotionally abused each year in the United States.
Current surveys show that tens of millions of people grew up in dysfunctional families where violence, incest, or emotional abuse caused by alcoholism was an everyday reality.

Child abuse takes many forms that do not always adhere to easy definitions.  You may have been continually abused within your family or only once by an acquaintance.  You may have been physically abused under the guise of punishment or sexually abused after the pronouncement of love or emotionally abused for the purpose of instilling discipline.  You may have been verbally abused for having a certain temperament or bearing some resemblance to a disliked relative.
Those of us abused as children survived by every means imaginable: Some of us avoided home like the plague, getting ourselves �adopted� by friends� families.  Some of us became caretakers, devoting ourselves to keeping the rest of the family intact while our parents engaged in marital warfare.  Still others became reclusive, closing ourselves off from everyone by adopting a personal hobby, a secret activity, or even a fantasy life.  The terrible shame we felt, forced us to suffer our indignity in silence.  That silent agony simmered inside for years, eating away at our self-confidence. But now, years have gone by and the silent burden of the abuse has made its impact felt in all aspects of our adult life.

Remember that despite the horrible reality we were forced to endure, we did the best to cope, to grow up, and to survive our family.  We were children who were legally, morally, and psychologically subject to the power and authority of the adult or parent.  Any adult who was subjected to abuse as a vulnerable child can be considered a survivor.  We survived an experience of physical, sexual, or emotional assault from the people who were supposed to comfort and nourish us.
Surviving child abuse goes beyond just surviving our family and childhood.  It also goes beyond surviving
your unhappiness as an adult.  Surviving ultimately needs to grow into thriving, when we finally get comfortable with life so we can make it work for us and we can realize our potential as the unique people we are.

Physically abusing a child under the age of eighteen is now a felony in every state of the union.  But that was not always the case.  The assualt, abandonment, and killing of children has, in fact, been going on since the dawn of civilization.  What was referred to in previous centuries as "soul murder" became defined in 1962 as "battered child syndrome" and now, in recognition of other tpes of child abuse, is referred to as pysical abuse.  In 1985, the American Humane Society reported that physical abuse was the second only to physical neglect as the most common type of abuse reported -- some 22% of all cases.  Boys are more frequently abused than girls between the ages of 2 and 12 because boys are most likely at this age to present behavior or discipline problems.
Currently, up to 1/3 of all women and 1/7 of all menover the age of 21 have been sexually abused as children.  Sexual abuse may be the final skeleton in the family closet, obscured for generations behind a veil of secrecy and denial.

This cycle has been growing bigger and bigger, it destroys innocence and doesn't care which social background the family is from.  This cycle needs to be broken.  I am a survivor of abuse. I am from a very dysfunctional family and have chosen a different life for my children.  I am currently in counseling learning how to let go of the nightmare that was instilled into my life, but I am not alone, as no one is alone in this.  I keep a journal and write in it daily.  I isolate from people at times and crawl inside myself.  It is natural, it is my child within trying to heal and the adult in me trying to keep her safe.  Somedays I feel as though there will never be an end to the nightmare and other days I am glad to be alive.

If you are being abused in any way there are people out here who will listen. Go to your school teacher, counselor, anyone who will listen. If you are being abused sexually and your mother doesn't know  TELL HER  she must know at once, if she don't listen then tell any adult in authority and they will.......... or you can call the number below. Don't let it continue.........

Dial 911 or call your local Children's services