Episode 3 - Dissociation - How we Escaped the Pain of Childhood Sexual Abuse

'Trigger Warning' if you or someone you know has been affected by sexual abuse please remember the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre 24-Hour Helpline 1800 77 8888

How We Escaped the Pain of Childhood Sexual Abuse

In today’s podcast we will discuss one of the coping mechanisms or methods we used to survive our experience of childhood sexual abuse.  This particular coping mechanism is very common amongst victims who have experienced abuse or trauma as a child, often providing the only escape available to them.

We will discuss how we subconsciously used this mechanism to escape the daily onslaught of the abuse we endured. We will also look at how the continuous use of this mechanism went on to cause immeasurable damage to our ability to function in a healthy way in life.

Unfortunately, we learned the hard way that by blocking out our painful experiences we also blocked our ability to feel good and positive experiences in our life.  This went on to convince us that there was something wrong with us, confirming our negative beliefs that we were bad people who deserved to be abused.

We hope that today’s talk helps you gain a deeper understanding of yourself and hopefully removes some of the negative self-talk that goes hand in hand with being a victim of childhood sexual abuse. We feel if we had access to this information years ago it would have saved ourselves many years of self- hatred.

We believe when you are armed with the right information you can begin to heal and be kinder to yourself for things that were out of your control. 

Take Care 

Joyce, June & Paula xxx