Psychology can be used to help the victims of sexual abuse get back to their life by getting professional help to talk out the traumatic experience. Victims can go to therapy to get emotionally and physically stable so that they won’t freak out all the time if someone accidentally touches them or ways for them to react in an uncomfortable place Child sexual abuse is caused by neglect, influence over the child and powerlessness.
Many children that are neglected want to feel loved and sometimes they feel like the offender is the only thing that they have close to love. This causes the child to feel like the abuse is normal and doesn't report it. In most cases the offender has the most influence over the child because the child is familiar with them. Many times the offender is a family member, neighbor, or family friend. This makes it difficult for the child to report the abuse because they don't want to get in trouble or they are being threatened. Many children feel powerlessness because they don't know how to react they feel confused because they don't understand why the abuse happened to them, also they feel like it was their fault that they were abused because they feel like they provoked the offender to view them it in a sexual way causing them to act out and sexually abuse them.
Child sexual abuse can bring post-traumatic stress disorders on children because they are traumatized by the abuse and can’t really control their mind. Depression is another thing that can psychological affect the child because they can become suicidal or can emotionally affect themselves by shutting out people that are trying to help them get through the traumatic experience. Another thing that a child that has been sexually abuse can be psychologically diagnosed with is anxiety or panic attacks. The child can have anxiety because they get nervous if someone gets too close to them or even a single innocent touch can cause them to have a panic attack.
There are many ways to help treat PTSD but I believe that cognitive behavioral therapy ca helps a child that went through abuse because the therapy will focus on changing the child mind so that the child wont blame themselves for the abuse and their behavior can improve for the better. To treat depression that child can either go on antidepressants or can have a cognitive behavioral therapy in which the child can talk about the abuse and the therapist will be able to help them change their behavior so that they can focus on living a normal life. Ways to treat an anxiety disorder can be psychotherapy in which a therapy can talk with the child about the abuse and the therapist can show that the child ways that he she can do to relax and deep breathing exercise when they feel an attack coming.
The field of psychology is important because it helps many people be able to live normally. People are able to live stable lives without having to worry if they are going to have a mental meltdown. The major takeaways that I experience in AP psychology is understanding why people act the way they do. For example, people who have depression shut the people that care for them out because that’s how they are emotionally feeling. Another thing that I learned from this class is the different ways that mental illnesses get treated.
Annotated bibliography
"Anxiety Disorders and Effective Treatment." American Psychological Association. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 May 2016.
"Depression Treatment.": Therapy, Medication, and Lifestyle Changes That Can Help Depression. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2016.
MassKids1. "Enough Abuse Campaign - A Silent Epidemic." YouTube. YouTube, 23 July 2012. Web. 01 June 2016.
"PTSD: National Center for PTSD." Treatment of PTSD -. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2016.
ScenariosAfrica. "Sexual Abuse of Children: "Angel". Español with English Captions. Global Dialogues." YouTube. YouTube, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 01 June 2016.
2 videos about child sexual abuse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eb-WViGmDU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuxZ3ARU9ao