There’s been a lot of focus on sexual abuse in the media recently, but California sexual abuse lawyers have found that little attention has been paid to the importance of recognizing symptoms of psychological problems after abuse. One of these psychological issues includes symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
PTSD is typically mentioned in relation to war veterans, natural disasters and other types of situations. However, persons who have been subjected to sexual abuse can also show signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. These symptoms include panic attacks, nightmares, and anxiety. In fact according to some studies, sexual abuse is the biggest cause of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among women in the US.
Symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder can emerge whenever the brain is subjected to extreme stress. Sexual abuse definitely falls in that category.
According to some studies, the brains of victims of sexual abuse experience physical changes after the abuse. The physical changes are most notably seen in the hippocampus, which is the area of the brain that is associated with memory and learning. The damage to the hippocampus area of the brain seems to be the reason why most victims of sexual abuse are not able to completely recall all details of the sexual abuse, or are not able to recall these details quick enough. This is also the reason why some victims of sexual abuse are able to recall some particular detail about the abuse, but not major events that were part of the experience. Changes are also seen in the medial prefrontal cortex which regulates emotional responses to stress.
Children who have been sexually abused also suffer from other symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder like flashbacks, intrusive memories, startled responses and fragmentation of memory. They may also be more likely to have out of body experiences, and other dissociative experiences.