Incest and It’s Impact on Relationships
There have been a surprising number of clients that I’ve counseled over the years who have suffered from the trauma of incest. Incest survivors” often carry with them scares that deeply effect their relationship with their “meaningful other”. In these next blogs I will discuss this trauma to shed some more light on the subject.
The Atlantic January 11, 2013, there is an article, by Mia Fontaine, the author of the book “Come Back” and “Have Mother Will Travel” titled “America Has an Incest Problem”. In the article she points out that:
Child sexual abuse impacts more Americans annually than cancer, AIDS, gun violence, LGBT inequality, and the mortgage crisis combined… “
There are several types of incest:
- Between adults and children
- Between childhood siblings
- Between consenting adults
- Between non consenting adults
- Between Aunts, uncles, nieces or nephews
- Between adult siblings
- Between Cousin relationships
All incest has several things in common; the experience can cause on-going stress traumatic stress. It can effect relationships with the opposite gender as well as damage to a healthy sex life. It is an experience that is laced with guilt, shame and embarrassment. It can profoundly impact on one’s ability to trust other people in general.
In my next blog, I will talk about treatment for this very painful and upsetting problem