Some of us were physically abused and hit intensely without any purpose. Some were physically neglected growing up, and didn’t receive the medical attention or other help they needed. Immature, addicted, or mood disordered parents might have inflicted emotional abuse or neglect. Yelling, shaming, and falsely accusing, can damage souls if this was the environment in which you grew up. As children and adolescents you may have been neglected emotionally and unable to be honest or share feelings in the home or weren’t supported in aspects of your uniqueness (another form of neglect).

Sexual abuse is another huge problem and can impact up to 30 percent of women and 15 percent of men. Sexual abuse can especially have a wide variety of impacts on its survivors—feelings of worthlessness, shame, fear, lack of trust, over-compensation, over-performing, over-giving (in relationships), poor boundaries, or rigid boundaries.

Sexual abuse can affect the sexuality of victims as well. They might react to the trauma by being hypersexual with themselves or others. They might also suffer diminished desire for sex or lose their desire entirely as a reaction to this trauma. Sexual abuse can impact one’s ability to connect emotionally with their spouse. The abuse survivor might go into a disconnected blank space or fantasy state during sex.

Abuse can impact people very differently. And many people have done well in working through their abuse issues. Those who have had these experiences and have not sifted through the issues related to them can encounter roadblocks.