HOW TO GAIN HOPE :- PART 2

:- THE emotional abuse and negiect can be just as devastating as physical abuse and sexual molestation.

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:- Things: Not being seen, not being known, and having now here to feel
safe is devastating at any age, but it is particularly destructive to young chil.

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:-Those who are still trying to hand their place in the world
Sherry had graduated from college, but she now worked in a joyess cler.
local job, Iived alone with her cats, and had no close friends. When i asked her
about men, she told me that her only “relationship” had been witn a man
who d kidnapped her while she was on a college vacation in rioLd.

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She Capuve and raped her repeatedly for five consecutive dayS. HaVing been Curled up, terrified and frozen for most or tnat cine, until
Se realzed she could try to get away.

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She escaped by simply walking out
while he was in the bathroom. When she called her mother collect Ior help,
her mother refused to take the call. Sherry finaly managed tO get home with in Florida

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He’d held assistance from a domestic violence shelter.
Sherry told me that she’d started to pick at her skin because it gave her
some relief from feeling numb.

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The physical sensations made her feel more
alive but also deeply ashamed-she knew she was addicted to these actions
but could not stop them. She’d consulted many mental health professionals
before me and had been questioned repeatedly about her “suicidal behavior.

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She’d also been subjected to involuntary hospitalization by a psychiatrist who refused to treat her unless she could promise that she would never pick
at herself again.

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However, in my experience, patients who cut themselves or
pick at their skin like Sherry, are seldom suicidal but are trying to make
themselves feel better in the only way they know.

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