The Physical Effects of Adults From Child Abuse

Individuals who experienced abuse in their childhoods are susceptible to numerous problems as adults. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, "As many as 80 percent of young adults who had been abused met the diagnostic criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder at age 21. These young adults exhibited many problems, including depression, anxiety, eating disorders and suicide attempts." Helping adults identify the negative challenges they face because of childhood abuse is the first step toward recovery.

Eating Disorders

• Individuals who carry childhood trauma and abuse with them into their adult years face multiple challenges that negatively manifest in ways related to general food consumption. Anorexia and bulimia are two types of eating disorders that victims of abuse often use to feel more in control of their feelings, experiences, circumstances and daily routines. Anorexia occurs when a person punishes herself by not eating an amount of food appropriate for her body. People who suffer from bulimia eat food as they see fit but then immediately head for the restroom to clear what they took in so as to avoid feeling the positive affects of the vitamins and minerals offered in the food. Eating disorders break down the body's immune system and invite other types of physical discord to overwhelm a healthy body.

Sleeping Problems

• Sleeping problems that develop from and are established in childhood become exceedingly difficult to break with each year that passes. Negative experiences that don't get expressed in a healthy manner result in nightmares. Harmful sleeping patterns arise when nightmares occur on a regular basis. Light sleeping habits result in waking at the slightest noise, often throughout the night.

Substance Abuse

• It is easy to grow up lacking self-respect when a person experiences abusive circumstances or conditions in childhood. Individuals who face this obstacle are prone to alcohol and drug abuse in their adult lives when trying to soothe the unresolved pain of early days. Emotional and psychological pain need to be released before healing can take place. Substance abuse leads to organ damage and failure. Developing self-respect is difficult, and individuals working on this obstacle face countless small disappointments on their paths to recovery.

Self-Control Issues

• Childhood abuse allows for multiple types of problems to take hold of an adult once she is fully grown. Adults who lack ability to be able to cope with life's challenges in a healthy way defer to unhealthy survival tactics. Proper self-control enables individuals to make positive choices on their own behalves rather than settling for wrong temporary solutions. When a person continuously makes wrong solutions she inadvertently teaches herself that she deserves for bad things to happen to her. Exercising self-control is a learned skill that will help develop the necessary tools to escape an abusive childhood.