CHILD ABUSE: A LIFE TIME DAMAGE

 “It is easier to build up a child than it is to repair an Adult”

Do you know what child abuse is? Half of the people are not even aware of the proper understanding of this word and mixed up it with emotional and psychological disorders.

Let me tell you what exactly Child Abuse is. If we explain it in its simplest form, it can be described as mishandling or misbehavior by elders or Adults which impacted the child for the rest of their life in many different ways.

Persons with abusive childhood have few things in common. For example; they are always fearful, they lack confidence, they want to keep their selves away from everyone, they hardly trust anyone and there are many more things like these that destroyed their childhood, teenage, and even their whole life.

Abuse can be done anywhere either at home, school, outside the home, and in some cases in front of everyone too. Here, I want to add a most important thing that unfortunately the people surrounding these Children are unaware of all these miss happenings in their life. In more than half of the cases, the abuser is at home or the one who is closest to the child and when victims want to disclose it, their parents and relatives are not ready to believe and talk about it. Mostly take it as a joke and nonseriousness of the child and start bashing them, which I feel is the saddest reality of our society.

TYPES OF ABUSES

Abuse can be done in various ways that we cannot even think of. But I am going to mention the four most common types.

Physical Abuse

It is the most common Abuse in which physical strength can be used by one person to humiliate and threatened the other one which results in causing insults, and bruises, and sometimes this abuse has become the reason for death as well.

It includes hurting by physical forces like slapping, punching, hitting, burning, beating, etc. forcefully stopping them from eating, drinking, and moving is also the part of this abuse.

Sexual Abuse

Sexual Abuse is something like harassment in which many sexual and prohibited activities can be done by the abuser without the consent of the victim. This type of abuse led to damaged children mentally and shredding their confidence into pieces. It can be performed verbally, visually, physically, and ritualistically.

It includes sexting, inappropriate touches, exposing nudity, oral sex, and kissing. Every possible action can be done with their consent and make them uncomfortable.

Emotional Abuse

Emotional Abuse is also called psychological/mental abuse. In this abuse, the abuser uses mental and emotional tactics for causing pain for the victim both verbally and verbally. When a child or even an elder is suffering from any kind of abuse, emotional abuse must be present there along with those abuses.

It includes bashing, shaming, degrading children, insulting them in front of people, ignorance, and rejection.

Financial Abuse

Economical or material abuse can be called financial abuse. In which the abuser threatened the victim and did not let them financially independent. The abuser wants to control their money and try to get access to their money and financial information. Adults have to deal with this abuse more than children.

It includes restricting their pocket money, not letting them buy things of their choice, having control over their accounts, not paying their educational fesses, not providing them money to fulfill their necessities, and many more like this.

SYMPTOMS

People with child abuse suffer from various traumas in their whole life. I am going to describe some common symptoms of this abuse.

• A child suffering from abuse always wants to keep themself away from social gatherings and withdrawal their self from their surrounding activities.
• You will notice sudden changes in their behavior like they become aggressive very quickly, and have no control over their anger and emotions, also you will see drastic changes in their educational activities or performance.

• The victim always has a problem while sleeping. Firstly after trying for hours, they cannot sleep on time and supposing when they fall asleep they always end up having bad dreams or nightmares.
• Every child who has gone through this abuse must be in a depressive state, have an anxiety disorder, has unusual fears in life.
• Lack of confidence must be there. They find it difficult to communicate with others and discuss their problems.
• They cut themselves from everyone and try to spend their time in loneliness. 

PREVENTION

There are a few tips to prevent child abuse. I will say that parents have huge responsibilities in this regard. By doing little effort they can save their child from all these above-mentioned sufferings.

• Try to build your bond stronger with your children so that when they have faced anything like that they can talk with you freely and confidently.
• Keep your eyes on children and their activities. Always keep checking on their social circles and their behaviors.
• Keep them updated about all these types of abuses and teach them ways to keep their selves safe from all these abuses.
• Make your home a friendly and comfortable environment for your child so they need any other place to comfort themself.
• Must have proper eyes on their gadgets like to whom they are talking, what types of programs or shows they are watching and what type of social circle they are hanging out with.
• Lastly but very important, when you notice any change in their behavior try to communicate and discuss it, find the reason behind changing and then work on their solutions.