Adult Survivor Of Sexual Abuse – Aftereffects Checklist

ByDorothy M. Neddermeyer Ph.D.

Adult Survivor Of Sexual Abuse – Aftereffects Checklist

Have you ever wondered or do you know if you are an Adult Survivor Of Sexual Abuse?  If you have wondered; this check list will assist you to clarify your thoughts, feelings and behavior or habits. If you checked one or more of these behaviors or symptoms, there is a high probability you are an Adult Survivor Of Sexual Abuse.

If you know you are an Adult Survivor Of Sexual Abuse, this Aftereffect Checklist will confirm that you are not making things up.  What you experienced then created the beliefs, thoughts and feelings you experience now and you are not crazy. If only one item in these statements is true—simply underline that portion and check it.

____1.   Fear of being alone in the dark, or sleeping alone; night mares, night terrors (especially of pursuit, threat, entrapment).

____2.   Swallowing and gagging sensitivity; repugnance to water on one’s face when bathing/shower or swimming (sense of suffocation).

____3.   Alienation from the body—not at home in own body; failure to heed body signals or take care of one’s body; poor body image; manipulating body size (extreme weight loss, obesity, baggy clothes, pinning clothes shut, because buttons or zippers could fail)  to avoid sexual attention.

____4.   Gastrointestinal problems; gynecological disorders (including spontaneous vaginal infections); headaches; arthritis or joint pain.

____5.   Wearing a lot of clothing, even in summer; baggy clothes, failure to remove clothing even when appropriate to do so (while swimming, bathing/shower, sleeping); extreme requirements for privacy when using bathroom.  Difficulty using public lavatory.

____6.   Eating disorders, drug or alcohol abuse (or total abstinence): other addictions, compulsive behaviors; OCD.

____7.   Self-destructiveness; skin carving,  self-abuse, piercing, tattoo.

____8.   Phobias

____9.   Need to be invisible, perfect, or ‘perfectly bad.’

____10. Suicidal thoughts, attempts, death obsession (including ‘passive suicide’)

____11. Depression–a.k.a diagnoses Bi-polar (sometimes paralyzing); seemingly baseless crying

____12. Anger issues: inability to recognize, own, or express anger, fear of actual or imagined rage; constant anger, intense hostility toward entire gender or ethnic group of the perpetrator.

____13. Splitting (depersonalization): going into shock, shutdown in crisis; a stressful situation means a crisis; psychic numbing; physical pain or numbness associated with a particular memory, emotions (i.e. anger), or situation (i.e. sexual activity).

____14. Rigid control of one’s thought process humorlessness or extreme solemnity.

____15. Childhood hiding, hanging on, cowering in corners (security-seeking behaviors); adult nervousness over being watched or surprised; feeling watched; startle response.

____16. Trust issues: inability to trust (trust is not safe); total trust; trusting indiscriminately.

____17. High risk taking (‘daring fates’) inability to take risks.

____18. Boundary issues; control, power, territoriality issues; fear of losing control; obsessive/compulsive behaviors (attempt to control things that don’t matter, need to control something).

____19. Guilt, shame; low self-esteem, humiliation; feeling worthless; high appreciation of small favors by others.

____20. Pattern of being a victim (victimizing oneself after being victimized by others), especially sexually; no sense of own power or right to set limits or say no; pattern of relationships with much older persons (onset in adolescence).

____21. Feeling demand to ‘produce and be loved;’ instinctively knowing and doing what the other person needs or wants; relationships mean big trade offs (love was taken, not given).

____22. Abandonment issues.

____23. Blocking out some period of early years (especially 1-12), or a specific person or place.

____24. Sense of carrying an awful secret; urge to tell, fear of its being revealed; certainty that no one will listen; being generally secretive; feeling ‘marked’ (scarlet letter’).

____25. Feeling crazy; feeling different; feeling oneself to be unreal and everyone else to be real, or vice versa; creating fantasy worlds, relationships, or identities (especially for women; imagining or wishing self to be male, someone else; i.e. not a victim)

____26. Denial: no awareness at all; psychogenic amnesia (commonly called repressed memory); pretending; minimizing (‘It wasn’t that bad.’); having dreams or memories (‘Maybe it is my imagination’); strong, deep, ‘inappropriate’ negative reactions to a person, place or event; ‘sensory flashes’ (a light, a place, a physical sensation) without a sense of its meaning; remembering the surroundings, but not the event.

____27. Sexual issues; sex feels ‘dirty;’ aversion to being touched, especially gynecological exam; strong aversion to (or need for) particular sex acts; feeling betrayed by one’s body; trouble integrating sexuality and emotionality; confusion or overlapping of affection, sex, dominance, aggression and violence; having to pursue power in sexual arena, which is actually sexual acting out (self abuse and manipulation, especially among women; abuse of others, especially among men); compulsively ‘seductive’ or compulsively asexual; a need to be sexual aggressor or cannot be sexual; impersonal, ‘promiscuous’ sex with strangers concurrent with inability to have sex in intimate relationship (conflict between sex, caring and intimacy); prostitute, stripper, ‘sex symbol,’ (Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Anna Nicole Smith—famous sex symbols and sexual abuse survivors) porn actress; sexual acting out to meet anger or revenge needs; ‘sexaholism;’ avoidance; shutting down; crying after orgasm; all pursuit feels like violation; sexualizing of meaningful relationships; erotic response to abuse or anger, sexual fantasies of dominance or rape.

____28. Pattern of ambivalence or intensely conflictive relationships (intimacy is an issue; also focus shifted from sexual abuse or incest issues).

____29. Avoidance of mirrors (connected with invisibility, shame/self-esteem issues, distrust of perceived body image).

____30. Desire to change one’s name (to disassociate from the perpetrator or to take control through self-labeling).

____31. Limited tolerance for happiness; active withdrawal from happiness, reluctance to trust happiness (Happiness is short lived. ‘Ice is thin—can’t be trusted).

____32. Aversion to making noise (including during sex, crying, laughing, or other body functions); verbal hyper-vigilance (careful monitoring of one’s words); quiet-voice, especially when needing to be heard. Can’t trust one’s needs would be heard.

____33. Stealing (adults); stealing and starting fires (children).

____34. Multiple personality (a.k.a. Dissociative Disorder)

____35. Chronic illness, but not limited to: Arthritis, Breast Cancer, Diabetes, Fibromyalgia, Lupus, Migraine headaches, MS, OCD, Ovarian Cancer, Pancreatic Cancer, Rectal Cancer,  Testicular Cancer, TMJ, Tumor, Vaginal Cancer.

If you have ever wondered if or you know you are an adult survivor of sexual abuse, the articles listed will provide a thorough understanding of your experience and information on how to complete your recovery. Contrary to popular belief and many TV talk show proclamations,  recovery is possible.  The recovery process holds the promise that all aftereffects will be transformed into peace of mind, happiness, wholeness and thriving versus a perpetual survivor.

Recovery Is Possible:

Contrary to popular belief and many TV talk show proclamations,  recovery is possible.  The recovery process holds the promise that all aftereffects will be transformed into peace of mind, happiness, wholeness and thriving versus a perpetual survivor.

Transforming the deep, profound and pervasive wounds of an Adult Survivor of Sexual Abuse requires Mind, Body, Spirit multifaceted recovery.  Talk therapy and pills are inadequate to address these deep, profound and pervasive wounds.  Dorothy M Neddermeyer, PhD developed and facilitates a highly effective protocol to meet the demands for sexual abuse recovery. Her protocol addresses all levels of Emotional, Physical and Spiritual Transformation (EPST) effectively transforms the root cause of all issues and symptoms. EPST is direct, focused and combines creating health while transforming the past. It is precise, empowering, virtually effortless and an accurate method to change the landscape of your inner and outer mind, body and spirit. EPST allows you to access your past, present and future – as well as your subconscious, and clear negative energy on all levels – Mind, Body and Spirit.

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