anxiety

WebMD has an article and various resources on the effects of sexual abuse. The links below are to articles that talk in general about the effects sexual abuse has on survivors and their partners, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Links: http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/features/has-your-partner-been-a… http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20050519/child-sex-abuse-affect… http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/news/20061121/stress-disorder-more-c… http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder

Anxiety can cause suspicion, neediness and impulsiveness in relationships. Although this article is focused more on the person who has the anxiety, it provides some good background for their partners to understand what is going on.

Link: http://gad.about.com/od/selfhelp/a/relprobs.htm

This study in the National Institute on Drug Abuse's web site reports that women who were sexually abused as children are roughly 3 times more likely to develop drug or alcohol addictions as adults. They were also roughly twice as likely to develop mental disorders such as depression and general anxiety disorder. Originally published in the Archives of General Psychiatry 57(10):953-959, 2000.

Link: http://www.nida.nih.gov/NIDA_Notes/NNVol17N1/Childhood.html

This article - Childhood sexual abuse and couples' relationships: Female survivors' reports in therapy groups - is a review of five therapy groups for female survivors of sexual abuse. It's goal is to identify the most frequent themes that arise in terms of relationship difficulties. It found that survivors who are in therapy experience a great deal of turmoil and dissatisfaction in their relationships. The two most frequent relationship issues were difficulties with emotional communication or intimacy, and polarized positions on control; those issues correlate to survivors' primary coping strategies of avoiding threatening or dangerous feelings and the management of feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, and lack of control.

Link: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_199810/ai_n8822970