Dealing with abuse

Abuse is something that affects many teens today. Abuse comes in different forms and can be physical, emotional or sexual. These are the definitions of each:

Physical Abuse:

• Infliction of physical pain, discomfort, injury or physical coercion such as hitting, shoving, pushing, burning and physical restraint.
• Type of maltreatment that refers to physical acts that caused or could have caused physical injury to another person.

Emotional / Mental Abuse:

• Verbally mistreating or withholding positive emotional support from a child.
• An adult speaking to a child in ways that are intended to demean shame, threaten, blame, intimidate, or unfairly criticize the child.
• Long-term situation in which one person uses his or her power or influence to adversely affect the mental well being of another.
• Rejection, isolation, exploitation, and terror.

Sexual Abuse:

• Activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals, penetration, incest, rape, sodomy, indecent exposure, and exploitation through prostitution or the production of pornographic materials.
• Sexual abuse is sexual contact that is forced, tricked, threatened, or otherwise coerced upon another person.

It is very important to seek help if you are abused in any way. Seek help from a parent, teacher or other trustworthy adult. Lifeline is a nationwide organization that offers counseling and support services to victims of abuse, rape and other kinds of trauma. Your sessions will remain confidential, as counselors are obliged to conform to client confidentiality codes.

I would however urge you to consider reporting the matter to the child protection service at any police station. Think of other kids that are exposed to this too. Sexual offenders usually have more than one victim at a time and if another girl is less strong than you are, who knows what the perpetrator could do to her?