I am suffering from deep emotions. Please help.

Question

Hi doctor,

I am an 18 year old girl. When I was seven, my older brother (12) used to molest me. I do not know if it was traumatic as I do not remember crying or anything. Does this count as sexual abuse? Because of the young age of my brother, I do not know if it is related. But, I am extremely emotional, self-harm and do a lot of things without thinking. Sometimes, I think about seeing someone when I am really depressed and feel empty, but this only lasts like a few hours and then I feel fine.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Although what happened to you in your early childhood is beyond doubt, I would advise you to desist from making any correlation between your current problems and the abusive incidents. Like you accurately pointed out, at that age, you were unaware of the nature of the acts and therefore, it is unlikely to have caused any mental trauma. This has been demonstrated in certain scientific studies as well, although might appear awkward from a societal perspective. If you try to correlate the two too much, you will be needlessly creating and aggravating a psychological trauma. In any case, I think that your current symptoms are part of your personality and unrelated to the unfortunate incidents. So, do not worry and be happy. If you are independently concerned about the symptoms (beyond its relation to the abuse), then you might want to consult a psychologist or psychiatrist. Please bear in mind that all this advice is from a strictly scientific and psychological standpoint and not from a legal or moral or social and cultural standpoint. Take care.