abuse and anorexia

Since abuse can also be classified as someone hurting their own body, anorexia is a good example. Anorexia can be classified as an eating disorder characterized by self starvation due to a fear of gaining weight. When someone is anorexic they are harming their body. People with anorexia go to extremes­ to reach and maintain a dangerously low body weight. No matter how thin an anorexic becomes they will never be happy with their weight, and it isn't good enough for them. When someone becomes anorexia they are physically abusing their body. Some physical effects that happen when someone is anorexic are lack of energy, low blood pressure, abdominal pain, dizziness, and insomnia. Anorexia can also cause emotional symptoms as well as physical. Emotional effects include depression, anxiety, and isolation. The behavior of an anorexic may also change. Anorexia can lead to serious health problems or even death. So by becoming anorexic, a person is abusing their own body.


An article I read shows that an ordinary person may acquire anorexia and die from it. This story is about a musician named Karen Carpenter. Karen was a popular musician in the 70s, guest starred on TV shows, and was on the front cover of magazines. Underneath all the fame, she suffered from anorexia. At that time nobody knew of anorexia and what it entailed. The death of Karen opened the eyes of the world to this life-threatening disease. The article goes on to tell more about her and exactly what happened at the time of her death.

self-mutilation/self abuse

Abuse isn't just child abuse or physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Abuse can also be classified as abusing your body. Many teens are deliberately hurting or abusing themselves, which is also known as self-mutilation. Self-mutilation is the practice of cutting, burning or otherwise injuring one's own body. This afflicts as many as two million people in the U.S. alone. Researchers say that this isn't a sign of suicide but rather just a sacred secret. There are many types of self-mutilation but the most common is cutting or burning.

So why do people turn to self-mutilation? There are many explanations on why people abuse themselves, but there are only a few that are widely accepted. Abuse can lead to feelings of self-hatred, worthlessness, abandonment, and anger, so they may turn to self abuse as an outlet for their emotions. By cutting or burning themselves it might make them feel better and be able to deal with their emotions better. Another explanation is that some self mutilators report feeling like their life is being controlled by everyone but themselves. Cutting or burning is a way for them to express that they are still in control of something (the pain that they feel). Out of the teens who cut or burn themselves, the vast majority keep it a secret from everyone, even close friends. So self-mutilation isn't a sign of suicide but rather just a way people can deal with their emotions.

What do you do?

When child abuse is occurring, there are several ways to report it. If a child is in immediate danger from child abuse or neglect, obviously someone should call 911 immediately. Also anyone suspected that a child is being abused can report it to their state child abuse hotline or call the Childhelp National Abuse Hotline. The hotline is dedicated only to child abuse and has accumulated over 2 million calls since it began in 1982. If someone isn't sure if they want to report abuse officially or they just need support, there are different hotlines and child advocacy centers. If a child reports or talks to their parents about abuse, there are a few suggestions to keep in mind. As a parent, they can avoid denial and remain calm, don't interrogate, and reassure the child they did nothing wrong. It takes a lot for a child to come forth and talk about abuse so those are some ways to help them. People often get scared to report child abuse because many things are going on in their minds. Some common questions/comments people have before reporting child abuse is, I don't want to interfere with someone else's family, what if I break up someone's home, they will know it is me if I call it in, and it won't make a difference what I have to say anyway. To me it seems as though people shouldn't worry about those things and get the child safe. Calling a hotline is anonymous, so that wouldn't even matter. Also the effects are lifelong whereas the other things are just short-term and wouldn't keep a child safe at all. If someone doesn't interfere with someone else's family then a child is just going to suffer. Also everything someone has to say will help in one way or another so a report should always be made.

In one of my recent posts I got an important question that I need to clear up. Susan wants to know if a child could get abused and not show any warning signs. More than likely a child that has been abused will have some of the warning signs. If a child doesn't have any of the signs they might have been abused. When there are no warning signs someone won't be able to tell if their child was abused. Without the warning signs the only other way someone could tell is if they get a confession. People everyday get abused and never tell anybody. In a book called I Never Told Anyone, it shares stories of victims of sexual child abuse. They obviously never told anyone at the time of there abuse. When there aren't any warning signs, it is very hard to tell when someone was abused. Also, in an article dated back to April 2008, many alleged abuse victims came forward after Pope Benedict XVI’s recognition of his problems with abuse. That shows that when someone tells their story more people will be willing to tell their stories. So, child abuse can happen even when there aren't any warning signs, but people won't be able to tell as easily, or at all.

signs of abuse.....

How does someone even know if there child is being abused? Like other problems and issues, child abuse has warning signs too. As everyone knows, there is different types of abuse. For each different type of abuse there is also different warning signs. If a child has been physically abused they may have unexplained bruises, cuts, or burns on them. Signs of neglect include frequent absences from school, begs or steals, and is consistently dirty. A child suffering from emotional abuse will show extremes in behavior,may attempt suicide, and is delayed in physical development. As a parent/guardian or a concerned citizen is get help for the child. Some other ways of helping a child, when they have been abused is, avoid denial and remain calm, don't interrogate, and reassure the child they did nothing wrong.

Are authorities doing all they can to protect children? I know that child abuse is hard to catch, but are they doing absolutely everything they can to prevent it? In a recent article that appeared in the New York Times explains that maybe they aren't doing everything they can. The story is about two child welfare workers and police found a girl dead and her sister abused. The were found in an apartment closet, with bruises and cuts on them. They found out that it was her mother that killed her. Her mother was in jail previously for assaulting a foster child. So my question is how was the mother around the kids? Also the workers weren't looking after the kids very good if something like that happened.

Effects of Child Abuse

Child abuse isn't just physical abuse, it goes deeper than that. Child abuse can also be emotional and sexual abuse, and child neglect. Emotional abuse is basically abuse that gets to your emotional, for example, getting yelled at all the time or getting the blame for everything.Emotional abuse is draining and can lead to depression. Sexual abuse is exactly what it sounds like, it can be rape, sexual assault, or sexual molestation. In other words, forcing a child to do things they don't want to sexually. Child neglect is failure to give children emotional and physical care. Child neglect can also be not taking care of a child in terms of maltreatment. Maltreatment basically sums child abuse up by itself. Other effects from child abuse are aggression, alcohol/drug abuse, eating disorders, failure to thrive, behavior and concentration problems, dehydration, insomnia, etc.

As we all know, child abuse happens for many different reasons. An article I found interesting is about a mother and her four children. The mother was abused as a child and transferred it over to her kids. She ended up killing all four of her children due to her past experiences. Also when she was 18 months old her father killed her mother. Child abuse is a very powerful thing that can transfer over to someone's children. People need to think of the consequences before they abuse a child.

Why child abuse happens.....

Why does child abuse happen? To start off, child abuse can be defined as mistreatment of a child by a parent or guardian, including neglect, beating, and sexual molestation. There are many different opinions on why people abuse children. In this article by Kelli Deister, http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art52929.asp, she explains that some people speculate child abuse happens because the abuser has mental issues. Also their religious backgrounds might be a contributing factor to child abuse. In her article she goes more into detail on how people's religion may affect how they treat their child.
Child abuse doesn't happen in a certain type of household. Living in a poor neighborhood or low income apartments doesn't automatically make a family bad or child abusers. Child abuse happens everywhere, for reasons only the family knows. A significant amount of research was done to prove that there is many factors involved with child abuse, and not just where they live. Some factors include immaturity and unrealistic needs, stress of child care, lack of parenting knowledge, depression, and drug or alcohol abuse from the parents.