Holiday Tips for Incest Survivors

Sexual Abuse Recovery

Going home for the holidays, especially for Thanksgiving and Christmas are common family traditions for most families. However, sexual abuse survivors, especially incest victims oftentimes have a lot of problems when it comes to attending family functions.

I remember so well how much harder it was to "go through the motions" of holidays with my own family once I had begun my healing process. As abusive memories from the past began to surface, I reached a point where I could no longer pretend "all is well" and chose not to spend my holidays with the family. So with that thought in mind, I would like to devote this article to some helpful tips for other survivors to use during the stressful up-coming holidays.

Where You are in Your Healing Process
Where you are in the process is a very important consideration. Once you have come out of the strong denial that is found in incestual homes, you will find it becomes more and more difficult to "pretend" nothing happened. It usually is better to either cut short the family visit or sometimes it is best just not to attend family gatherings at all.