Have You Ever Really Wondered What Exactly Constitutes CHILD ABUSE? What Does Sexual Abuse, Physical Abuse and Emotional Abuse Actually Consist Of?

I recently read a book on childhood sexual abuse titled "Surviving Childhood Sexual Abuse" by Carolyn Ainscough and Kay Toon. While reading this book, I found myself surprised as I didn't realize that forcefully exposing a person to pornography is considered sexual abuse. After thinking about it for a bit, I absolutely agreed. This is likewise referred to as Traumatic Sexualization and is unfortunately something that many of us have endured to some degree at some point in our lives.

Abuse is typically understood in terms of sexual abuse, emotional abuse and physical abuse. In my studies, I've come to understand that emotional abuse seems to be the most difficult for people to understand as it's often transparent if you're unaware of what to look for. Regardless, all three kinds of abuse can have traumatic and lasting effects on people throughout their lives. Sometimes professional counseling helps and sometimes it doesn't, but much of the success rate is a direct reflection of the level of genuine effort put forth by the victim to heal from the atrocities they've endured.

What constitutes child abuse? In my opinion, abusive behavior is an intentional, though sometimes unintentional, spoken, written, physical or implied action towards a person that traumatically disharmonizes their physical, emotional and psychological state of wellbeing.

Because I've suggested that Emotional Abuse may be the most difficult to understand, I've listed out some examples and offered my explanation as to why it's actually abuse.

Telling a young boy to stop crying.

Crying has evolved with human beings in both genders as a method of releasing emotional disharmonious energies. When a person is denied their God-given right to cry, they're likewise being denied a natural avenue of emotional release. This forces them to harbor toxic energies that absolutely have the potential to invoke various personality and psychological disorders that may poison their sense of harmony throughout the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, this is common parenting as many boys are taught that crying is a sign of weakness and unbecoming of a "Man".