Speech on child abuse A five year old is sexually abused by someone she trusts. She knows it isn't right but he tells her
Speech on child abuse
A five year old is sexually abused by someone she trusts. She knows it isn’t right but he tells her that if anyone knows they will think her disgusting. She takes this to heart. She begins to feel the need to scrub herself ‘till she bleeds because she feels so dirty. She overdoses three times before she is ten because of the depression. Finally, after eight years of suffering in silence the girl and her mum move house. Her mum is so ill she needs care; so the girl does everything for her and looks after the house. She says she feels empowered. She now has something to take her mind off the abuse. Two years later the doctors say that she needs 24-hour care so she goes into a care home and the girl goes to live with a family friend. She is totally deprived of her mum. By now, she is about your age; by now she has spent over half her life being seriously abused; by now, she is so mentally scared that she has horrific nightmares about the abuse. She begins to think about whether anyone else knew, whether she deserved it or even encouraged it. She despises herself. She begins to self-harm. She hits herself; she cuts herself; she wants to die but she has a phobia of swallowing; pills offer no solution. So she punishes her body even more; she stops eating, obsesses over exercise, she takes control of her life. By now, the family friend has noticed. She is sent to a doctor who refers her to an anorexic clinic and prescribes her antidepressants. She is forced to swallow them. At the clinic, she refuses to eat. She is referred again; it takes three more weeks before she is settled. The antidepressants have made her gain weight so she stops taking them, this combined with her self-harming, means she is put on suicide watch. She isn’t in charge of her life anymore. The girl is made to fill in menus and regain weight, although she doesn’t want to and can’t handle it. She is let out just before Christmas. She is alone, her carer has gone away, so she sits there not eating and losing more and more weight. When she is let out of the clinic on New Year’s Eve, she asks not to go back there, not to be alone with the carer. So she goes into emergency foster care. The next morning she collapses; she refuses to go to hospital when the ambulance arrives, so they take her against her will and save her life. They section her under the mental health act. She weighs five stone and is so ill she should be in a coma. She stays in hospital for 3 months. Everyday she has flashbacks of the abuse, is forced to eat and is ignored. Neither her mum nor her carer visit her, this makes her angry with everyone and everything. Eventually she convinces the hospital she plans to gain weight. The lie ensures she moves to a new foster home, but she still doesn’t eat. She can’t climb the stairs, she is told her ankles are swollen because her organs are failing. She wants to lose more weight but she wants to live. She is told by her doctor that if she continues similarly, within a week she will be dead. She is only 17.
