Healing From Sexual Abuse

The following is an excerpt from an L.D.S. talk given by Chieko N. Okazaki entitled, “Healing From Sexual Abuse.” To read the complete talk, go to http://www.byub.org/talks/Talk.aspx?id=1136.

“Sexual abuse is a problem for all of us, both men and women, whether we have experienced it personally or not. The most conservative statistic I have heard is that one woman in ten is sexually abused before she is eighteen. The worst I have heard is that the figure is closer to one in three. One in three. A comparable statistic for the sexual abuse of boys is one in ten, and researchers feel that the sexual abuse of boys is even more severely underreported than the sexual abuse of girls.”
“Now think about the worst statistics: one in three. If you are a woman, it means that you have a 33 percent chance of being that woman. If you are a man, it means that your wife, your mother, or your daughter, may be that woman. If you have three daughters, if you have three sisters, if you have three daughters-in-law, if you have three granddaughters, this terrible evil could have entered your family’s life with or without your knowledge. Consider the men in your life. Think about your sons and grandsons, your missionary companions. Did one of them struggle silently with this spiritual burden? . . . the statistical odds are that one of them bore this grievous, invisible wound. . . . Sexual abuse is a problem for all . . . women and all . . . men everywhere.”