As a child I was physically abused by my father and sexually abused by my brother. In both cases I was told not to tell or they would kill me and that nobody would believe me.

I could only promise I wouldn't tell because I had such low self esteem due to being told I was never any good and that nobody would believe me anyway.

Does this sound familiar? It is only now that it is brought out into the open more. There were no resources or help we could go to back in the early 50's. At least today you can even take action against the abuser even if it happened a few years ago. This should be the case because often we block out our childhood memories if they are too painful and it's only later in life that we can talk about it.

Even verbal and emotional abuse are forms of abuse. When a father continually tells and yells at his daughter that she is no good and what did he do to deserve a daughter like her of course she is going to believe that she is not worth anything.

When a mother continually tells her daughter what to wear, how she must act, what to say what not to say, in other words tries to run her life, that is the emotional abuse and even worse than that.

The victim will feel shame, and blame themselves that it was their fault and perhaps if they acted differently or were better at school none of it would have happened. They will feel anger that they were not safe in their own environment and will feel rebellious.

Sometimes the abuse is not remembered by the victim as they have blocked it out of their memory or they think they have imagined it. When they do remember bits and pieces they find it hard to believe it ever happened or that they had repressed it purposely because they didn't want to acknowledge that it happened to them. It only happened to that younger person who was not good at anything.

There are lots of emotions an abused victim will feel and they cannot do it alone. Counselling is best or even being able to talk to a close friend. Nobody should have to put up with abuse of any form.

There are resources out there who can help you put it in the past and help you deal with your future.