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What Happens To The Incest Victim

Highlight Box All too many web sites make it look like no negative problems happen to the victim of incest. The truth is the opposite of this. This page is an attempt to tell the truth about the tragic results of incest and how it influences the lives of the victim. How do they cope as adults?       The Truth About the Incest Victim As I look back it should have been plain to me that my wife's activities that resulted in problems in our marriage were driven by the fact that her father who loved to do oral sex on women did that to her and then escalated to intercourse as outlined in The Causes of Incest on this web site. The Trauma of incest is more severe that being raped by a stranger because the perpatrator is a trusted relative who betrays the trust of his loved one. At the very least the violation of trust results in the victim being mistrustful of men. In my case because the wife was sexually abused by her father she thought that her husband would cheat on her as her father had cheated on her mother by abusing her. When her father tried to reach out to be reconciled with his daughter, my wife was restored what had been a repressed memory. She then remembered him having his face between her legs licking her genitals. She then barred that act from our marriage because of the restored memory. The later total cutoff of all sexual activity was also driven by the memory of her childhood rape at age eight. If you want your daughter to have a happy marriage do not introduce her to sex. The betrayal she'll feel later on make her hate you. At the very least she will have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder which is common among war veterans. If you are a combat veteran  you know how those invisible scars have effected you or other in your fellowship of Veterans. Distress Symptoms In Incest Victims & Control Group Incest   Victims Control    Group Distress Symptoms Number Percentage Number Percentage Adolescent Pregnacy         Yes 18 45 3 15 No 23 55 17 85 Runaway Attempt         Yes 13 32.5 1 5 No 27 67.5 19 95 Major Depresive Symptoms         Yes 24 60 11 55 No 16 40 9 45 Suicide Attempt         Yes 15 37.5 1 5 No 25 62.5 19 95 Drug or Alcohol Abuse         Yes 8 35 1 5 No 32 65 19 95 Sexual Problems         Yes 21 55 10 50 No 19 45 10 50 Promiscuity         Yes 14 35 3 15 No 26 65 17 85 Victimization         Yes (rape) 6 15 3 15 Yes (beatings) 11 27.5 0 0 No 24 60 17 85 Self Image         Predominantly + 3 7.5 2 10 Dual or Confused +- 13 32.5 16 80 Predominantly - 24 60 2 10 Here is some data on the negative effects of incest taken from Judy Herman PhD's Father-Daughter Incest. While the data looks similar for Sexual Problems in both groups it must be mentioned that the "control group" consisted of "Daddy's girls" who were closer to their fathers than they should have been. The exchange of intimate information between fathers and daughter amounts to what is called Covert Incest where intimacy of a verbal nature are exchanged by father and daughter which results in Sexual Problems for the daughters later in life. Ms Herman may be a PhD but her scientific method was faulty in this survey.  The sexual problems are responsible for the passing of incest from one generation to the other. A wife who cuts off her husband causing the semen to build up in his testicles forces him to masturbation or adultery or incest.  If combined with the kind of excess jealousy my wife displayed it almost forces the man into incest because he dare not give his wife evidence of his infidelity, thus he feels incest is preferable to adultery.