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The tips for helping patients who have been sexually abused page, is good advice for anyone abused.

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VioletYoshi

Junior member
Joined
Jul 29, 2008
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The tips for helping patients who have been sexually abused page, is good advice for anyone abused.

I was reading the page on how to treat patients who have been sexually abused, in the consumer links area under resources for dental phobia. I think alot of people don't understand that emotional abuse, as well as physical abuse is about a lack of control.

I have delt with alot of emotional abuse in my life. Mostly with public schooling. Like the idea of detention, I think that's just a way to motivate a student to behave through fear. Behave, or we'll keep you here against your will. Nobody would be allowed to treat an adult that way.

Not to mention bullies and yes, teachers can also be bullies and get by with it if they have tenure. I think that dentists should see the things mentioned in the article on how to treat patients who have been sexually abused, as ways to help treat phobic patients in general.

Also both situations involve an issue of trust. That if someone has had their trust abused in the past, they will be very unlikely to have trust for a long time. You may end up with someone who feels that being combative is the only choice, especially if they've delt with a dentist who has physically tried to restrain them.

It's really a matter of safety not only for the patient but for the dentist as well. They don't want to have to deal with a patient who's in such a state of fear and panic, they may end up trying to box with the dentist.
 
Re: The tips for helping patients who have been sexually abused page, is good advice for anyone abus

Teachers do that alot these days....and if you try to say anything back your the one that gets written up.......:mad:
 
Re: The tips for helping patients who have been sexually abused page, is good advice for anyone abus

I think that dentists should see the things mentioned in the article on how to treat patients who have been sexually abused, as ways to help treat phobic patients in general.

Yes... or maybe not. I don't remember everything that article says, but some of the things mentioned there what the dentist should do wouldn't help me at all, or some of them would even make things worse! Trust and control aren't issues every dental phobic has a problem with. I don't like being in control too much. It's hard to explain, especially as Violet Yoshi would probably be very scared if she heard everything. But I've experienced a lot of this: I say I'm scared, and they offer a solution that doesn't help me, because I'm different from most phobics they've met. So it's not a good idea to think the abuse-victim tips as ways to treat all phobics. We are so different.

But if those tips help you, just ask the dentist to do that stuff even if you hadn't experienced sexual abuse. BTW, I've been through stuff you would call emotional abuse but I didn't feel it as that. For example from teachers, but I liked the way they were. I'm officially super-weird ;D
 
Re: The tips for helping patients who have been sexually abused page, is good advice for anyone abus

There's a saying in English: "Once bitten, twice shy" (meaning that someone who has been hurt or who has had something go wrong will be far more careful or reluctant the next time). I would think that someone with previous bad experiences will, on average, be far more likely to experience issues of trust and control than someone who hasn't... seeing how the majority of people with dental phobia (I'm not talking normal levels of anxiety here) have had bad previous experiences, issues of control and trust are very common. But as you said, there are exceptions to every rule :).
 
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