Information is available if you know where to look on the signs and symptoms of child abuse. One of the more disturbing statistics is the one that I saw that stated over 50% of people with PTSD are child abuse survivors.  Even more disturbing is how high a percentage of children they suspect suffer from child abuse or neglect.  The hardest thing for me to accept in my counseling is understanding how severely abusive my childhood was. I wanted the fairy tale, “We went to the park, we went to the zoo.” For years, I was told it wasn’t intentional. It was even more difficult to accept that this also was a lie. I was devastated. The greatest burden of all is knowing I passed on some to my children….out of not knowing how to parent, my own lack of self care, and other factors. Generational abuse is difficult to detect when it is all you know. I made mistakes, big ones. Changing now sometimes feels like too little, too late. Knowledge is the doorway to making changes in your life either healing or preventing child abuse.

The images are disturbing or triggering for some people. The article is fairly long.

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/abuse/child-abuse-and-neglect.htm

They state that the earlier a child gets help the better off they are. That is true, however, it is never too late to seek help. Self care is not selfish, it is a healthy choice.