Vincent J. Felitti
Incest and childhood sexual abuse are amongst the great social taboos of all time. As a result, we act as if they are rare aberrations, infrequently mentioned in a newspaper article about someone far from our part of town. Unfortunately, both are demonstrably common even in the “best of families”. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study of 17,337 middle-class American adults found a self-acknowledged prevalence of childhood sexual abuse in 28% in women and 16% in men when routine inquiry was carried out. Sadly, this high prevalence concealed by shame and secrecy usually causes these individuals unconsciously to seek relief in various coping devices like food, alcohol, nicotine, promiscuity, and street antidepressants like methamphetamine. Although these coping devices often end in biomedical disease and shortened lives, their underlying causality typically remains unrecognized.
Repair Your Life will be of major help to these many hidden people, if they find their way to this book. It is one of
several significant books by a woman who writes openly and perceptively, using her own experiences to take us down her path to an ultimately fulfilling life. This example of someone speaking intelligently and freely about the ordinarily unspeakable is a powerful starting point for those fortunate individuals who will find self-help here when so little else is visible to them. This is an important book.
Vincent J. Felitti, MD
Co-Principal Investigator of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study, ongoing collaborative research between the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program and the Centers for Disease Control
