Since my mother was schizophrenic I was abused by her, also - though not intentionally. When she got treatment when I was 12 and got started on stelazine after Elecroschock treatments whe was the gentlest, kindness person you could meet. Before then she was dangerous and scary. Then the boy next door (who was 5 years older than me) started sexually abusing me when I was only 6 or 7 years old and that went on for several years. Abuse of any kind to a child is psychologically harmful and I am just now getting good therapy for it (I had tried several other therapists over the past 50 years but I could never relate to them - not to mention most of those memories of my childhood before I was 12 and Mother got treatment were buried from me until this year). My T is super good and is helping me a lot to understand that the child is NEVER guilty of anything - does NOT deserve the abuse - is ALWAYS the victim and powerless to stop adults and older, stronger people from abusing them. The guilt we, as children of abuse, feel is misplaced and has led to the depression and anxiety attacks I suffer from now. I don't know how long it will take me to work through all these issues with my T but he will stick by me for as long as I need him. He even accepts my HMO insurance and when my benefits wore off (I'm only allowed 20 visits per year he went to bat for me and got me additional visits. But, my point is, we need therapy to get over things like this and we all need to remember that we were not at fault for the abuse.