Scott Impending surgery generates a certain amount of anxiety in almost everyone. The thought of being put to sleep and operated on, no matter how routine and safe the procedure, is unpleasant at best.
Many people fear waking up during the surgery.
Others fear not waking up at all. For many survivors of childhood sexual abuse, those natural fears of surgery are intensified by the fears that their bodies will be completely given over to and invaded by another person. However therapeutic and necessary the procedure, it calls up powerful emotions of helplessness and can re-create old feelings of being victimized. If physicians, surgeons, nurses, and ancillary staff are unaware of the early abuse, they may unwittingly revictimize such patients. One survivor who recently underwent surgery had made sure her surgeon knew that she was a survivor, but that information did not get passed to the recovery room staff.