So it is with sexual abuse. In the face of trauma one's only choice is to become a victim. You are no longer in control of your own fate, but have now become an object of elements beyond your ability to influence. The net effect is an experience that forever alters your perspective of life. Being perceived as a sexual object meant for the gratification of another sets in motion the process that we have come to recognize as the experience of the sexually abused child.
Sexual abuse is a particular expression of potential life trauma.
The experience of parental loss and abandonment leading to the need for adoption is another expression of life trauma. Obviously then, a sexually abused adopted child has more that one type of trauma in their reservoir of life experience. There are definite overlaps, but sexual abuse trauma can be recognized separate from other traumas. There are four major recognized dynamics of sexual abuse. The first is traumatic sexualization .