Post Abortion Syndrome
What Is
Post Abortion
Syndrome? (P.A.S.)
Researchers
describe P.A.S. as a woman's inability to:
Process the
fear, anger, sadness, and guilt surrounding her abortion
Grieve the
loss of the baby
Come to
peace with herself and others involved in the abortion decision
What Are
The Symptoms Of
P.A.S.?
Listed below
are the symptoms of P.A.S. These symptoms will not necessarily appear
at the same time, nor is any woman likely to experience all of them.
Some symptoms may appear immediately after an abortion, or some may
appear years later.
Guilt
Guilt is what
the woman feels because she has violated her moral code. For the woman
who has come to believe at some point after the abortion that she has
consented to the killing of her preborn child, the burden of guilt is
relentless.
Anxiety
Anxiety is
defined as an unpleasant emotion and physical state of apprehension.
Post-abortion women may experience any of the following:
Tension
(inability to relax, irritability, and so forth)
Physical
responses (dizziness, pounding heart, upset stomach, headache)
Worry about
the future
Difficulty
concentrating
Disturbed
sleep
Repression
And Denial
When a person
experiences anxiety because of an intense inner conflict, and there is
no end in sight, the mind will take whatever course of action necessary
to regain emotional equilibrium.
One such defense
mechanism is
repression, a sort of motivated forgetting, which simply pushes the
unbearable emotions away from the conscious level of thinking.
Denial is a more thorough
mechanism in which one not only pushes down unacceptable emotions
surrounding a painful event, but also part or all of the event itself.
Psychological
"Numbing"
A
person who
has experienced a highly painful loss will develop an instinct to guard
against future situations which might bring that much pain again. Many
post-abortal women may work hard to keep their emotions on a flat
level, experiencing neither highs nor lows. This greatly hampers their
ability to form and maintain close interpersonal relationships.
Depression
And Thoughts
Of Suicide
While few
postabortal women reach the point of an overt clinical depression, many
will experience some of the following:
Sad mood
Sudden and
uncontrollable crying episodes
Deterioration of self-concept
Sleep,
appetite, and sexual disturbances
Reduced
motivation
Disruption
in interpersonal relationships
Thoughts of
suicide
Re-experiencing
The
Abortion
The most
common experience that a postabortal woman reports is that she suddenly
begins to have distressing, recurring 'flashbacks' of the abortion
procedure, with no apparent explanation for what is causing them.
Recurring nightmares about babies are common.
Interruption
Of Bonding
With Children
After having
an abortion, a woman might not allow herself to properly bond with
future children because of a fear of loss. Likewise, a woman who
already has children at the time of her abortion may discover that she
is beginning to look at her existing children in a different light. She
may have unconsciously devalued them.
Survival
Guilt
Some women who
have abortions feel guilty for being the survivor of the abortion
decision. It was either her life or the baby's life and she chose to
not interrupt her life. These women may enter a heightened and
unrealistic compensation mode, attempting to atone for her selfish
choice.
Development
of Eating
Disorders
Making herself
unattractive serves as a form of self-punishment and helps the
postabortal woman perpetuate the belief that she is unworthy of
anyone's attention. A substantial weight gain or severe weight loss is
associated with unattractiveness, which reduces the odds of becoming
pregnant again.
Anorexia may become a
form of
control for the woman who feels like her life is totally out of
control. Also, an underweight condition can lead to the stopping of a
woman's periods, which would also effectively prevent any future
pregnancies.
Alcohol
And/Or Substance
Abuse
Alcoholism and
substance abuse often begin as a form of self-medication—a
way of coping with the mental pain of abortion memories.
Brief
Reactive Psychosis
Rarely, a
postabortal woman will experience a brief psychotic episode for two
weeks or less after her abortion. The break with reality and recovery
are both rapid and in most cases the person is completely back to
normal when it is over. It is possible for a person to have a brief
psychotic reaction to a stressful event without being labeled a
psychotic individual.
Anniversary
Syndrome
There
tends to
be an increase in many of the symptoms listed above around the time of
the anniversary of the abortion and/or the due date of the aborted
child.