How Do I Know if I Have PAS?
Guilt: Guilt is what the woman feels because she has violated her moral code. For the woman who has come to believe that she consented to the killing of her unborn child, the burden of guilt can be relentless.
Anxiety: Anxiety is defined as an unpleasant emotional and physical state of apprehension. Post-abortion women may experience: tension (inability to relax and irritability), physical responses (dizziness, pounding heart, upset stomach, headaches), worry about the future, difficulty concentrating, and 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 is 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 whole 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-abortive women may work hard to keep their emotions on a flat level, experiencing neither highs, or lows. This greatly hampers their ability to form and maintain close interpersonal relationships.
Depression and Thoughts of Suicide:While few post-abortive women reach the point of an overt clinical depression, many will experience some of the following:
Preoccupation with Becoming Pregnant Again: A significant percentage of all women who abort are pregnant within one year of their abortion. This may represent an unconscious hope for a new pregnancy to replace the one that was aborted.
Anxiety Over Fertility and Childbearing Issues: For the Christian woman, this is a particularly poignant issue, as they verbalize these fears in terms of God punishing them.
Interruption of the Bonding Process with Present and/or Future Children: The post-abortive woman may not allow herself to become properly bonded to another pregnancy because of a fear of loss. Or she may begin another pregnancy intending to be the “world’s most perfect mother”. Likewise, the woman who already had 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: In an attempt to assuage the guilt of being the “survivor” of the abortion, some women will enter a heightened and unrealistic “compensation mode” whereby there is an attempt made to atone for the selfish choice.
Development of Eating Disorders: A substantial weight gain or severe weight loss is associated with feelings of unattractiveness and reduces the odds of becoming pregnant again. Additionally, making herself unattractive serves as a form of self punishment and helps the post-abortive woman perpetuate the belief that she is unworthy of anyone’s attention. Also, anorexia becomes a form of control for the woman who feels her life is totally out of control. Lastly, an underweight condition can lead to the stopping of a woman’s periods, which would effectively prevent any future pregnancies.
Alcohol and Substance Abuse: Alcoholism and substance abuse often begins as a form of self-medication – a way of coping with the mental pain of abortion memories.
Brief Reactive Psychosis: Rarely, a post-abortive woman will experience a brief psychotic episode for two weeks or less after her abortion. The break with reality and recovery are both extremely rapid and in most cases the person is back to normal when it is over. It is quite 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 due date of the aborted child.
Source: Symptoms of Post-Abortion Syndrome by Teri Reisser, M.S. Copyright 2005, 2011 Christian Life Resources
Anxiety: Anxiety is defined as an unpleasant emotional and physical state of apprehension. Post-abortion women may experience: tension (inability to relax and irritability), physical responses (dizziness, pounding heart, upset stomach, headaches), worry about the future, difficulty concentrating, and 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 is 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 whole 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-abortive women may work hard to keep their emotions on a flat level, experiencing neither highs, or lows. This greatly hampers their ability to form and maintain close interpersonal relationships.
Depression and Thoughts of Suicide:While few post-abortive 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
Preoccupation with Becoming Pregnant Again: A significant percentage of all women who abort are pregnant within one year of their abortion. This may represent an unconscious hope for a new pregnancy to replace the one that was aborted.
Anxiety Over Fertility and Childbearing Issues: For the Christian woman, this is a particularly poignant issue, as they verbalize these fears in terms of God punishing them.
Interruption of the Bonding Process with Present and/or Future Children: The post-abortive woman may not allow herself to become properly bonded to another pregnancy because of a fear of loss. Or she may begin another pregnancy intending to be the “world’s most perfect mother”. Likewise, the woman who already had 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: In an attempt to assuage the guilt of being the “survivor” of the abortion, some women will enter a heightened and unrealistic “compensation mode” whereby there is an attempt made to atone for the selfish choice.
Development of Eating Disorders: A substantial weight gain or severe weight loss is associated with feelings of unattractiveness and reduces the odds of becoming pregnant again. Additionally, making herself unattractive serves as a form of self punishment and helps the post-abortive woman perpetuate the belief that she is unworthy of anyone’s attention. Also, anorexia becomes a form of control for the woman who feels her life is totally out of control. Lastly, an underweight condition can lead to the stopping of a woman’s periods, which would effectively prevent any future pregnancies.
Alcohol and Substance Abuse: Alcoholism and substance abuse often begins as a form of self-medication – a way of coping with the mental pain of abortion memories.
Brief Reactive Psychosis: Rarely, a post-abortive woman will experience a brief psychotic episode for two weeks or less after her abortion. The break with reality and recovery are both extremely rapid and in most cases the person is back to normal when it is over. It is quite 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 due date of the aborted child.
Source: Symptoms of Post-Abortion Syndrome by Teri Reisser, M.S. Copyright 2005, 2011 Christian Life Resources