It is possible to recover from severe abuse Over the past two issues of IJHC, we have explored the long-term effects of child abuse/neglect, and the initial steps required for recovery. A brief summary will bring the final phases into focus. People who were abused as children develop a tear in the mind-body fabric, as well as a separation of the spirit from the mind and body. In the wake of that trauma, four persisting inner states are created, namely the wounded inner child, the battlefield, the void, and the inner abuser. The last article took us through the healing of the wounded inner child and the battlefield. We are now ready to consider how to face the void and then the inner abuser. This concludes this 3-part series on adult survivors of abuse, as the total reintegration of body, mind, and spirit leads to a recovery of the soul. Diagnosing the Void There are few things in Medicine that I can predict with 100% certainty, but decades of experience have proven that if you were severely abused as a child, you do have an inner void. The worse the abuse was, the deeper the void will be. Many people report that they live at the edge of the void every day of their life, fearing they are about to fall in. Others feel as if they are living their life at the bottom of the void, in a state of isolation and depression. The void is the cause of many addictions, deep/dark depressions, and feelings of profound emptiness