Are there ways for a person to know they were sexually abused as a child if they have absolutely no recollection of it but show many signs.

Usually if a person: Was the victim of significant abuse ; there was no recall - there is a reason for that. The mind has protective mechanisms for issues that are too traumatic to deal with. Try to dig for possible past trauma can lead to severe regression ; false memories. I allow my patients to discover at a safe pace in therapy. Sometimes there are family members who are aware of events that occurred in the past.

Memory is falible ;: Can be easily influenced by suggestions, especially "recovered" memories in therapy. Unless you can find corroborating evidence or testimony of others who were around at the time, there is no way to be sure. It's more important to deal with your current feelings, thoughts ; behaviors than to verify the original events. Focus on being healthy now no matter what may have happened in the past.

Difficult topic: This is a difficult topic with proponents on both sides. However, as someone who is treated hundreds of sexual abuse victims over the past 30 years, i would like to put my two cents in here. There is always the danger of worsening your current circumstances by uncovering the originalmemories. I think it is fair to say the things almost uniformly get worse before they get better but that the better is far better than if the memories were left alone.In my experience the majority of the memories have been corroborated. It is my experience that if there is any falseness to the memory, and remember the false memory syndrome is not a true syndrome, it would be that abuse occurred but that the unconscious had a reason to misidentify the abuser. So-called truth serum interview has been used very safely and successfully in this manner. Various hypnotic techniques and ideomotor signaling have also been used.The key is that this be done with an extremely experienced clinician and that you have the ego strength to deal with the outcome and a strong support network to deal with the therapy. Otherwise i would notpush it beyond simple journaling with the non-dominant hand.