Mysterious Skin Sexual Abuse

The movie Mysterious Skin is a heart-wrenching movie of two young boys who endured sexual abuse as children. During the movie we get to see how this sexual abuse impacted their lives from adolescence to adulthood. The local baseball coach is incidentally the same man who sexually abuses both boys in this film. He sexually abused the boys through the use of seduction and manipulation. From the movie we can see that there is a connection between the two boys, but we are not fully informed of their story until the end of the movie, which occurred ten years post-abuse. I chose to look more into the character of Brian Lackey; the audience is first introduced to Brian when he is an eight-year-old boy living in Kansas. Brian is a shy and awkward kid

who is soft spoken and always keeps to himself. His parents were never model parents. His father forced him to play baseball, even though it was certainly not the boys’ forte, and preceding doing so, he became an absent and unsupportive father. His mother was comparable to a hovering “helicopter parent”, who is not only over-protective, but possessive as well. In 1981, Brain’s sister finds him in a closet where eight-year-old Brian is wearing his baseball uniform and suffering from a nosebleed. He is not sure what happened that day- five hours of his life is missing- the only thing he can recall is seeing a blue light. Brian continues to have nosebleeds quite often, and time escapes Brian again on Halloween night when Brian is separated form his sister. Brian, confused, tried to find a reason why he could not remember what happened during those hours. After he had an alien encounter with his mother and sister, he became convinced that aliens had abducted him and that was the reason he could not remember those missing hours. He was determined to figure out what happened to him, and with that he discovered that the other little boy he remembered through his dreams was named Neil. At the end of the movie, Neil and Brian are reconnected and Neil tells Brian the story of how they were sexually abused.
The town’s local baseball ball coach took advantage and abused his role when he sexually abused Brian Lackey at eight-years-old.

After a baseball game, Brian’s absentee father was a no-show to pick him up. The coach offered to take Brian home, as well as one of his teammates, Neil. However, before they could be driven home, the coach made a stop at his house. While in the coach’s house, the coach used Neil to manipulate Brian and make him believe that the sexual things were going to be fun and normal. During this time Brian becomes distant and just by looking into his eyes you can see him fading away. The second time we see Brian sexually abused was on Halloween night; Brian was scared of a haunted house, once he got separated from his sister he decided to walk through the woods alone. Brian runs into the coach, who once again sexually abuses him. Both times Brian see’s something blue and represses the memory of the sexual abuse. The symptoms Brian shows after both sexual counters are consistent with children who have gone through traumas. Brian has repressed the experiences and can now only remember a blue hand. He is aware of the fact that something happened, but can’t recall all of the details. Brian begins to experience a variety of symptoms: he wet the bed, had constant nosebleeds for ten years, and was scared of the dark. He does not understand his blackouts and suspected that aliens had abducted him. This is called traumatic amnesia, which is created to explain the

unwanted feelings Brian experiences when he has flashbacks or nightmares about the abuse. His social interactions are stunted by his obsessive quest to discover the missing periods of time within his memories; he does not allow anyone to be close to him and keeps himself isolated from people. He began to keep a diary of uncomfortable and detailed dreams about being abducted by aliens. When Brian is a teenager he finds a friend Avalyn, a young girl, who believed that aliens had abducted her too. When Avalyn makes sexual advances toward Brian, we see how he is fearful of sexual acts. This is when we see how Brian has repressed any sexual or outgoing behavior; he is stuck at eight-years-old. He avoided any situation that brought the same unwanted feelings that he felt while being sexually abused, which caused him to become asexual or sexually anorexic. Looking at Brian’s symptoms, after his sexual abuses occurred I would have to say he falls under both PTSD and Complex Trauma. Brian shows symptoms from each criterion in the DSM-V for PTSD, which had persisted for longer than a month. Brian also shows symptoms that are related to the criteria concerning Complex Trauma.
Treatments can vary and it is important to follow all treatment directions, as well as have to have the attention of the child’s parents.

Brian’s parents did not take notice or action when he displayed these symptoms. If they had, I believe Brian would have first gone to see a therapist. Since Brian is missing periods of time from his memory, the therapist would first start by trying to work with Brian to retrieve the repressed memories. They could use direct questioning, hypnosis, dream analysis, and attending survivors groups. I believe after Brian’s repressed memories are brought to light, the therapist would use TF-CBT (Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) when treating Brian’s trauma from the sexual abuse. Treatment starts with educating both the victim and the parents. This would really help Brian and his parents while hearing and learning about the sexual abuse. His mother could become very protective and it would be good for her to hear from a therapist about the steps necessary to help deal with the trauma in a positive way. Brian’s dad could blame himself for the abuse considering he was not around on day the abuse occurred. The therapist could help his father by explaining that we can’t focus on what he could of done but what he can do now to support Brian. Affect and regulation could help Brian identify the feelings he had towards the sexual abuse, but not by withdrawing or avoiding these feelings, which he currently does when he represses and avoids

certain situations. During cognitive coping Brian could learn how to handle situations of unwanted feelings or memories and stop to realize why it’s happening and what he can do to change those feelings. I think the personal narrative would help Brian put the sexual abuse into the correct chronological order and not have his only memory be flashes of what happened to him on that day. He would be able to open up and fit the pieces all together like a puzzle. Brian avoids the trauma by repressing the memories but this isn’t helping him, its only keeping the problem going. By completing TF-CBT he will be able to come to terms of what happened to him and face the memories he’s been repressing. Brian will be able to learn how to have interpersonal relationships and coping skills for the future.
If Brian’s sexual abuse was identified and treated in the early stages I believe he would have learned the skills to cope with his trauma. He wouldn’t have gone on believing aliens abducted him. Instead Brian would know how to manage the stressors and reduce the tension he feels when remembering the trauma. He would be able to voice his feelings and process why he feels that way, instead of repressing the memories. This treatment would have provided Brian with the knowledge and steps to form healthy social relationships and accept himself for who he is. The trauma of being sexually abused isn’t going to disappear after treatment, but it will help Brian come to terms and be able to use the procedures in a positive way to understand this traumatic event and cope with the feelings. He could go on to have a life in which he communicates well with people and can function in society.