The price-tag of these incestuous experiences is very high with in the family and the lives of the individual victim. Many symptoms and behaviors are associated with the experience of incest. The following is a short list of the most prevalent and pervasive problems faced by the victims.

The Repercussions of Incest

• low self-esteem;
• anxiety disorders and chronic depression;
• eating disorders;
• drug and alcohol abuse;
• borderline and narcissistic personality disorder;
• sexual dysfunction;
• abusive marital relationships where the pattern is frequently repeated
• Incestuous relations in the family of creation.
• Interpersonal (ability to enter and maintain satisfying intimate relationships is lacking)
• Cognitive – increases in compulsive thoughts, ruminations, and thought loops that are self-destructive and self-defeating
• emotional (difficulty managing and regulating emotions, challenges in emotion recognition and utilization of emotions in effective ways)

Incest as a family dynamic creates fear of abandonment and safety as well as bringing into question if one isn’t somehow fundamentally flawed. Traumagenic family members that have dealt with incest many times discover that they lack the ability to allow significant others, especially future partners, to nurture or give to them. This rigidity creates an almost compulsive caretaking role in the relationship or a constant approach avoidance dynamic that allows them to create and maintain emotional distance. The repercussions of incestuous behavior in a family may well be felt for generations, and certainly will bear a relational weight on all future relationships for the victim.