I think that OTD is a bigger issue now because people make it one. 20 years ago, how many schools or programs were there to deal with OTD teens? Not many. Now, everybody has a solution which they want to share with the world. Everyone seems to know what’s causing it, and knows how to fix it. It gets publicized much mroe because of this.
Abuse definitely is a terrible thing. Is it the only reason people go off? Of course not. However, there are different types of abuse. There is physical abuse, and there are mental or emotional forms of abuse. When I wasn’t frum, one of the main reasons I started down the path going off was two Rabbeim I had who treated me horribly. One constantly embarrassed me publicly. I asked him repeatedly to stop. I told him my classmates made fun of me after class because of it, but he didn’t want to listen. Just so you know, this a respected Rebbe in a major yeshiva. He’s been in chinuch for over 40 years.
The other Rebbe lied to me straight up, also embarrassed me, and couldn’t admit that he did something wrong.
These people made me decide that I wasn’t interested in being a “learning guy”. I said that if this was what learning full time made you, I didn’t want a part of it. I was then told by other people that if I went to college, I was throwing my life away, and would never amount to anything. I was told I wouldn’t be a frum Jew if I went to college.
I ended up spending about a year where I wasn’t frum. Didn’t keep Shabbos, didn’t keep kosher, etc.
Now, would you say this was caused by abuse? Definitely not physical abuse. You might consider it emotional abuse.