Effects On Victims

EFFECTS OF SEXUAL VICTIMIZATION:

Sexual assault crosses all barriers, including age, race, religion, sexual orientation, economic status, and geographic location. While every survivor of sexual assault is unique, there are many common responses and effects to being assaulted. Not every survivor will experience all of these effects and may demonstrate responses to these effects in a variety of ways. Some survivors may initially respond in an "expressive" manner, which can include sobbing, shaking, hyperventilating, and displaying strong or intense emotional responses; while other survivors may respond in a "controlled" manner, which can include detachment, numbing, and very little expression of emotions.

INITIAL EFFECTS:

  • Shock, disbelief, disorganized thinking, difficulty remembering all parts of the assault

  • Crying, emotional numbness, moods or emotions shift quickly

  • Physical soreness, nausea, stomach or pelvic pain, loss of appetite, shaking, headaches

  • Fear, hyper vigilance, jumpiness, restlessness

  • Anxiety, anger, irritability, depression

  • Shame, self-blame

  • Difficulty sleeping, eating, concentrating, and performing normal tasks

  • Nightmares, flashbacks, preoccupation with thoughts and feelings about the assault

  • Attempting to avoid people, places & activities that trigger memories of the assault

ON-GOING OR PERSISTENT EFFECTS:

  • Survivor moves out of shock and attempts to "get back to normal" or "move on"

  • Generalized fear, hyper vigilance, irritability, difficulty sleeping

  • Nightmares, flashbacks & panic attacks may persist and even worsen

  • Emotional flooding alternating with emotional numbing

  • Inability to withstand normal life stressors, social isolation

  • Survivors may develop longer-term and more complicated symptoms over time, including depression, suicidal thoughts and/or actions, anxiety, addictions and compulsions, lack of trust in relationships, difficulty with intimacy, sexual acting out or promiscuity, low self-esteem

(Sources used: Burgess & Holmstrom; Sutherland & Scherl; Ledray-1986)

EFFECTS FOR SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE/INCEST:

(INITIAL) EFFECTS FOR CHILDREN AND/OR TEENS:

  • Increased fears and anxiety, including hyper alertness and clingy behaviors

  • Shock, confusion and/or denial about what actually happened

  • Problems sleeping, nightmares

  • Aggressiveness, behavior problems and/or changes, overly intense need to please

  • Inappropriate sexual behaviors

  • Decreased self-esteem

  • Regressed behaviors, including bed wetting or acting "baby-like" (after these stages have been outgrown)

  • Somatic (bodily) complaints

  • Decreased concentration

  • Increased isolation

  • Loss of appetite

  • Avoidance of reminders

LONGER-TERM EFFECTS FOR ADULT SURVIVORS OF CHILDHOOD SEXUAL ABUSE/INCEST:

  • Depression

  • Anxiety disorders and/or phobias

  • Suicide attempts and/or other self-mutilating behaviors, such as cutting

  • Lowered self-esteem and self-worth

  • Intense guilt and shame

  • Decreased capacity to self-soothe or manage life stressors

  • Feeling unworthy of healthy relationships, isolating

  • Eating disorders (binging, overeating, purging, starving self)

  • Substance Abuse, addictions

  • Somatic (bodily) complaints and/or chronic health problems (gynecological, gastrointestinal, fibromialgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome)

  • Sexual dysfunction and/or sexual acting out/compulsivity

  • Problems with sexual intimacy (fear of being vulnerable, not able to trust)

  • Personality disorders (Dissociative Identity Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder)

( Briere, 1993; Briere & Runtz, 1988; Browne & Finkelhor, 1986; Green, 1993; Herman, 1997 & 2000.)