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Louise

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Hi peeps

I got sent this terrific article on Rape Trauma Syndrome and wanted to share it with anybody here who's interested. Then I thought some of you might like to add articles too, so why don't we have a thread?

Put in anything of note that you come across os sexual abuse, SI, ED's, memory, therapy etc. You can also link to articles on your sites - I'm sure your wonderful minds have turned out some really good stuff. Just check that it hasn't already been added!

You never know, something you add might be very useful or healing for somebody else. We can also direct people who come looking for specific info related to survivorship to this thread.

L xxxx

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  • 4 weeks later...
Star of the Sea

The Compulsion to Repeat Trauma

I think this is a great article by Van der Kolk, because I think traumatic reenactment is a source of great shame and self hatred for many people and I think it really helps connect how it is an effect of having been traumatized.

ayelet

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  • 2 months later...

http://www.inpsyte.ca/priceg.html

Non-Rational Guilt in Victims of Trauma

Author:Gail M. Price, Ph.D.

The author is associated with the Trauma Clinic at Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston, MA

Abstract

"The guilt many victims of physical and psychological trauma experience in response to their victimization often contains non-rational content which, when analyzed, is more appropriate to the perpetrator. This non-rational perpetrator guilt is imposed on the victim under two primary conditions: 1) attribution, in which the perpetrator disavows guilt and blames the victim for the victimization; and 2) terror, which results in the victim's rapid incorporation of essentially the entire world view of the perpetrator, including the perpetrator's guilt. Guilt results when some aspect of a moral system is transgressed. There are four aspects of a moral system reflecting different levels of guilt and four basic components of guilt within each level. The perpetrator's violation of one aspect of a moral system may be processed by the victim at the level of another aspect, making resolution difficult. Resolution involves careful analysis of the content of the guilt to enable the victim to identify its source."

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Groliers Online Encyclopedia

http://www.ncwiseowl.org/

To access Groliers Online Encyclopedia free of charge- just click on Encyclopedia and then text only version (pop up window) and type in search term rape. It is the top return. This entry is one of the best overviews for the topic of rape that I have found. It covers recent aspects (date rape) as well as the history of rape in our society. It includes the concept that women are a legal possession of their spouse or father, information on date rape drugs such as rohypnol and ghb and the Bosnia rape trials.

Grolier's is much more comprehensive than Funk and Wagnalls. Both carry the same tone and mention feminism and its fight to improve conditions and rights of rape victims. Funk and Wagnall's statistics report that a rape is reported in the US every 6 minutes. It also mentions that in court "for the crime to constitute rape, the victim must resist, unless he or she is incapable of resistance because of mental or physical weakness or deterred by fear of bodily harm." Grolier's takes it a step further by explaining the history of rape in terms of underlying assumptions by our society. "The origin of rape laws can be traced to the once-wide spread belief that women were the property of men. A female was considered first the property of her father. Because her virginity was valued as her principal asset, rape was considered a theft. Once a woman was married, she belonged to her husband. Rape then was treated as a crime against the husband's exclusive sexual rights to her. Because marriage gave these rights to the husband, legally, it was not possible for him to rape his own wife." This statement points to flaws in the criminal justice system. The author of this site's general conclusion is that rape victims and researchers can get better information from internet resources that allow modern ideas on the subject to easily be expressed and updated.

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  • 1 month later...

http://cmsu2.cmsu.edu/public/classes/Kiger...20Reactions.pdf

copy paste this url into a browser (it is a pdf and wont open when double clicked for some reason).

this article is one of the best summaries for symptoms of assault victims that I've ever read.

Coping and Reactions Rape Trauma Syndrome

by Ann Wolbert Burgess and Lynda Lytle Holmstrom

Victims suffer a significant degree of physical and emotional trauma during the rape, immediately following the rape, and over a considerable time period after the rape. Victims consistently describe certain symptoms.

We define the cluster of symptoms that are documented here as the rape trauma syndrome. This syndrome has two stages: the immediate or acute phase, in which the victim's lifestyle is completely disrupted by the rape crisis, and the long-term process, in which the victim must reorganize this disrupted lifestyle. The syndrome includes physical, emotional, and behavioral stress reactions which result from the person being faced with a life-threatening event.

The acute phase:

disorganization

• Immediate Impact Reaction A prevailing myth about rape victims is that they are hysterical and tearful following a rape. We did not find this to be necessarily true. On the contrary, victims described and indicated to us an extremely wide range of emotions in the immediate hours following the rape. The physical and emotional impact of the incident can be so intense that the victim feels shock and disbelief. Two main styles of emotion were shown by the victims within the first few hours after the rape: expressed and controlled. In the expressed style. the victim demonstrated such feelings as anger, fear and anxiety. They were restless during the interview, becoming tense when certain questions were asked, crying or sobbing when describing specific acts of the assailant, smiling in an anxious manner when certain issues were stated. In the controlled style, the feelings of the victim were masked or hidden, and a calm, composed or subdued affect could be noted.

• Physical Reaction

• Rape is forced sexual violence. Therefore, it is not surprising that victims describe a wide gamut of physical reactions. Many described a general feeling of soreness all over their bodies. Others specified the body area that had been the focus of the assailant's force, such as throat, chest, arms or legs. o Sleep Pattern Disturbances In the acute phase, victims have considerable difficulty with disorganized sleep patterns, complaining that they cannot fall asleep, or if they do, they wake up during the night and cannot return to sleep. Those who have been attacked while sleeping in their own beds may awake each night at that time again. It is not uncommon for victims to scream out in their sleep.

o Eating Pattern Disturbances A marked decrease in appetite following the rape is generally noticed by victims. They may complain of stomach pains or describe loss of appetite or the food not tasting right. Frequently victims feel nauseated just thinking of the assault. It is important to determine whether these symptoms are related to the emotional reaction to the rape or are a reaction to an antipregnancy medication.

....

Summary

Rape trauma syndrome is the acute or immediate phase of disorganization and the longterm process of reorganization that occurs as a result of attempted or actual rape. The acute phase includes: (1) the immediate impact reaction (either expressed or controlled); (2) physical reactions; (3) emotional reactions to a life-threatening situation. The long-term process includes: (1) changes in lifestyle; (2) dreams and nightmares; and (3) phobic reactions. There are two variations to the rape trauma syndrome. In the compounded reaction to rape, the victim experiences not only these symptoms, but also a reactivation of symptoms of a previously existing condition. In the silent reaction various symptoms occur but without the victim ever mentioning that a rape has occurred. Crisis counseling is effective with victims developing typical rape trauma syndrome. Additional professional help may be needed for victims with compounded reactions. Counselors should be alert to certain clues that indicate the possibilities of rape even when the person never mentions such an attack.

Edited by pixie
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  • 2 years later...
oceangirl31

On earth, when you burn a living thing down, a new life grows in its place...it grows stronger, thicker and more lush than the living thing that resided before it. When a human receives a wound to its body, the tissue that grows over the wound is tougher and thicker than the original tissue. When we receive a wound to our spirit...we must choose...we can allow our wounded spirit to diminish and wither away and die.....or.....we can “in essence”, let our wounded spirit “burn down” along with the memories and plant new “seeds” of life and let them grow into a stronger and healthier spirit than the one before it.

Just as a living thing on earth will rise out of the ashes of the dead, and will grow faster than the life before it grew...we as humans have the potential to rise out of the ashes...a stronger and healthier person in mind, body and spirit.

As for me...I have risen out of the ashes once...a stronger person...and I will arise out of the ashes again...even stronger.

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  • 5 years later...

On earth, when you burn a living thing down, a new life grows in its place...it grows stronger, thicker and more lush than the living thing that resided before it. When a human receives a wound to its body, the tissue that grows over the wound is tougher and thicker than the original tissue. When we receive a wound to our spirit...we must choose...we can allow our wounded spirit to diminish and wither away and die.....or.....we can “in essence”, let our wounded spirit “burn down” along with the memories and plant new “seeds” of life and let them grow into a stronger and healthier spirit than the one before it.

Just as a living thing on earth will rise out of the ashes of the dead, and will grow faster than the life before it grew...we as humans have the potential to rise out of the ashes...a stronger and healthier person in mind, body and spirit.

As for me...I have risen out of the ashes once...a stronger person...and I will arise out of the ashes again...even stronger.

This is a nice message. Thanks for sharing.

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  • 1 month later...

On earth, when you burn a living thing down, a new life grows in its place....."

It IS a lovely thought, but for me I suspect that my best and strongest times may be behind me....and I need to let myself be at peace with that, so that I don't beat myself up for not healing....isn't that silly, to blame yourself for feeling bad, but blame seems to be the name of the game for survivors....

Who knows, things may get better for me....or not....I'm 58 now and not in good health.....the effects of the trauma don't seem to ever go away, but I have had times when I experienced beauty and felt loved, felt peace and so connected to nature, felt the magic going to Disneyland (I LOVE going there), the transcendent beauty in music (I'm a pianist)-I've met many people that I am glad to have known.....sometimes letting go of the expectations of what cannot be is part of life, for someone like me ........

I don't really know if people are stronger than they would have been if not for being traumatized-because no one knows what any of us would have been without the trauma, well no, I would have had a vastly hugely better life, immensely less suffering, and been able to just...well....just actually and easily live...assuming no other disasters occured....that's okay though.....we all go through the world and everybody has a cycle to their life....as I am getting older I see that when you are young you have not only possibilities but the desire to do things and grow....and for me it seems to have diminished...

Sometimes I wonder if I would have been better off not to have remembered-but then it feels to me as though a great heavy weight that I was carrying inside has been greatly lifted, is gone...it's just not there anymore.....I am not generally aware, as I am at this moment, of how much has been cleared out inside....and the words that come to mind as I write this are 'It's not your fault!' Those words are a blessed relief.....and 'You don't have to please anybody'.....

Anyway, just some thoughts!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Everyone needs to watch this. It was posted today, online, at www.theupworthy.com

It is about violence against women, men, children - sexual violence, physical, mental, emotional, all violence.

It is about putting the responsibility WHERE IT BELONGS.

ie: with the perpetrators.

It is about changing the way the world thinks and works and does things. Not only for today - but for as far into the future as we can go.

It is a 19 minute video. The presenter is a man. He is talking about a topic that has angered, confused and frustrated me my entire life and he is one of the men on earth who is actively working on TURNING the tide of violence against others around and making others STOP behaving violently, aggressively, and etc.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-ted-talk-that-might-turn-every-man-who-watches-it-into-a-feminist-its-pretty-fantastic-7?c=upw1

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 month later...

Thank u for sharing this great article. My rape trauma happened over 20 years ago n it still brings tears to my eyes reading about RTS.

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  • 8 months later...

This was a very detailed article and I think it's definitely worth a read.

Is the child victim of sexual abuse telling the truth?

It talks in detail about why victims don't tend to lie about abuse, and why perpetrators do lie about it, and the effects on the family from a helpfully objective viewpoint. And also about the signs of CSA and various other things.

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Interesting article Enairy! Thanks for sharing!

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  • 7 months later...
  • 3 years later...
Guest Lea92
On 8/6/2004 at 5:45 PM, Louise said:

I just read this article although it was from 2004.  I wish articles such as these could be part of sex education classes so survivors could see how they are affected, perpetrators could see their far reaching impact and supports to victims could be more compassionate.  Often we tell girls how not to get raped in school or on college campuses.  Men who are abused are not even really mentioned in information about rape and abuse.    What if the abuse happens?  The education stops there.  Articles like these should be read by men and women to understand the far reaching impact of their actions when they victimize someone and should be read by victims to understand the far reaching impact of the abuse they endured.  Family, friends and bystanders need to be aware as well to intervene and help or avoid learn why they should avoid saying "get over it!"  People are not educated and abuse and rape continue to happen at an alarming rate and survivors are so reluctant to speak out.  It was amazing ho many symptoms I connected with.  If you are new here and are passing by some older posts, this article is well worth the read for anyone who has been sexually abused, raped or assaulted or supporting someone who has been. 

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