What Will It Take for Survivors of Abuse to Heal?

"About one in six women in the US will experience an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime, but 63 percent will be dealt with privately, often without reliable outside support. This is why watching and listening to Jeffrey Epstein's survivors come forward with their stories is astonishing. The media are focused on the importance of criminal prosecutions and the pursuit of justice, but will real healing ever be possible?"

"What does the statistic one in six mean? The last group fitness class I attended would have had at least two other women in the room besides myself who have survived an attempted or completed rape. This number does not include sexual harassment; this incidence goes up to around 80 percent of women. Four out of five. Sexual trauma happens to a stunningly large number of people, which makes it common, and common is often confused with normal."

"Once something seems normal, it will not be seen as a problem. We look to extreme, violent examples of sex trafficking to understand sexual assault as a "real" crime. Many women compare their experiences with extreme cases and decide that what happened to them wasn't that bad. They go on to ignore their own trauma symptoms, or sometimes self-medicate in ways that lead to addictions and compulsive behaviors. Maybe they decide to tell someone."

About one in six women in the US will experience an attempted or completed rape in her lifetime, yet 63 percent of those incidents are handled privately, often without reliable outside support. Sexual harassment affects around 80 percent of women. Sexual trauma is common and often mistaken for normal, leading many survivors to minimize their experiences, ignore trauma symptoms, or self-medicate toward addictions and compulsive behaviors. Survivors who disclose are frequently disbelieved, harassed, threatened, and scrutinized in hearings, workplaces, and community settings. Leaving violent relationships is especially dangerous: 75 percent of domestic violence-related homicides occur upon separation, and risk remains high for an average of two years.

Read at Psychology Today