Trauma Triggers & Sexual Assault

Yes, Sexual assault is bad. If you’ve been sexually assaulted, you might have typical trauma responses: thinking and not thinking about it, confusion, disorientation, depression, and hyperalert distrust. If you were unloved and mistreated as a child on top of it, you likely live with shame, insecurity about love, and ambivalence about any desire for love, which you can’t trust.

Not thinking about it is a trauma response. Another word for that is dissociation. When you try not to think about it, it’s because you don’t want the bad thing(s) that happened to be real or true. But they are. So, all the ways you feel about what happened (and are trying not to) still exist.

If you can’t think about it, you can’t talk about it. Talking makes it real. The feelings try to come up. You might want to talk, but stop yourself. This creates a huge battle inside. Not talking or trusting means you’re hypervigilant. Careful. Watchful. At all times. You can’t let your feelings or memories into your mind. But keeping those memories dead is not as easy as just “not thinking about it.” Something can stir them up. Talking does. Anything that reminds you is a trauma trigger.

Trauma triggers mean your ways of dealing with the assault (not thinking about it) aren’t working. You need someone who knows how to help you. Someone kind, who knows how to listen.

This is where healing begins. With someone you can tell anything to. Someone without judgment. Someone who isn’t as scared as you are. Someone who understands how hurt you are.

If you’d like to read more about sexual assault triggers, click here for my post on SORRY, BABY.