Rape Trauma Epidemic Analysis

(2012) conducted a follow-up assessment on women who survived at least one episode of sexual assault at least three months prior to receiving treatment; 86% of the sample had experienced at least one other traumatic event in addition to the index event. To be included and considered for treatment, the participants could have no current psychosis, substance dependency, or violent ideation.

After a person experiences sexual assault, the social reactions the survivor receives when they disclose their assault can cause posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Negative responses have the ability to deter a survivor on their recovery path and influence coping strategies that do more harm than help, and can discourage a survivor from seeking help from others. Positive reactions can provide a powerful effect against negative outcomes, could affect the sense of control over the recovery process, influence positive social coping skills, as well as reduce the symptoms of PTSD. These encouraging reactions improve adaptive coping strategies and perceived control over recovery, and in turn reduce the risk of maladaptive coping. However,

Sexual assault is something that can affect people emotionally, physically, psychosocially, psychologically, and even spiritually. As often as it occurs in society, the effects that sexual assault can have on an individual are all relatively similar. Sexual assault is any sort of sexually-based action in which one or more participants have not given consent. Often times, people refer to sexual assault as simply rape, however there are other dimensions to sexual assault which can include unwanted kissing, groping, or touching of any form. Emotionally, victims are conflicted about whether it is their own fault or if it the fault of the attacker. In many instances, the victim will blame themselves for what has happened to them. Physically, there is nearly always damage in the affected areas (vagina, anus, penis, breasts, etcetera) that can lead to painful tissue damage. There is also the risk of pregnancy or STD’s that the victim must be aware of. Psychosocially, the victim becomes distant with everyone they were once close to. Their level of trust declines dramatically, causing relationships with spouses, family, and close friends to crumble. Since the victims tend to push their loved ones away, often without giving any sort of reason, they can sometimes face isolation and a lack of support from those whom would usually offer council. The psychological effects are tremendous as well. Victims of sexual assault will often have severe anxiety, post-traumatic stress

(Oltmanns,Emery, 2015) A trauma may include rape, which in Melinda Sordino’s case is what she experienced. Melinda Sordino can be diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder, as opposed to acute stress disorder, because her disturbance after the trauma had lasted longer than a month. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder include intrusive re-experiencing, avoidance of reminders of the trauma, increased arousal or reactivity, negative moods or thoughts, and often dissociation. (Oltmanns,Emery, 2015) Weeks after the terrifying experience, Melinda Sordino experienced all of

This method is useful in trauma cases, which result to depression, anger and anxiety. It includes strategies and methods used to help individuals deal with past traumatic events in order to minimize anger and depression. Making an individual remember their past traumatic events enables them deal with their fears (Rizvi, Vogt, & Resick, 2009). The treatment period is dependent on the needs of a client and the healing progress. Edna. B. Foa is the scholar who developed the therapy program she based her study on the treatment of anxiety. Practitioners all over the United States have practiced her strategy on treating trauma caused due to rape, child abuse, motor

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the effectiveness of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) in treating rape victims suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a mental disorder that affects individuals emotionally, behaviorally, and psychologically. PTSD estimated to affect about 7% of Americans in a lifetime. The content of this paper is to analyze the history of CPT and how when used appropriately, it decreases PTSD symptoms. Additionally, this paper will include evidence in research using CPT amongst individuals with PTSD. In conclusion, this paper provides a mock initial

Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, And Policy, 8(5), 585-591. doi:10.1037/tra0000135 Mahoney, P., & Williams, L. M. (n.d.). Sexual assault in marriage: Prevalence, consequences and treatment of wife rape. Retrieved from http://www.ncdsv.org/images/NNFR_A20- YearLiteratureReviewandSynthesis.pdf NCADV. (2015).

In my third article by Lenore Walker discusses Battered Women and the impact caused on them from martial abuse that had led to Battered Women to be diagnosed with PTSD from the level of beatings, and constant abuse they took from their partners over the time of the relationship. Walker discusses five major areas that negatively affected with the women’s coping skills they are manipulation, dissociation, anger, intimacy, and compliance. When she was assessing women of the PTSD like symptoms she had come to notice a few things about the women, that lead to diagnose them with PTSD as the symptoms, as well as what triggered the responses are the same across the board for all those diagnosed with PTSD. She noticed that many of the victims would minimize the trauma or even deny it happened from the very start which is a common coping method that she had pointed out in her article. She also noticed that some of the women would almost go into a sort of trance like state in which they would gaze

Forms of sexual assault that are entailed under this definition include forcible sodomy, child molestation, attempted rape, fondling, and sexual intercourse ("Here's Your Talking-Points Memo on Campus Sexual Assault"). The effects of sexual assault on a survivor include emotional, psychological, and physical burdens that are potentially detrimental if they are not managed in a timely or proper fashion ("Effects of Sexual Assault | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network."). Devastatingly, the most common psychological effects of sexual violence are Depression, Self-Harm, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Dissociation, and Suicidal tendencies ("Effects of Sexual Assault | RAINN | Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network."). Depression is a mood disorder that occurs when prolonged feelings of hopeless and despondency surpass an extended period of time and can be triggered by experiencing highly traumatic events. It is expected that survivors of any violent act experience depression, however if this mental illness is not treated within an appropriate amount of time it may cause the victim to have difficulties finding joy in predetermined hobbies, and basic daily

Go back to a time in life where someone has taken advantage of you. It may be as simple as someone borrowing lunch money and never returning it. It may be more serious such as someone who is constantly using their friendship for personal gain. You may have an easy way with cutting the person out of your life, but for others it may be much harder. Violent Sexual acts happen more often in the United States than what the media publishes in the news. These victims must relive the event, or events that have taken place over a period of their life. When looking at the aftermath of the act itself, it is many times much more harmful to the victim (Ullman and Filipas, 2001). When people think of victims of sexual assault, they many times think

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is classified as an anxiety disorder that can develop after an individual has observed and/or experienced an extreme traumatic event that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury to one’s self or another (APA, 2000). An extreme traumatic event can include, but is not limited to, military combat, terrorist attacks, natural or manmade disasters, sexual assault, physical assault, robbery, and torture (APA, 2000). The type of traumatic event could influence the way in which medical and mental health care professionals assess, conceptualize, and subsequently treat the individuals with a PTSD diagnosis. For this reason, sexual

Existing controlled examinations of intervention efficacy specific to only sexual assault and rape are presently minimal in comparison to intervention examinations of combination or other types of trauma (Regehr, Alaggia, Dennis, Pitts, & Saini, 2013). Psychotherapeutic interventions that fail to differentiate sexual assault and rape victims from other types of trauma victims may decrease the treatment effectiveness or inadvertently harm participants in this subgroup. Trauma associated from rape or sexual assault differs from other forms of trauma and treatment efficacy should be examined in this manner. Trauma from rape or sexual assault entail symptoms of PTSD, depression, suicidal ideations and sexual dysfunction. Individuals may also indicate feelings of vulnerability, loss of control, fear, shame, self-blame, societal blame and stigma (Russell & Davis, 2007; Regehr et al., 2013; Ullman &Peter-Hagene, 2014). This research proposal intends to explore the long term effectiveness of Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) at reducing distress and trauma explicitly for adult victims of sexual assault and rape.

Unfortunately, this despicable crime happens all too often. In fact, an annual number of 321,500 men and women of the United States experience rape and sexual assault, as reported by RAINN. Despite this alarmingly high statistic, the number of reported rapes is equally concerning. Of 1,000 sexual assaults, only 310 were brought to the authorities. Because of this, many victims suffer with the memories of the trauma. Not only is this detrimental to their mental health, but victims who do not disclose their experiences also take on a physical toll. In The Secret World of the Brain, Catherine Loveday states that, “excessive cortisol has also been linked with diabetes, weight gain, cardiovascular disease, fertility problems and dementia” (60). Cortisol is the hormone that is released to induce stress. After experiencing trauma, such as a rape, the human brain produces an ample amount of this hormone, which is what happens to countless survivors of rape and sexual assault especially when they do not report their rape. These are only some of the effects that victims of rape and sexual assault may deal with. This is why it is imperative that victims report the crime to authority. However, there are many factors that influence a victim’s decision to report a rape or keep it a

Victims can exhibit all sorts of mental and emotional reactions to the unwanted violation of assault. Mentally, the most common effects are PTSD, depression, and dissociation, all of which are not remediable overnight and ordinarily require outside help (Effects of Sexual Assault and Rape, 2017). Outside help includes speaking with a psychiatrist. However, the healing process is lengthened unnecessarily because it takes at least a year for 75% of child victims to tell someone what happened (The Assessment Center, 2016). For all ages, this waiting time before attempting to receive help serves the prevention of the healing process, thus prolonging the span of time spent in pain.

Existing controlled examinations of intervention efficacy specific to only sexual assault and rape are presently minimal in comparison to intervention examinations of combination or other types of trauma (Regehr, Alaggia, Dennis, Pitts, & Saini, 2013). Psychotherapeutic interventions that fail to differentiate sexual assault and rape victims from other types of trauma victims may decrease the treatment effectiveness or inadvertently harm participants in this subgroup. Trauma associated from rape or sexual assault differ from other forms of trauma; treatment efficacy should be examined once this matter has been taken into consideration. Specifically, trauma associated from rape or sexual assault entail symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, suicidal ideations and sexual dysfunction. Individuals may also indicate feelings of vulnerability, loss of control, fear, shame, self-blame, societal blame and stigma (Russell & Davis, 2007; Regehr et al., 2013; Ullman & Peter-Hagene, 2014). This research proposal intends to explore the long term effectiveness of Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) at reducing distress and trauma explicitly for adult victims of sexual assault and rape.