Rape: Feelings & Stages Following a Sexual Assault

By Johanna Sparrow

Rape or a sexual assault, for many, can be a shameful and embarrassing experience. There seems to be an ongoing battle to stop the misuse of force and sexual assault on another person. The truth is that anyone can be raped or suffer a sexual attack at the hands of someone they know or by a stranger. The face of a rape victim is never easily recognized and can be any gender and any age. No one class of people or gender is raped more than any others.

The emotional state that a rape victim has to cope with on a daily basis—while still living and functioning in their day-to-day life as if nothing ever happened—is something that’s truly difficult to understand unless it has happened to you. Unless you have been raped, you may never understand how thousands of lives are altered each year.

Dealing with trauma is never easy, especially when it stems from a rape or sexual assault. You should never blame yourself, but you do. The hardest part of getting over a rape is self-blame, hurt, fear, and the silent and deafening screams you can never get out of your head. For many victims of sexual assault or rape, the pain can be deep, and the trauma may remain a secret for many years. The worst part of overcoming such an event is worrying about what others will think about you. Long after a rape or sexual assault has taken place, the suffering continues for its victims.

If I can overcome the trauma of rape, so can you. My intention is to teach you how to overcome and deal with date rape and other forms of sexual assault, so that you can come out the other side stronger and more victorious than ever before.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Johanna Sparrow
• Release date: Oct 24, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463344712

Johanna Sparrow

Antoinette M Watkins writes under the pen name Johanna Sparrow, she has been writing for over 17 years and has published a variety of books from children's books to self-help books dealing with relationship, personal growth and conflict issues. She uses her expertise, knowledge and experience on a system she's created and used over the years dating back as far as 1995 in improving relationship issues, called the (HBCCR)© Heart Bruised Conscious Connection Renewal codes which we either have or don't have inside of us. When she is not writing self help books she writes Novels and Novella under the pen name SPARROW.In 2015 Johanna Sparrow will release for the first time her powerful and inspiring HBCCR system she's created for the rest of the world in hopes that we all can find a common goal or ground within our daily connections. She has researched and studied over the years connections between human to human and human to nature interactions in which she concluded in her research how understanding ones connections and disconnections in life is the essential step code and laws for love, happiness and tragedy, governing and guiding us in becoming life's greatest or worse creation to ever exist.

Book preview

RAPE

Feelings & Stages Following a Sexual Assault

JOHANNA SPARROW

Smashwords Edition

RAPE: Feelings & Stages following a sexual assault © 2018 Johanna Sparrow

All rights reserved.

WWW.JOHANNASPARROW.COM

Edited By: Jody Amato

CONTENTS

Introduction

Understanding Rape

Your Truth

The Thought of Rape

Bully Rapists

Healing

Love and Support

Forgive Yourself

Will They Believe Me?

Feels Like Death

I Keep Seeing the Assault

Letting Go of it All

Brighter Days Ahead

Feelings and Stages Following A Sexual Assault

INTRODUCTION

Every day, people of all ages are raped. Rape and sexual assault can happen to anyone. Many of these rapes could not have been prevented. The growing amount of information we have each year concerning rape and date rape—and the increased social awareness—has slowly allowed those who didn’t have a voice to speak and not be afraid to come forward. Only a coward rapes or takes the life of another. Date rape is one of the forms of rape that’s experienced by girls and women every day. Although many reports pour in daily, there is still a large number of women, girls, boys and men who are raped without ever reporting it. The number of women who do not report date rape may outnumber the many that do.

Rape, for many, can be a shameful and embarrassing experience. There seems to be an ongoing battle to stop the misuse of force and sexual assault on another person. The truth is that anyone can be raped or suffer a sexual attack at the hands of someone they know or by a stranger. The face of a rape victim is never easily recognized and can be any gender and any age. No one class of people or gender is raped more than any others.

I know, as a rape victim, that it’s never comforting to be told it will be okay or just get over it! How does a person get over something that was taken from them? How does a person know they will be okay when they suffer mentally and emotionally from something that was never their fault? It has always angered me to hear such words. Or, even worse: you asked for it or should have known better.

The emotional state that a rape victim has to cope with on a daily basis—while still living and functioning in their day-to-day life as if nothing ever happened—is something that’s truly difficult to understand unless it has happened to you. Unless you have been raped, you may never understand how thousands of lives are altered each year.

This world may never be free of date rape and other sexual assault, but I pray to God that more help comes for all raped victims. The goal is to understand and learn what to do if you suspect that you have been a victim of date rape or a sexual assault, as well as learning how to cope each day with the residue left behind by such an incident. Overcoming date rape or a sexual assault is never easy, but it’s done every day by others like yourself. A victim no more is the road you are aiming for, and that road is closer than you think.

Dealing with trauma is never easy, especially when it stems from a rape or sexual assault. You should never blame yourself, but you do. The hardest part of getting over a rape is self-blame, hurt, fear, and the silent and deafening screams you can never get out of your head. For many victims of sexual assault or rape, the pain can be deep, and the trauma may remain a secret for many years. The worst part of overcoming such an event is worrying about what others will think about you. Long after a rape or sexual assault has taken place, the suffering continues for its victims.

If I can overcome the trauma of rape, so can you. My intention is to teach you how to overcome and deal with date rape and other forms of sexual assault, so that you can come out the other side stronger and more victorious than ever before.

CHAPTER ONE

UNDERSTANDING RAPE

The word victim can elicit fear in many of us: it means something bad has happened in someone’s life, and most people cringe when hearing that word. Many people keep their pain tucked away inside them and carry on as if nothing ever happened. Date rape has the effect of making you feel guilty over the actions of another person. The first thing a date rape victim should do is go to the hospital or the police station. Besides making sure you are okay, it’s a chance for the police to get information about the person who committed the crime.

Who are the victims of rape? Some people will tell you that the victim, or the face of a rape victim, is a female roughly between the ages of newborn and elderly. But a rape victim can be anyone and anybody.

People have many ways of hiding their pain. I have friends who are very happy people when you are around them; you would never know that something tragic happened in their lives. They simply don’t show it or talk about it! I’ve always battled with understanding how differently people handle bad things