What is Sexual Abuse?
Sexual abuse is defined as unwanted sexual behavior in which perpetrators utilize force, threaten violence, or take advantage of victims who are unable to comply. Most victims and perpetrators are familiarised. Shock, anxiety, or disbelief are common immediate responses to sexual abuse. Anxiety, fear, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are long-term symptoms. While efforts to treat sex offenders have been ineffective, psychological interventions for survivors, particularly group counseling, appear to be efficient.
Types of Sexual Assault
Sexual assault is a broad term that encompasses all sexual offenses.
- Rape
- Sodomy
- Attempted Rape
- Gang Rape
- Serial Rape (Committed by the same person again and again)
- Incest (Sexual exploitation or assault by a family member)
Types of Sexual Harassment
- Extortion occurs when the act asked of the individual is secure.
- An indecent act is done for humiliation, arousal, or sexual fulfillment
- Repeated sexual proposals directed against someone who has previously shown to the harasser that they are not interested in these offers.
- Repetitive statements about the individual’s sexuality when the person has already demonstrated to the harasser that they are uninterested in those remarks.
- Derogatory or humiliating statements about a person’s sex or sexuality, including sexual orientation
- Without the person’s agreement, publishing an image, film, or recording of them focused on their sexuality to embarrass or demean them.
How to Recover from Sexual Abuse?
- Cognitive processing therapy (CPT) assists patients in confronting painful memories and ideas related to sexual assault. A therapist will also take them through CPT to fix any maladaptive, unrealistic, or troublesome ideas that are causing PTSD symptoms.
- Prolonged exposure treatment focuses on any acquired behaviors that patients participate in or avoid in reaction to circumstances, thoughts, or memories related to sexual assault. The goal is that through engaging dreaded feelings, ideas, and events, individuals will learn that anxiety and fear will naturally diminish.
- Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment can also be beneficial in healing sexual assault trauma. To assist lessen the emotional impact of traumatic memories, this form of treatment employs rhythmic bilateral ocular stimulation.
