Controlled: The victim may seem calm and appear as nothing happened.

Expressed: This is characterized by hysteria, agitation, crying spells, and anxiety attacks.

However, the response of rape victims has been categorized into the following: Studies suggest that rape victims react differently to their respective unpleasant rape incidents. However, these symptoms may persist into the outward adjustment stage. Immediate symptoms occur and may persist for a couple of days to a few more weeks. When this stage may occur and last is disproportionate and may vary across individuals. In some people, it occurs weeks after the abuse. This stage happens days after the rape incident. Rape trauma disorder is made up of five identified stages of mental and emotional trauma that rape survivors pass through and they are namely: Some victims may become paranoid and may feel a pervasive fear of other people. They also develop certain fears pertaining to certain characteristics of the assaulter or the place of the assault, such as hair colour, smell, type of clothing, type of car, etc. Subconsciously, victims of rape tend to develop phobias, and the common phobias they develop are as follows: Rape survivors oftentimes adopt unhealthy behaviours such as having many sexual partners without protection, avoidance behaviour, self-injury, and alcohol and substance abuse, all in the bid to cope with the psychological trauma of rape. This may be a result of the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the victim may be going through because PTSD and rape trauma disorder is believed to be linked to the development of some physical health conditions. Physical Health ProblemsĪ number of rape survivors especially females may experience some chronic physical conditions such as pelvic pain, digestive conditions, non-epileptic seizures, more intense premenstrual symptoms, reproductive health problems, low sec drive, and arthritis. These feelings tend to subside over time for some survivors but then, others may not recover easily and the psychological distress will persist for months or even years. There are societies that victim shame female victims of rape and shame male survivors for getting raped. This is according to the environment the victim finds themselves. The stigma that accompanies rape may contribute to the shame the victims may feel. This may include strong emotions of fear, guilt, anxiety, depression, anger, shame, guilt, and sadness. Many rape survivors suffer from rape trauma disorder, which can be compared to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after the incident.

Rape trauma may result in the following: Psychological Changes as a result of rape trauma disorder This is to say that rape can happen to anyone and the only cause of rape is the rapist. There are also cases of men being assaulted by men, women being assaulted by women, children, and infants being assaulted by older individuals and older individuals being raped by younger persons. However, more awareness of men also being victims of rape too and women, the perpetrators have been created in the last decade. The world has come to accept that women are mostly victims of rape and men are mostly the perpetrators.

Rape trauma disorder can occur and persist for months or years, and may even leave scars for a lifetime. Rape trauma disorder is defined as a group of mental, emotional, and physical that most rape victims go through after a rape incident of sexual assault. It is when a person has sexual intercourse with another without his or her consent. Rape or sexual assault is a serious crime. Have you ever tried to imagine what rape victims go through afterwards? If yes, then you may need to know about Rape Trauma Disorder.

Rape trauma syndrome