14 6. Trauma due to gender-based and sexual violence
PART I: POINTS OF DEPARTURE
6. Trauma due to genderbased and sexual violence
Aim. To understand how gender-based and sexual violence affect survivors, the importance of respecting survivors’ need for protection and confidentiality, and why it is difficult to talk about GBV.
Sexual violence is any sexual act that is perpetrated against someone’ s will, and involves a range of offences, including a completed non-consensual sex act( such as rape), an attempted nonconsensual sex act, abusive sexual contact( for example, unwanted touching), and non-contact sexual abuse( Basile and Saltzman 2009, p. 9). GBV is the umbrella term applied to any harm perpetrated against a person’ s will that results from power inequalities that are based on gender roles. In many countries the stigma of being raped can lead to punishment by the community, such as expulsion or even honour killing. This is why, as helpers, we must be extremely sensitive to a survivor’ s need of protection and confidentiality.
GBV is a distinctive form of trauma because the violation involved is extremely invasive and gives rise to feelings of shame, self-blame and guilt. When combined with fear of being injured or killed, it is traumatising in almost all cases.
After rape, the symptoms are in general the same as those described for severe trauma disorders. The initial shock reaction may last for minutes, days, or sometimes weeks. Extreme shock reactions may include panicked agitation and confusion, or a paralysed mute withdrawn state. Subsequently, if the survivor is injured, she will start to feel pain from her injuries. Feeling dirty is another frequent reaction, which often leads to compulsive washing. Fear of injury, sexually transmitted disease and pregnancy also appear early on.
Post – traumatic symptoms appear more gradually. Intense intrusive re-experiencing of the original trauma is characteristic, and is associated with simultaneous efforts to avoid reminders of what happened. The survivor is also likely to experience increased arousal, usually from the start, and may suffer from inability to sleep, hyper vigilance, or an exaggerated startle response. For some individuals, intense reactions in the first month thereafter slowly reduce even if no help or treatment is provided.
No person is alike and responses to traumatic events such as GBV will vary. Many women and girls who have had very difficult experiences are resilient. This resilience, and their ability to join together to support one another, are important resources to build on.( For more information on resilience, see Part III, page 128.)
It is important to remember that social or cultural stigma, together with psychological trauma, often prevent women and girls from seeking help after GBV.