What Is Science Doing To Help Survivors of Sexual Assault?

TW: Please note: This article contains themes of sexual and emotional assault.

 

When humans are traumatized by a life event, we want nothing more than to get it together, shake it off, and be normal again. But it doesn’t work that way. The journey to normalcy is twisted, terrifying, and fascinating.

I became interested in trauma because I was sexually assaulted a decade ago. I didn’t process the assault until the Christine Blasey-Ford hearings triggered my memories last year. When the reality of the assault dawned on me, I suffered panic attacks and suicidal episodes. 

My reaction completely confused me, but it also ignited my curiosity.

How on earth did it take 10 years to see the obvious truth in front of me, and what was my brain even doing all that time? 

Turns out I was far from alone. According to Safe Horizon’s Bronx and Manhattan supervising social worker Jennifer Wyse, calls to the rape crisis institution increased by 500% during the Christine Blasey-Ford hearings. 

According to Keeli Sorensen, Vice President of The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN), the group’s hotline had its highest traffic day ever on the day that Blasey-Ford spoke to the Senate. People called to say they’d been assaulted as much as 60 years before, said Sorensen.

“Since the surge of news stories and the emergence of #MeToo over the past few years, it feels like conversations have truly been started, and brought with it a volume and speed at which we’ve never seen before of people reaching out, but also people talking,” said Sorensen in an interview. “They’re talking about the frequency that this happens…who it happens to, and the spaces in which it happens.” 

One out of six women is sexually assaulted in her lifetime. One in 33 men endures attempted or completed rape. Nearly half of transgender people have been assaulted in their lives. This does not account for other individuals with PTSD – those who have experienced war, horrible accidents, agonizing losses or otherwise.

There is good news, however. Dedicated scientists, psychologists, and crisis counsellors are researching new relief options for this curious neurological phenomenon every day.

I’ve learned a lot of reassuring things. For example, though it feels like an abstract mess, trauma is simply neuroscience – it’s molecules. It relieved me to learn that simple fact. How wonderful that it’s not the unplaceable, confusing miasma that it often feels like while you’re experiencing it. 

 

Perhaps the most hopeful thing I learned, however, is that trauma cannot be healed without being believed and supported. Our brains are wired to lean on one another and to seek comfort and validation. We’re not supposed to hide or bury our trauma or feel ashamed. That literally goes against nature. 

The Blasey-Ford hearings and the #MeToo movement – these national events triggered bad memories, but they also triggered a feeling of safety and validation for thousands of people so that they could share their stories. We leaned on each other, just as nature intended. We need to keep the conversation alive.

I’m so excited to share this knowledge in hopes that others will find comfort, too. Here’s what we know.

This is your brain on trauma.

Very simply, trauma represents a breakdown of communication between these parts of the brain below. You could rank them as the least evolved/most primal (reptilian brain) to the most evolved rational brain (neocortex). 

 

 

According to “The Body Keeps the Score,” a groundbreaking 2014 book by veteran psychologist Dr Bessel van der Kolk, a traumatic event lights up the reptilian brain where your survival instincts live.

A person can recover from the event pretty quickly if he or she is able to obey those brain signals. 

For example, if a scary dog snarls at you, the primal parts of your brain chemically signals: “run away!”

Let’s say you run, and then you realize the dog is actually chained up and you’re out of harm’s way. You’ve followed your brain’s signals to a T. The brain is then wired to recover pretty quickly. Stress hormones, like cortisol, dissipate. Your logical neocortex steps in and settles everything down. You move on, a bit shaken, but that’s that. Homeostasis achieved.

However, if you’re unable to follow your brain’s signals – if the dog had brutally attacked you, or if you are raped, or if you are abused physically or emotionally, or if you are in repeated violent combat – then your brain keeps firing of these very powerful, primal signals and stress hormones. When they go unabated, they wreak havoc. 

Your speech function shuts down. Your reptilian brain takes over, unable to access the helpful aid of the neocortex. Communication between your primitive, logical, and emotional brains gets recircuited and – to put it simply – messed up. 

When the event is over, we do everything we can to achieve normalcy. We can’t be traumatized because it doesn’t allow us to live in society. So we dull these feelings with drugs, alcohol, overcompensation, neuroses, self-harm, relentless self-shaming, dissociation from our bodies and fear of sex, depression, anxiety, or in the worst cases, suicide. It’s different for everyone. In my case, I denied that it was assault for 10 years.

“Who wants to believe they’ve been sexually assaulted?” said Wyse. “As human beings, our focus is on survival and maintaining our homeostasis and balance. We’ll do everything we can to achieve that…So when it happens, we have to have a template in our brain for what happened.”

If you don’t address the traumatic event or get support, that rewired mess becomes deeply embedded in your psyche. Your brain becomes frozen in the past, and intense feelings are triggered by unrelated events. I broke into a panic, for example, whenever our exterminator came to my apartment because I was alone with a strange man. He was perfectly professional, but my brain was stuck in an outdated loop.

From van der Kolk: “Flashbacks and reliving are in some ways worse than the trauma itself. A traumatic event has a beginning and an and – at some point it’s over…but for people with PTSD…constantly fighting unseen waves of anger is exhausting and leaves them fatigued, depressed, and weary…many people may not be aware of the connection between their ‘crazy’ feelings and reactions and the traumatic events that are being replayed. They have no idea why they respond to some minor irritation as if they were about to be annihilated.”

What is science doing?

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder became an official diagnosis in 1980, thanks to groundbreaking studies of Vietnam veterans. Pharmaceutical drugs and talk therapy were the only clinically accepted, mainstream solutions at the time.

Per van der Kolk, trauma specialists eventually accepted that that one size did not fit all. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and the lesser-known Eye Movement Desensitization Processing (EMDR) are now treatment options that may help patients face trauma and re-jigger mental associations. Yoga, massage, and meditation, and even equine therapy (bonding with a horse) can help victims reconnect with their bodies if they’re dissociated and can’t verbalize trauma, according to van der Kolk. MDMA and ketamine have been introduced into the therapeutic drug lexicon. The solution – or combination of solutions – depends entirely on the individual.

“Treatment of trauma has come a long way,” said to clinical and forensic psychologist Dr. Alice Berkowitz in an interview. “It’s absolutely heading into very holistic areas. We’re learning so much about the brain, what gets stimulated, and the kinds of neurotransmitters that go off when you’ve been traumatized and how to calm them.” 

The research goes on. Scientists use brain imaging of people experiencing traumatic flashbacks to study the neurological mechanisms at play. Experiments on mice are teaching us all the time about memory storage; through them, we have proven that inherited trauma (trauma passed through generations) is very real, and that bad memories are stored deep into the brain until they’re triggered. Mice are also helping us on a quest for a PTSD drug that is not habit-forming. It is a very active field. 

If you don’t know where to begin, you can call a confidential helpline like RAINN as a starting point.

“The hotline provides a space where people do not need to self-identify on any level in order to have an honest and meaningful conversation about this issue and how it’s impacting them. That means there are no physical barriers to having this service, there is no time barrier, you can call or chat with us any time day or night, it doesn’t have to meet a state definition for assault in order for us to help you, “ said Sorensen. 

RAINN can connect callers to their local resources and low-income or free options. The number is 1-800-656-4673. Yes, there are options, according to Sorensen. Do not let income or immigration status stop you from getting the help you need.

Can you “cure” trauma?

Unfortunately, there’s no short answer to this question, which is the worst thing to hear when you’re deeply suffering.

In the throes of my suicidal episodes, I begged the universe for a cure. I just wanted a lobotomy to remove the whole thing. (On that note, electroconvulsive therapy actually works for some people, and there is a last-resort deep brain stimulation procedure for extremely depressed people who have tried everything else. I would not have qualified for either). Trauma also messes with your concept of time, so I was convinced I’d feel that way forever.

“Traumatized people are not going to feel like this forever,” said Berkowitz. “It will take some time to integrate the memories and the PTSD and flashbacks, but you’ll feel like you’re stronger in your body and your mind.”  

You’ll never forget the traumatic event nor the feelings it gave you. However, you can live well in spite of it.

So, what the fuck do I do?

 At my lowest points, I wondered: if I’m going to live, and I’m going to try and get “through this,” whatever that means, what exactly is the goal? Am I striving to be “okay” with the assault? What good does it do me to examine these awful memories? 

Here are some steps that science has generally agreed upon.

1. See it for what it is.

According to van der Kolk: “The challenge is not so much learning to accept the terrible things that have happened, but learning how to gain mastery over one’s internal sensations and emotions. Sensing, naming, and identifying what is going on is the first step to recovery.” 

This first step might send you into a tailspin, as it did with me and many people who watched the Blasey-Ford hearings. The moment you grasp the enormity of the traumatic event, once you’ve brushed aside all the self-blame and justifications, you call it what it is…and that’s a huge pill to swallow. But you’re on the right track.

2. Rewire with professional treatment.

Here’s the wonderful thing about the brain: just as it can be rewired from trauma, it can be rewired to heal.

We build and shift neural pathways all the time. This ability, called neuroplasticity, helps us learn and grow. Sometimes, these pathways are no longer useful to us. The goal is to change those pathways so they’re not as harmful to us in the present. 

Here’s an example of a patient’s hypothetical experience. (TW: fictitious reference to emotional abuse) Let’s say Sharon becomes overwhelmed with anxiety anytime she has to write something – an email, a work document, anything. It’s a terrible problem because it comes up all the time in her life. She deeply believes that she’s bad at writing. 

Through proper treatment, however, she comes to grips with the fact that her ex-boyfriend emotionally abused her and made her feel incompetent over a period of years. He traumatized her, and now every time she pulls up to a keyboard, she is reliving that trauma. (end of reference to emotional abuse)

It’s incredibly shocking and painful for Sharon to see this for what it is. She may always feel upset and angry about it, but these emotions will feel much more manageable over time. 

But, looking at the source is only a part of it. Freeing herself from the source so that she can live a fulfilling life is the main goal.

 By exploring other options with a professional, eventually, Sharon can form new associations and neural pathways whenever she writes. Her current default is to think: “I am so terrible at this,” but with treatment, she may have more association options, like: “what if nobody is really picking apart my grammar?” “what if the guy reading my emails is nothing like my ex?” “what if I’m actually a decent writer?” “what if I just go with my first writing instinct, what’s the worst that could happen?” 

This is not an overnight process, but through repetition, new pathways are formed and relief can be achieved. 

3. Feeling safe, validated, and believed is CRITICAL to healing.

Good treatment does something incredibly powerful for a trauma patient: it makes the victim feel safe, believed, and validated. 

“A lot of the healing happens in having a connection with another person where there is respect, non-judgment, safety and trust,” said Wyse. “That’s the foundation.”

This is not only about giving patients a warm and fuzzy feeling. Trauma makes victims feel unsafe, which triggers unproductive reactions. In my case, I shut down and minimized what happened. Other people might lash out angrily. We may feel deep-down that nobody will believe us, or we may consider the abuser’s feelings and motivations over our own.

“Our brain makes associations all the time, and if we continually believe from others and ourselves that ‘I deserved it,’ ‘I’m dirty or I’m unworthy’ or whatever, it will perpetuate that belief and cement that belief. Part of counselling is to learn techniques to enhance new neural pathways,” said Wyse.

My therapist kept telling me I was assaulted, and that I had the right to be upset. She believed me. She wanted me to believe myself. Over time, I started to open up about it, because I felt safe and validated. 

I forced myself to tell my husband and a couple of friends (I’d never told anyone), and they all rallied in support. They wrote off the abuser forever. They believed me. They told me that it was okay to feel like shit. I was so stunned and profoundly grateful.

I still have trouble talking about it. But, for me, being believed and heard has been the most healing part of this. I now have permission to feel pissed at the abuser, to feel sad about what happened, but not to let it control my life in unseen ways. I have work to do, but my pathways have certainly changed, and I hope they keep changing. 

To the kid who thinks he’s alone, or the kid who thinks she’ll never ever ever feel okay again, or the kid who thinks nobody will believe him or understand: trauma is just molecules, and help is closer than you think.