While each person is affected differently the fallouts after the rape has occurred can last for many years to some small or large degree depending on your individual ability to process the traumatic event psychologically.

Behaviours often present in the acute stage of rape trauma include reduced alertness, numbness or dulled sensory and memory functions with disorganised thoughts content leading to feelings of anxiety. The obsessive need to clean yourself or your environment, confusion, crying or a sense of complete bewilderment. Hypersensitivity to the reactions of other people.

The outward adjustment phase in rape trauma is marked by the resumption of “normal life” again, however still may be suffering deep internal turmoil that may result in one or more common coping strategies and mechanisms such as pretending ‘everything is fine’ or minimizing the event or over dramatisation or over-explanation where the rape assault becomes the centre of all your focus, conversation or energy.

More frequently the suppression or refusal to talk about the rape that occurred happens which plays to a large degree as to why rape goes seemingly “unnoticed” by family and friends. The final common response is “flight”  which is the drastic and radical change in character or living environments in emotionally charged personally driven “quests” such as moving house, city, country or joining some extreme activity.

Over time poor health, anxiety, feelings of helplessness, hypervigilant, unable to entertain previously close relationships, overall nervousness or feeling of fear. Depression and erratic mood swings shifting between anger and hostility to remorse and regret is very common. Rape survivors often experience sleep disturbances such as infrequent vivid recurring nightmares, insomnia or the opposite chronic fatigue and constant exhaustion.

Dissociation or feeling disconnected from your body is a common thread. Reliance on other people as “coping mechanisms” sometimes in positive ways and other times in codependent destructive relationships. Self-harm, drug use, or alcohol abuse are frequent responses and may form part of the emotional coping strategy.