SCIENCE AND EDUCATION ARE ESSENTIAL IN THE FIGHT TO SUPPORT SURVIVORS OF TRAUMA
Disclaimer: This page includes discussion of sexual violence including sexual assault and rape.
In PSYC 410, Mental and Behavioral Disorders, and PSYC 510, Child Mental and Behavioral Disorders, I learned about trauma and how the body responds to it. Trauma can be defined as actual or threatened death or injury, or an extremely distressing event that causes overwhelming amounts of stress in the body. Some examples of trauma include combat, disasters, victimization like sexual or physical assault, torture, and death. When someone experiences extreme stress, the body goes into what we know as fight, flight, or freeze. This is the body’s way of making a split-second decision on how we can best survive the stressor. Many are familiar with the fight or flight response, but is important to learn that freezing is another extremely common response to stress. People who have experienced trauma often experience the effects of it for years after, including increased anxiety and reactivity to stress, reexperiencing the traumatic event, avoidance of trauma-related stimuli, and dissociation.
When I first came to USC my freshman year, I got involved with a student organization called It’s On Us. It was part of a national movement created by President Obama that focuses on raising awareness of and combatting sexual assault on college campuses. Most of our work as a student organization focused on holding events on campus that raised awareness of sexual assault and the effects that this sort of trauma has on people, educating on what consent is, identifying situations in which sexual assault may occur and how to intervene, and creating an overall environment where sexual assault is unacceptable and survivors are supported. Some of these events included a processing circle with a counselor from the office of sexual assault and violence intervention and prevention (SAVIP), a candlelight vigil where survivors shared their stories, bystander intervention workshops, and open meetings where conversation about these topics was encouraged. Being a part of this organization, I learned more about the reality of sexual assault on campus and how survivors can best be supported.
My junior year I had the opportunity to join an intimate partner violence (IPV) research lab. Being a psychology student, I wanted to get involved in some research to gain experience in the field. I looked through a lot of professors who had current projects going on, and one immediately caught my eye. Dr. Suzanne Swan’s research focuses on social psychological theories and how these may predict interpersonal violence such as intimate partner violence and sexual assault. This is a topic I am very passionate about, so I was extremely excited to find a lab that focused on this work. I was lucky enough to meet with her and join her lab with a few other graduate students. In the lab, we worked on and discussed a variety of different things in the realm of intimate partner violence. I specifically worked for about a year and a half as a research assistant with one PhD candidate working on her dissertation on gender role change, relationship satisfaction, and intimate partner violence perpetration in Latino men. In addition to doing actual research, our lab often reads different articles or watches documentaries relating to this topic and have candid discussions on topics ranging from self-care to child sexual abuse. I learned a great amount about trauma from Dr. Swan and the different graduate students who have come through the lab, as many of them have specific training in trauma-informed care.
Throughout my time as a research assistant in this lab and as a member of It’s On Us, I’ve had the opportunity to learn about the way sexual trauma effects people. What I learned in PSYC 410 and 510 enhanced my understanding and allowed me to look deeper into these issues, plus what I learned about the freeze response informed my outlook on how survivors react to trauma. For instance, an issue that I’ve come across in both It’s On Us and my research lab is the idea of victim blaming. This is the idea that a victim is in some way responsible for the actions of perpetrators of violence. Many people who victim blame are simply uneducated about the topic of sexual assault and the psychology that goes into it. Something that we discussed in lab in response to a documentary we watched is the idea that unless a victim of sexual assault was physically and/or verbally fighting back, they must have consented to the interaction. This argument was being used by a police officer in the documentary who closed a rape case because the survivor had not physically fought against the rapists, therefore concluding that she must have consented. I knew that this was completely backwards, but I wanted to know and be able to explain why this idea is so harmful and incorrect. I remembered what I learned about trauma and the body’s response in my two classes. The freeze response is a response to trauma that is very common, often in cases of physical or sexual assault. When the body is in danger, like in the situation of sexual assault, it is highly likely that it will physically freeze and dissociate in order to best survive the trauma. Unfortunately, this is not something most people are aware of, including this police officer; most people just know fight or flight. What I learned in class informed me and gave scientific reason to something I knew was wrong. Because of that knowledge, I can now move forward knowing that I could scientifically back up an argument against victim blaming or similar circumstances in other situations, which is something I find to be incredibly important in educating and creating awareness around sexual assault. When dealing with a topic so heavy and uncomfortable to talk about, yet that affects so many, I believe it is extremely important that we educate each other with scientific facts and knowledge in order to effectively have conversations about sexual assault and other traumas and effectively support survivors.
Resources:
National Sexual Assault Hotline: Confidential 24/7 Support: 800-656-4673
https://www.rainn.org/resources
https://www.rainn.org/national-resources-sexual-assault-survivors-and-their-loved-ones