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Sexual assault trauma can have a significant impact on an individual’s neurological state that lasts well beyond the time period in which the traumatic event occurred. To lead a productive and fulfilling life, assault victims need to be able to get back to an emotional and physiological state where they feel safe. People who have lived through sexual trauma, however, often struggle to return to the parasympathetic state of calmness in their day-to-day lives, which can have lasting harmful effects on their brain structure, mental function, and memory.
An assault victim can also be re-traumatized by subsequent events when they attempt to come forward. We’ve seen this happen recently when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford gave her testimony about allegedly being sexually assaulted by Supreme Court Justice, Brett Kavanaugh. Dr. Ford was put in a situation where she could have been re-traumatized by this line of questioning and by lawmakers’ denial of her claims. In cases such as Dr. Blasey Ford’s, assault victims need to develop strong coping skills to endure life after trauma. To do this, survivors need to be taught to consciously regulate their physiological reactions to become more tolerant and resilient to repeated stress, so they can return their brains to a relaxed, parasympathetic state.
Brain Structure
Trauma causes the brains of sexual assault survivors to change, both structurally and functionally. Assault survivors need to get their brains back to a homeostatic state to get to a mental place where they can feel safe and function properly. Yet repeated traumas may cause victims to become hyper-vigilant. Depending on the critical time in development of the trauma, some traumas may be more debilitating than others. Repeated trauma may enlarge the amygdala, the region responsible for “flight, fight, and freeze.” Inhibited communication between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex, our executive functioning site, may occur with repeated traumas, thus allowing the traumatized person to react through the amygdala and not respond through the prefrontal cortex. To engage in a healthy lifestyle, humans beings need to be calm by breathing six cycles per minute, regulate skin temperature to above approximately 90 degrees, and access the right brainwave of sensory motor rhythm, between 12-15 hertz. Instead, many of us have been trained by our stressful environments or by repeated traumatic exposure to live our lives in a tense state with erratic breathing and constant sympathetic nervous system activation. In this way, we lose the ability to have control over our mental and physiological states. As educators and mental health professionals, we need to teach people how to regulate the symptoms of trauma, so they can live life and function at their fullest possible capacity.
Extensive neuroimaging studies on the brains of PTSD patients show that several regions differ structurally and functionally from those of healthy individuals. The amygdala, the hippocampus, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex play a role in triggering the typical symptoms of PTSD. PTSD patients with reduced hippocampal volume may lose the ability to discriminate between past and present experiences or appropriately interpret environmental contexts. This can result in a sexual assault victim tying specific things about their attack into their life, such as a particular place or time of year that they were assaulted — which can lead to survivors having mental “triggers” that lead to the sensation of re-experiencing the assault months or even years after the traumatic event took place.
Memory
Survivors often have a hard time putting their attack into words or remembering specific details of the assault, as the brain has coping mechanisms that can bury these memories so that attack victims are able to continue to function. What Dr. Ford did was quite brave, since being in a situation where the details of your assault are being publicly recounted and contested is highly stressful. In such a situation, the body tries to regulate itself, and the “fight or flight” mechanism kicks in, so standing up in a publicized hearing like Dr. Ford and giving testimony, you need to work against your own negative bias. In short, negative bias means that we are programmed for survival. When something bad happens, we remember it and are then programmed to handle situations of extreme duress after trauma. Unfortunately, if not balanced with self-regulation skills, the person may view the world from this negative and reactive perspective. Repeated trauma worsens this negative bias, and we then have to work harder to remember, appreciate, and act upon positive aspects of living.
We live in a world where many of us struggle to maintain a parasympathetic state. As mental health professionals, our goal needs to be to teach people how to become more tolerant to stressors. One way to do this is by teaching survivors to regulate their breathing, skin temperature, and heart rate variability. These basic biofeedback skills can be utilized on a daily basis or whenever stressors arise. Survivors such as Dr. Ford — who run the risk of being re-traumatized when they bring forward stories of their assault — need to use self-regulation skills to work through the panic and anxiety that comes with re-experiencing sexual assault. Sexual trauma may impact a person forever, but mental health professionals can help by listening to the story without judgment and teaching self-regulation skills to help cope with past, present, and future stressors. Listening activates the brain’s social engagement system, accessing necessary attachment and personal safety needs. Then teaching biofeedback skills activate the needed parasympathetic nervous system necessary for calmness and recovery. Finally strategically building healthier lifestyle activities, such as needed sleep, exercise, nutrition, spirituality, and meaning, help restore overall health.
