First, let us think about the basics. A sexual assault is very scary and traumatic event. So scary another part of your brain takes over and starts making decisions. Think Discovery Channel, Animal Kingdom part of your brain. In a way this is good, it is the part of you that knows how to survive… did survive. In a very scary situation a person has very limited options on what to do. Fight, Flight, or Freeze. And your brain has to make this decision in a split second.
Fighting, if the attacker was larger, or had any type of physical advantage, may not always make sense. Flight, really how fast can a person run, and would it make sense to take that chance? So the last option is freeze.
To explain, have you ever seen a opossum play dead? They freeze in survival mode. Story about me - I use to have this huge German Shepard (the sweetest dog in the world but she did not look it) and one night I let her out in the back yard to use the bathroom. I went back a few minutes later to let her inside and she trots into the house with this opossum in her mouth!!!! I made her take it outside and drop it out there, and I felt soooo bad thinking that she had killed it. I watched as it lay there but I couldn’t see any blood at all. Five minutes later that thing jumped up and scampered off, having survived the whole ordeal. Opossums know they can’t run or fight well, especially a huge dog, so they play dead until the threat passes.
Just like the opossum, you saw a huge threat, and your brain and body took over making the decision to freeze in order to survive. But even though you “survived” does not mean that you were not harmed physically and emotionally. A sexual assault affects a person in a magnitude of different ways and it is important that you get the help and support you need to not only “survive” but thrive in your life moving forward.
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