Mental Health Awareness Month serves as a crucial time to shed light on the various factors that can profoundly impact our emotional and psychological well-being. Among these, domestic violence (DV) and sexual assault (SA) stand out as deeply traumatizing experiences that can leave lasting scars on survivors
Let’s delve into some of the ways DV and SA can impact mental health:
Shared Burdens: The Mental Health Impacts of DV and SA
The trauma inflicted by both domestic violence and sexual assault can trigger a range of similar psychological responses. Here are some of the common mental health challenges survivors may face:
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can significantly impact an individual’s life through a combination of distressing symptoms. One core feature involves intrusive memories or flashbacks, where the traumatic event is repeatedly re-experienced. They can feel incredibly vivid and real, as if the person is reliving the event in the present moment. They may also avoid situations, people or places that remind them of the traumatic event. PTSD can significantly weaken a person’s ability to function in daily life and maintain healthy relationships. This can especially occur in the Deaf community when they may see their former abusive partners there, since the Deaf community can be so small.
Depression and Anxiety: Feelings of persistent sadness, hopelessness, loss of interest, and excessive worry are common among survivors. Anxiety can be presented as panic attacks, social anxiety, or generalized anxiety. For the Deaf survivors communication barriers can fuel feelings of isolation and make it harder to seek help. Survivors of sexual assault are also at an increased risk of developing depression and anxiety.
Substance Use: To deal with the intense emotional pain and distress of abuse, some survivors may use alcohol or drugs, which can unfortunately create a cycle of dependence and complicate their mental health recovery. Some Deaf survivors may feel lonely and feel like they can’t trust anyone, so drugs or alcohol may be the next resort.
Social Isolation: Shame, fear, and the emotional toll of the abuse can lead survivors to withdraw from social interactions and isolate themselves from friends and family. For Deaf individuals, communication challenges and limited sign language access can intensify their feelings of isolation.
Low Self-Esteem: Abuse can destroy a person’s self-worth and value. Survivors often take the abuser’s negative messages to heart and form negative self-beliefs, impacting their relationships, their ability to pursue goals, their mental health, and their overall sense of identity long after the abuse has ended. Hearing abuser can also cause some negative self esteem to the Deaf victims, leading them to believe they can’t do anything simply because they are Deaf.
Suicidal Thoughts: The overwhelming pain and hopelessness resulting from DV and SA can, in some cases, lead to suicidal ideation. It is critical to recognize the signs of suicidal thoughts and provide immediate access to mental health support. Ensuring that crisis hotlines and mental health services are accessible through video relay services (VRS), text-based options, and in-person interpreters is a matter of life and death. Survivors of sexual assault may experience thoughts of self-harm or suicide.
Additional Mental Health Impacts:
- Emotional Regulation Difficulties: Survivors may struggle with managing their emotions, leading to outbursts or difficulty in calming down.
- Dissociation: Feeling detached from one’s body or emotions as a coping mechanism.
- Numbing: A lack of emotional response or feeling.
- Difficulty Reading Social Cues: This can impact future relationships and social interactions.
- Changes in Physiological Arousal: Traumatic events can cause lasting changes in physiological arousal, emotion, cognition, and memory
- Self-Blame: Survivors of domestic violence may blame themselves for the abuse they received and can become self-critical.
It is so important to recognize how people’s mental health is impacted, every one and individual has different experiences, it’s important to get the help we need.
