The Psychological and Physical Effect of Rape
The effects of rape can include two types of traumas. It can be a deep psychological trauma as well as a physical trauma. Rape doesn’t necessarily involve physical force, although commonly rape victims report injuries and issues with their reproductive health. Victims often suffer lasting effects of rape, such as mental health concerns and diminished social confidence.
Physical effects
Both forced sexual assault and those not involving forcible submission, like drug-assisted date rape can have physical effects. Forced sexual assault frequently causes visible bruising or bleeding in and around the vaginal or anal area and bruises on other parts of the body from coercive violence. Rape can have other physical consequences, no matter what kind of rape it was.
The types of consequences are:
- Urinary infection
- Sexual transmitted diseases (STD) like HIV, syphilis, genital warts, gonorrhea, chlamydia, and more
- Painful intercourse (even with a significant other)
- Uterine fibroids (non-cancerous tumors in muscle walls)
- Unwanted pregnancy
Psychological effects
The experience of long and short-term psychological effects can appear in rape victims. Self-blame of rape is one of the most frequent psychological consequences. This will, in many cases, slower or stop their healing process.
Other types of psychological and emotional effects are:
- Flashbacks (reliving the rape in the memory)
- Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (sever stress and anxiety)
- Depression
- Eating disorder
- Sleeping disorder
- Borderline Personality Disorder
- Dissociative Identity Disorder
- Distrust in people
- Guilt
- Anger
- Feeling of personal powerlessness
Aftermath of rape
The aftermath of rape includes chronic psychological and physical effects. Victims of rape should receive comprehensive care for long and short-term effects. Victims of extremely violent rape, gang rape, or those who were repeatedly raped or were raped at a young age, they might need treatment for the rest of their lives.
Lai Dai Han
Victims like the women in the Vietnam war sadly didn’t get any mental or physical help. Traumatized victims had to give birth to mixed-race children, the so-called Lai Dai Han. The Lai Dai Han are treated bad in Vietnam for having Korean/ enemy blood. Their moms were pushed out of their homes for having “slept” with the enemy. They usually live in poverty until this day and they can’t afford any professional help. Their rapists are still walking freely, and Korea rejects all accusations of the war crimes that they have committed.