Sexual Harassment — Processing After an Assault

Something happened that should never have happened. Someone crossed a boundary that was inviolable. Your body knew it in the moment it occurred — long before your mind could make sense of it. Perhaps it froze. Perhaps it looked away. Perhaps it laughed, because there was no other way out. Perhaps it drew everything together inside itself and waited until it was over.

And since then it has been carrying it.

Perhaps it shows as constant tension in the neck and shoulders, as if you are permanently bracing for an invisible blow. Perhaps as tightness in the chest that takes your breath away when certain smells, voices, or spaces reach you. Perhaps as numbness — a feeling of not being entirely in your own body. Perhaps as nausea when someone comes too close. Perhaps as sleeplessness, as startling, as that sudden chill that overtakes you even though it is warm.