PTSD From Sexual Assault

[Seraphexa]

I’ll try keep this short as I don’t really want to go into details, but when I was 15 I was assaulted by a boy at school and I’ve been diagnosed with PTSD from it, and had a ton of counselling and therapy, but I still get these little flare ups whenever a remotely uncomfortable situation involving a man comes up. For example, a boy from school (not the one who attacked me) messaged me saying he remembers me and we were in a shop recently and “looked at each other”, bit weird as we haven’t spoke in 7 years and I was with my fiancé, but it’s really scared me and I’ve blocked him but I am so anxious right now, I live in fear of him tracking me down and attacking me or something and I know that’s irrational. Does anyone have any ideas how I can stop these thoughts from coming back? I’ve tried talking to my fiancé but he really doesn’t get it and just hugs me, and I’ve started to annoy him as he’s just come home from work and I hate being this hysterical to him, it’s really not good for him. Sorry for the lump of text as I’ve just typed this out on my phone quickly. I’m hoping this fear feeling will go shortly but I’d like to get rid of is faster as it’s getting in the way of my day.

[ankietyjoe]

Really sorry you had to go through this.

PTSD works slightly differently than standard anxiety as you probably know. There is counselling and therapy that deals with it specifically, do you know if you've had this or is it just standard talk therapy?

I would highly, highly recommend you visit a forum called Pandys.org as that is a resource that deals specifically with the fallout and symptoms of people who have suffered from sexual assault and abuse. There is a very knowledgeable forum there.

What you are experiencing isn't actually irrational, it's a fear of something that has happened.