Everyone reacts differently to sexual abuse. Here’s a few things people may do afterwards that don’t make their experience any less valid:

1) Not telling anyone or reporting it

You may not be able to accept that it was sexual abuse straight away. You may be too shocked or confused. You may brush it off or try to forget. You could be too scared, too embarrassed or start blaming yourself

2) Staying in contact

People often continue speaking etc to their abuser so they don’t have to feel like a victim. Sometimes it’s easier to play it cool with an abuser than to admit to yourself what happened. This stops once u start coming to terms with it, which may take time

3) Hypersexuality

People can become very sexually active in order to take back control, to prove it hasn’t affected their sex lives or to feel normal about it again. It’s a very common coping mechanism so think twice before you slut shame again (btw slut shaming is never ok)

If there’s anything else you’d like me to add please let me know :)

4) memory loss

Victims may not be able to recall certain details. Memory loss is a survival skill/defense mechanism we develop to protect ourselves from psychological damage. Emotionally traumatic events can lead to dissociative amnesia, https://twitter.com/alphamacys/status/1274768081374633990

which helps you cope by letting you temporarily forget details of an event. With this type of memory loss, which is also called psychogenic amnesia or functional amnesia, you will often suppress memories of a traumatic event until u are ready to handle them, which may never occur

5) Substance abuse

(adding points u guys have asked me to now)

Many victims try to cope with traumatic memories & unwanted anxiety or depression by using substances as a way to cope or escape from the trauma of sexual abuse, as a form of self-medication,

to help deal with low self-esteem or feelings of loneliness or as a manifestation of self-harm or self-destructive behavior. Substance abuse can also then lead to hypersexuality