‘Why Doesn’t My Trauma Count?’ Woman Shares Reaction She Got After Getting Guide Dog To Cope With Sexual Assault
I get told to move on with my life.
Shutterstock / Chanintorn.v Trauma affects everyone today; nobody can deny that. There are times we will never understand what one person is going through, what they've been through, and they will say the same about you.
Through trauma, everyone has their way of coping with the situation, and it's not our right to dictate what's right or wrong with how trauma is dealt with.
A woman took to Reddit to share her experience about her trauma, but people say it doesn't count.
She was sexually assaulted years ago, and after years of panic attacks, she was prescribed a service dog to help her with her PTSD.
She was sexually assaulted and was told her need for her service dog is discounted, constantly saying she doesn't need it, and she needs to move on.
Traumatized by her past ordeal, she decided to vent this to Reddit's offmychest to let it all out and feel better about her ordeal.
This subreddit allows you to tell deeply emotional things you couldn't tell others. It can be long-standing baggage, happy thoughts, or recent or past trauma, and posting it there can hopefully provide relief.
Her post has received a lot of positivity, and her story is quite traumatic,
"In 2014 I went to a bar to meet a friend. I had one drink while waiting for them to get there. They ended up not making it. I was sitting at the bar and ended up talking to a group of guys, they got me a jager bomb." she wrote.
"I remember going out to my car to get a phone charger for one of them and after that, it goes blank. Fast forward to the next morning."
She said the following day, when she went to her car, she noticed her NuvaRing in her cupholder and felt sick immediately.
"I was too afraid to call anyone so I went to an urgent care clinic. When I explained what happened to the intake nurse and said I was afraid I had been sexually assaulted, she told me I needed to go to another medical center that had a sexual assault department," she said.
She found a medical center, gave them her clothes and they did a rape kit, took blood, and photographed bruises on her but by the time they did all of that twenty-four hours passed so nothing conclusive was found.
She spoke to two officers and said to wait for a phone call.
She received the phone call from a male detective and he said he was going to review footage but he didn't know who to look for, his response was "well aren't you just some white girl?"
She went to the police station and gave her statement, but a friend of the assaulter came forward to give his side claiming the attacker's version as they had consensual sex in her car.
He told the bartender she was sleeping in the car and the bartender verified it.
The woman says there were numerous holes in the attacker's story but the lead detective said he was dropping the case.
"When I argued and told him that no I absolutely wanted to press charges, I didn't even know what this person looked like, he said 'why should I believe your story over his? This is not up for discussion. I'm closing the case.'"
After years of panic attacks, she was prescribed a service dog to help her with her PTSD.
She's been told by other people that it's been long enough. She doesn't need her dog anymore and that she needs to move on.
"I'm now convinced if I am ever attacked again, or if something happens, I won't get help. It'll somehow be my fault, somehow I will have deserved it," she wrote near the end of her post.
She has no outward scars from her assault but has emotional and mental damage from it but apparently, that does not mean anything to other people.
Comments from others have all shown support for her. Her trauma is real and it does matter. Trauma can affect everyone in so many ways.
Never let anyone tell you otherwise, saying to move on is insensitive because they were not in the position that you were in so long ago.
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Kurtis Condra is a writer focusing on entertainment and news and any news regarding celebrities. When not scouring for the news, he's writing short stories and escaping into poetry on his off-time.